Focus on - Magdalena Edizioni

Focus on: One year with Magdalena Edizioni

A behind-the-scenes look at the creation and restyling of Magdalena Edizioni's official website

Out of all the Web Design projects I tackled in the past year, one that I'm still very proud of is the website for Magdalena Edizioni, an emerging Genoa-based publishing house. 

A year with Magdalena Edizioni

Magdalena was founded in 2024, almost at the same time as Cri8ive, and charged me with a momentous task; building its online presence. In the following months I oversaw to the creation (and later restyling) of the Website, the e-commerce, and managed the publishing house's Social Media (Facebook and Instagram) as well as the "Passaparola" Newsletter. Since then, Magdalena has grown beyond our wildest dreams, and the new site, dynamic and professional, reflects the exciting plans of this new publishing venture.

Magdalena's website, v 1.0

For the first version of the site we wanted to create a visual experience reminiscent of the power and fascination of old black-and-white photographs. The background was dark, with grey elements standing out and petrol-green hover effect on the menu. We decided that links, titles and highlights would be the same bright red as the Magdalena logo itself.

When the Website first went live, Magdalena's first release had just come off the press; "Io sono cucina", a collection of short stories by talented author Clizia Nicolella. We decided that the homepage should focus on the new book out; visitors were going to be greeted by the cover, and clicking on it would take them straight to the book's page. Later on, we added a badge that announced the subsequent reprints (up to four as I type this. It's a hit!)

Underneath the book's cover, users would find the latest news as well as a series of links to connect with Magdalena; from the Social Media profiles to the Newsletter's joining form.

Even with its simplistic palette, the site had an elegant, clean-cut yet bold layout. We wanted to convey the idea that Magdalena wasn't just another impromptu publishing house, but rather an ambitious project with big dreams, goals and objectives ahead of it.

The first version of Magdalena Edizioni's website

Magdalena Edizioni in chiaroscuro

Im the following months, the publishing house grew both in terms of sales and readers engagement. Nowadays Magdalena has four books in print; in addition to Clizia Nicolella's collection, the striking short stories of Marco Vichi's "Racconti Brevi" - wonderfully illustrated by Giancarlo Caligaris - and Flavio Fusco's poetry book "Ladri di Anni". May 2025 saw the release of Sebastian Avila's "Ovejas", a gripping novel on the Malvinas war. All in all, Magdalena keeps describing the world with striking voices, and a powerful gaze that cuts right to the core.

By then it was clear that the site needed a restyling; we had to make it cutting-edge and modern so it could stand toe-to-toe with competitors in the publishing field. So Massimo Costantini - the founder of Magdalena - and I got our heads together trying to envision what the new Magdalena Edizioni homepage was going to look like.

Magdalena gets a makeover!

We liked to think of the new website as a "chiaroscuro" take on the first version; we thus decided the first approach would be swapping around the color palette. The new layout is lighter, modern and professional with its combination of cool whites and pearl-greys. We decided that the "Magdalena red" of the logo would work well for the highlights, and make the site's sections stand out nicely.

Visitors are no longer greeted just by the newest book out - rather, they now find themselves before the entire Magdalena catalogue at a glance. Social Media icons are larger, more visible and catchier than ever. The news section has been turned into a complete and elegant Events section. The dark aesthethic of the old site is echoed in the navigation menu and the footer, that stand out noticeably from the main contents.

In 2025 Magdalena also pulished the quarterly magazine "La città". We decided the magazine would have its own separate area in the navigation menu; clicking on the logo takes you to the e-commerce section where you can buy the last issue out or subscribe to the magazine. The cover of the latest issue out is also displayed on the homepage.

Many heartfelt thanks to Massimo Costantini and Magdalena Edizioni for this meaningful collaboration.