Shaping a Brazilian footwear startup for a European audience

About

Awana Atelier began with a clear ambition: introduce Brazilian-made women’s footwear to a wider European audience without losing the character, care and human touch behind every pair.

The founders approached Fortemont at an early stage, when the product vision was strong but the brand still needed a language of its own. Our role was to turn that ambition into a coherent, digital-first identity and an online experience capable of earning attention and trust from launch.

The challenge

Making craftsmanship relevant to a new market

Awana Atelier had to communicate two ideas at once. It needed the refinement expected of a contemporary fashion label, while making its Brazilian origin and handmade production feel meaningful rather than decorative. The brand could not rely on an established retail reputation, so every visual and verbal detail had to help explain its quality.

We defined the central design challenge as a balance between warmth and precision: expressive enough to feel distinctive, restrained enough to let the shoes lead, and practical enough to work across a growing e-commerce business.

Brand strategy

Premium, personal and made with respect

We positioned Awana Atelier as an accessible premium footwear brand shaped by craft, confidence and respect for the people who make and wear its products. This gave the startup a point of view beyond seasonal fashion and created a stronger reason to choose the brand.

The story was organised around three ideas: Brazilian craftsmanship, considered quality and effortless individuality. Together they informed the tone of voice, content hierarchy and the way the collection was introduced online. The language remains direct and welcoming, avoiding both luxury cliches and the impersonal tone common to large online retailers.

Visual direction

A quiet identity that gives the product space

The visual system was designed to feel editorial rather than transactional. A refined wordmark, generous white space, disciplined typography and a soft neutral palette create a calm frame around the footwear. Small moments of warmth keep the experience human and connect the polished European presentation with the brand’s Brazilian roots.

Photography carries much of the personality. Product imagery is treated with clarity, while campaign compositions introduce movement, confidence and a sense of place. The result is a flexible art direction that can move from a collection page to social content or a presentation without losing recognition.

Digital experience

Designing the brand and the shop as one experience

For a new direct-to-consumer label, the website was not simply a sales channel. It was the first flagship store, brand introduction and service counter. We designed the experience around that reality, connecting storytelling and shopping instead of separating them.

The responsive interface gives customers a clear path from the collection to individual products, while keeping the brand’s process and story close at hand. On smaller screens, navigation was simplified around the decisions that matter most: exploring the collection, understanding the making process, finding sizing and delivery information, and returning to the bag without friction.

Consistent spacing, image ratios, type scales and interaction patterns created a reusable foundation for future collections. This allowed the startup to present itself with the confidence of an established label while keeping the system manageable for a small team.

The outcome

A launch-ready brand built to grow

Fortemont transformed Awana Atelier from an early business idea into a complete customer-facing proposition. The work connected positioning, visual identity, art direction and e-commerce design into one recognisable experience across desktop, tablet and mobile.

More importantly, the design gave the founders a practical brand foundation: clear principles for how Awana should look, speak and present each new collection. That consistency helped the startup enter a new market with a story that felt credible, contemporary and unmistakably its own.