Yorma's Redesign

ABSTRACT

What is YORMA'S?

YORMA'S is a popular German bakery chain that primarily sells coffee and sandwiches to go. They operate exclusively at major German train stations. There are currently 61 branches across Germany, employing a total of approximately 1,100 people.

Why YORMA'S?

Why did we picked yormas as our semester project:

We found it interesting that such a successful, large chain has such an inconsistent and underdeveloped design. YORMA'S felt very approachable to us, as we have shopped there often and know the store well.

YORMA'S current design and problems

Yorma's current design has many weaknesses. The design inconsistency, in particular, comes across as unprofessional. The main issues lay in the color scheme, logo, and typography, which stemmed from outdated approaches.

In the following, each individual problem is addressed separately, and a redesigned version is presented.

Market position and competition

YORMA'S positions itself in the German fast-food market as an affordable, fast, and convenient provider of simple snacks and coffee. Speed and low prices take precedence over high culinary standards. The product range is consistently solid but of average quality. The focus is on practicality rather than a premium experience.

Key competitors include international fast-food chains such as McDonald’s and Subway, as well as German providers of „grab-and-go“ products like Ditsch, Nordsee, Kamps and Le Crobag. These brands compete in similar market segments by offering quick, affordable food for people on the go.

Brandvalues

YORMA'S is built around three core brand values: affordability, speed, and simplicity.

The company focuses on offering low-cost food options that are accessible to a wide range of customers.

Fast service is another key pillar of the brand, with a strong emphasis on minimizing waiting times in high-traffic locations such as train stations.

Alongside this, YORMA’S prioritizes ease of purchase and consumption, providing straightforward, ready-to-eat products that are designed for convenience rather than complexity.

Target audience + personas

YORMA'S primarily targets on-the-go customers who value speed, convenience, and low prices over premium food quality. Its core audience consists of commuters, travlers, students, and workers in transit-heavy urban areas.

Because of its locations in railway stations, YORMA'S naturally reaches a very mixed audience with different ages and backgrounds but a shared need for efficiency.

Two personas (Lukas Schneider and Sabine Keller) were created to provide a glimpse into the broad spectrum of YORMA'S customers.

Colors

YORMA'S originally used a color palette consisting of brown, orange, yellow, and blue, often mixed with additional colors like green and red in an unstructured way. This resulted in weak contrast, a visually unappealing design, and an overall impression that felt cheap and inconsistent across applications.

In the redesign, the palette was simplified and refined down to three core colors. The existing beige was lightened and established as the main background color, creating a cleaner and more modern base. The new blue was darkened and is now primarily used as the main text color on the beige surfaces, improving readability and contrast. The Yellow remained largely unchanged to preserve brand recognition and to maintain the brand’s approachable, friendly, and affordable character. It is mainly used as an accent and call-to-action color.

Logo

To redesign the logo, we first deconstructed the original identity into its main components: the wordmark, the symbol, and the three horizontal lines. Elements such as the lines, outlines, and apostrophe were removed because they no longer contributed any meaningful value to the brand. In their place, we developed a completely new wordmark and symbol.

For the wordmark, we chose to capitalize only the initial letter instead of using all capitals. This improves readability while creating a cleaner, more refined appearance that better reflects the brand values of quality and simplicity. The wordmark is based on the M Plus U typeface, which we customized by softening the corners to achieve a friendlier and more approachable character.

The symbol, meanwhile, is a new interpretation of the letter „Y“, designed in a handwritten style to communicate speed—our brand's most important value. It preserves the essence of the original mark through a smooth, rounded stroke with a modern feel, while its negative application inside a circular shape gives it a more confident and professional appearance. Together, these changes address the weaknesses of the original logo and result in a contemporary identity with a distinctive personality.

Typography

Originally, YORMA'S has never been characterized by the use of a consistent typeface across its branding, as shown below. To address this issue, we established a new typographic system that adds personality while creating a cohesive visual identity throughout the brand.

