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EPACA : Brand identity & website redesign for a Brussels EU lobbying association
Client
EPACA – European Public Affairs Consultancies' Association
Field
Public Affairs / European Institutions
Location
Brussels, Belgium
Services
- Branding
- Web development
- UX/UI Design
Description
EPACA represents public affairs consultancies working with EU institutions in Brussels. In 2025, its 44 member companies and 600 professionals were still running on a website built a decade earlier. Updating the content was a struggle and the visual identity looked older than the consultancies it was meant to represent. The member area existed, but it wasn't useful enough to log into.
The brief: give EPACA a digital presence that matches the position they hold in the sector.
The brief
EPACA's interlocutors are MEPs, Commission officials, and senior consultants at major Brussels firms. The identity needed to carry that weight without looking like one more grey federation. An association that sets ethical standards for the sector has to look like it means it.
Content autonomy was a separate problem. Every news item or event update required a heavy work. That's not sustainable for an organization that communicates as regularly as EPACA does.
The member area was the third constraint. For consultancies operating at EU level, that workspace should be where membership becomes concrete. It existed, but it had been neglected.
Our approach
The project ran in three phases. Brand identity came first, since every subsequent decision depended on it. UX/UI design followed then development.
Brand identity
The new identity is built around a custom symbol. The mark references the EU flag and carries a forward-pointing arrow. It reads immediately and holds up at any size, from a favicon to a street banner.
The palette pairs Night Blue with warm cream backgrounds, which is what separates EPACA visually from the institutional blue that covers most of Brussels. Typography uses General Sans for structure and DM Serif Text italic for the words that carry editorial weight in headlines. The brand guide covers every application: logo system, type hierarchy, icon set, pattern, and templates for print and digital.
UX/UI design
The site serves a wide range of visitors: EU officials and policy makers evaluating EPACA as an interlocutor, professionals from the sector, people with no prior knowledge of what public affairs consulting actually means, and EPACA members looking for their workspace.
Structuring all of that together in a coherent navigation was the core UX challenge.
Before / After
Development
An association that defends transparency in lobbying can't run on infrastructure it doesn't control.
The site is hosted on European servers and collects no personal data. The setup matches what EPACA stands for.
The member area had been left behind. For consultancies operating at EU level, that workspace is where membership becomes tangible. Restoring it was a priority, and the secretariat now keeps it current through the CMS without any outside help.
Deliverables
We delivered a complete brand system with every application EPACA uses day-to-day:
The logo system, type hierarchy, icon set, pattern library, and direction for every format EPACA uses in print and digital. The secretariat has what they need to produce communications on their own.
The website gives EPACA a digital presence that matches where the association actually stands.
Content is easier to find, and the secretariat manages everything through the CMS without technical knowledge. The member area gives EPACA's member consultancies access to the resources that make their membership useful in practice.
Results
The site launched in April 2026 and reached more than 1,500 visits in its first weeks.
On technical performance, it scored near-perfect across the board on Google's standard audit. Within days of launch, the secretariat was producing event communications on their own using the new brand guidelines and publishing content without any developer involvement.
Testimonial
We love it and we are already receiving a lot of positive feedback!
— EPACA Secretariat, launch day, April 2026
Honest take
Public affairs has its own rules. Crafting an identity that reflects EPACA's values without disappearing into the institutional landscape around it, then structuring content for audiences that range from EU officials to first-time visitors: that's the kind of brief that pushes the work further.
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