MAECENATA
Maecenata Stiftung had years of valuable content buried under a website that had become genuinely hard to navigate. Alongside a brand refresh, the site needed a clearer structure and a look people would actually want to explore.
Year
©2026
Industry
Foundation
Category
Branding & Website
Product & Problem
The Maecenata Stiftung, an institute for philanthropy and civil society, had an extensive website carrying years of important content, but its structure had become overwhelming and hard to navigate. The goal wasn't to cut content, since everything mattered, but to reorganize and present it in a way that felt clear and inviting rather than dense. Understanding the full scope of the existing site and its content was itself a major part of the challenge before any redesign could begin.
Role & Contribution
Working with C4 Berlin, I contributed to the rebranding and focused primarily on the website, restructuring and redesigning it together with a strong, well-coordinated team. My main responsibility was the prototyping in Figma, where I made most of the layout and design decisions. Since developers handled the technical implementation, my role centered on shaping how the site would look and function before it went into development.
Key Design & Decisions
As a team, we decided to give the site an editorial look and feel, treating its dense content more like a publication than a typical institutional website. This fit the foundation's identity well. Maecenata deals with in-depth research, essays, and philanthropic discourse, content that benefits from a considered, readable, magazine-like structure rather than a conventional corporate layout. This direction shaped the typography, spacing, and content hierarchy throughout the site.
The Outcome
The relaunch was well received, not just by the client, but publicly too. The new look sparked noticeably more engagement on LinkedIn and other platforms. People responded positively to how much more approachable and visually clear the foundation's extensive content had become.