On one hand, M PLUS Rounded 1c was used to create the Yorma logotype. This typeface gives the logo a friendlier and more distinctive personality, replacing the rigid appearance of the previous lettering, which reduced readability and lacked a clear visual identity.

On the other hand, we developed a custom-modified version of Bahnschrift for the rest of the brand. Its modern, clean, and highly legible design brings consistency, personality, and a contemporary feel to every application requiring typography, while reinforcing the overall visual identity.

Tonality

The brand tone is playful, approachable, and witty, using short puns and everyday language to create memorable interactions. These small messages add a sense of personality and create a more enjoyable customer experience, turning everyday purchases into moments of connection while reinforcing Yorma's values of being fast, simple, and affordable.

Iconography

The company's iconographic system is based on the same stroke style used in the logotype. Every icon follows the same principle: the beginning and end of each stroke are clearly visible, but the strokes never connect. By extending this visual language, we created a distinctive icon system that gives the brand a unique and recognizable personality.

To-go coffee cups + sugarbags

The redesigned Yorma to-go coffee cup was created to give the brand a more premium appearance while staying true to its core values of simplicity and affordability. The previous design felt overly busy, with the logo repeated as a pattern across the entire cup. The new design follows a clean, minimalist approach: a beige cup with blue typography on one side and the blue Yorma logo centered on the other. The headline changes on every cup, creating variety and a friendly tone. The lid features subtle yellow elements as well as the logo inlaid in the lid that reinforce the affordable, approachable character of the brand while making the cup instantly recognizable.

Breadbags + napkins

The redesigned bread bags follow the same design philosophy. The previous bags were visually cluttered, so the new version focuses on simplicity and clarity. The bags are made from natural beige paper with blue typography featuring different messages, while the blue Yorma logo is centered on the opposite side. In addition, we wanted to move away from the conventional dark brown for the bread bags in order to create greater brand recognition.

Unlike the coffee cups, the bags do not include yellow. Instead, the yellow appears on the napkin that accompanies every bakery item, also featuring blue typography. Together, the beige bag, blue print, and yellow napkin create a balanced color palette. From the outside, the packaging looks clean and premium, while the yellow interior element adds a cheerful, approachable, and affordable feeling.

Workers clothes

For the staff uniforms, we also avoided an equal 50/50 combination of blue and yellow. Since white is the dominant colour throughout the stores, using blue as the primary background colour creates a stronger contrast while giving the uniforms a distinctive personality and ensuring excellent readability.

The shop

For the shop entrance, we chose a horizontal combination of the logo and the wordmark. We selected beige with yellow accents on the lettering, as these colors stand out most effectively against the predominantly gray and dark blue surroundings of train stations.

To stand out against the beige décor, the redesigned workwear is primarily blue. The beige print has a friendly appeal and encourages people to smile. A matching cap and a lanyard for holding employee ID cards were also designed.

The base menu has also been simplified. The yellow is used as the signal color for special offers to promote combo deals on the screens that are in every Yorma. Additionally, the special offers are micro-animated to attract even more attention.

In addition, we have introduced a loyalty card as a strategy to boost sales. It is a classic stamp card, which makes a lot of sense for daily commuters. Customers receive a discount on every tenth purchase. This encourages them to shop exclusively at Yorma rather than at very similar competitors.

Vehicle

This is a possible vehicle design for the brand.

Advertisment in public spaces

For our outdoor advertising, we wanted the main focus the products and the friendly communication.

Merch

For the merchandise, we redesigned the already existing product range (tote bag, neck pillow and socks). We also added a deck of crads that can be played on long train rides.

Resume

The rebrand creates a more cohesive and consistent identity, giving Yorma a cleaner, more contemporary look while preserving its affordable and accessible character. By better visualizing the brand's core values of speed, simplicity, and convenience, the redesign enhances the overall customer experience and transforms Yorma into a place customers can confidently choose and enjoy.