How The Phoney Club gave CÎME a visual language rooted in softness

The Brand Identity: When Rotterdam-based creative studio The Phoney Club began working on CÎME’s rebrand, the Belgian skincare brand already had a strong connection to the Himalayas. Its formulations drew on rare alpine botanicals sourced at altitude, paired with cutting-edge Belgian science – the name itself is French for ‘peak.’ Even though that connection had always been about ingredients, The Phoney Club saw something else. High in the mountain valleys, women wear their years with pride. Laugh lines trace joy shared in community. Sun spots mark decades spent tending high-altitude gardens.

From this observation, the studio developed what they call the ‘soft gaze’ – a lens on how women in the Himalayas relate to beauty, ritual and self-perception. That perspective became the philosophical foundation for the rebrand. CÎME arrived at The Phoney Club with an established product range and a founding story rooted in discovery. Co-founders Anke De Boeck and Isabel Coppens had built the brand after Anke trekked through Nepal with her father, encountering rare alpine plants with remarkable properties. Coppens, whose sensitive skin had made her an expert in natural formulations, brought scientific rigour.

With De Boeck’s father contributing over 30 years of experience in botanical extracts, the brand had always united Himalayan wisdom with Belgian laboratory science. The products were strong. The philosophy was clear. But the visual design hadn’t caught up. CÎME needed a rebrand that could carry its ambition across every touchpoint – packaging, web, campaign imagery and brand communications – without losing what already made it recognisable. The ‘soft gaze’ philosophy translated into softness as a design principle.

The logo received added weight and body, addressing the original letterforms’ tall, narrow proportions that had created visibility challenges and a sense of fragility. “It lacked presence,” Art Director & Designer Michèle van den Munckhof explains. “More than that, it lacked warmth.

So we added weight, real body, to let the logo hold its ground without raising too much of its voice.” Corners were rounded throughout the mark – quite literally embodying the team’s guiding phrase, “soft edges, strong core.” One element was never in question: the mountain peak accent on the ‘Î.’ “That’s the soul of the mark, the clearest expression of where CÎME comes from, both literally and philosophically,” Creative Director Sanne de Wild notes.

“We kept it, and refined it slightly towards a cleaner, more contemporary feel, but its presence was non-negotiable.” The typographic system pairs Affairs from SM Foundry with Monument from Pangram Pangram, a deliberate contrast that mirrors the brand’s dual character. “Affairs carries the emotional register of the brand: the softness, the intimacy, the storytelling,” de Wild explains.

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The article discusses a significant rebranding effort that aligns with sustainability and consumer experience, making it impactful and relevant to brand strategy professionals, while the concept of a visual language rooted in softness is moderately novel.