When women’s lifestyle magazines and publications have redesigns, the language always - always! - tends to play into the industry’s antiquated tropes of bettering and outward transformation. “We’ve had a makeover!” “New season, new us!”

Today, Ensemble does have a new look - not a makeover but a new ensemble, if you will - but on the inside, we’re still us.

You will see some fresh colours and fonts, and a slightly tweaked logo. Subtle changes have been made with the intention of better functionality and reader experience - knowledge we didn’t have when we launched Ensemble in August 2020.

Back then, we wanted the Ensemble personality to be a balance of fun and intellect - warm, assertive, unexpected, playful - in terms of both content and design. We wanted to be, and look, different to other fashion and lifestyle platforms.

We hope you’ll agree that our new look still reflects that original brand ethos of intelligence and whimsy - with a feeling of coming-of-age confidence, almost two years since we launched. 

To quote Zoe’s Collina Strada T-shirt: “Change is cute.”

As the naughty little sister of our parent company, Ensemble’s update is also part of an exciting wider redesign at Stuff - with a modernised brand identity that outwardly reflects the personality of the locally-owned media organisation.

In August 2021, on our first birthday when Ensemble was acquired by Stuff, we made a pledge to our longtime supporters that “outwardly, nothing will change”. 

Okay so today, we may look a little different on the outside, but the rest of that pledge stands firm: “We will continue to challenge, celebrate, advocate and work with the same independent spirit.” We just have on a fun new outfit while doing it.

Hei konā mai,

Zoe and Rebecca