Kitchen recipe app
Two kitchen machines, two brands, one listing system.
Food & Recipes
App Store & Video Assets
Role
Visual Designer
Timeline
2 weeks
team
Individual Contributor
platform
App Store, Google Play, YouTube
The Real Problem
ZauberMix Club is the recipe and community app for Monsieur Cuisine owners, with a sister brand, ZauberTopf, serving the Thermomix world. Both apps offer the same core promise: quick recipes with a success guarantee, a resident expert (Isy for Monsieur Cuisine, Dési for Thermomix), every magazine and book in one place, a weekly planner, a shopping list, a TV channel and a community of more than 1.2 million social fans.
The store listings had to carry all of that to two audiences, on every device size Apple and Google require, and stay in sync across two brands whenever a feature changed. Alongside that, the TV channel needed launch creative for YouTube, the web, the newsletter and social, each with its own crop and safe zones.
Done loosely, this is dozens of near identical files that drift apart. Done well, it is one system with two skins.
Finding the Fix
I designed the store sequence once and built it as a template with two brand layers. Each screenshot has a headline, a device with a real screen and a light kitchen background, and each brand swaps the expert, the wordmark, the colour and the screen content while the layout stays fixed.
The sequence follows the way a new owner thinks:
Open with the world. "Deine Welt für den Monsieur Cuisine" (and for ZauberTopf, "Deine Thermomix Welt in einer App!"), the expert in frame, and three real five star reviews.
Then the promise. Fast, simple recipes with a success guarantee.
Then the person. The expert who is always at your side.
Then the depth. All magazines and books available any time, a weekly planner that inspires instead of overwhelms, a shopping list so nothing is forgotten.
Then the community. The TV channel, real comments from real people, viral Instagram recipes tested by the team, and what is new in the app.
The TV launch creative used one line, "Feierabend. Handy raus. Essen geregelt.", built in a YouTube frame, a web crop and a newsletter and social version with the safe zones marked on the artboard.
What Actually Happened
The master set was designed at the iPhone 6.9 inch size, then produced for the 6.5 and 5.5 inch iPhones, the 13 inch iPad Pro, 9:16 Android phones and 1440 by 2560 tablets. Headlines were re-set per size rather than scaled, so the two line headlines stay two lines on every device.
The ZauberTopf variant was produced from the same file. Expert, wordmark, screens and copy were swapped; nothing structural moved. That meant a later content update could be made once and applied to both brands the same afternoon.
The set was revised in later rounds as app features and screens changed, which is exactly what the template was built for.
What Changed
ZauberMix Club and ZauberTopf now have:
A ten screen store sequence that moves from promise to expert to features to community
Assets for every required iPhone, iPad, Android phone and tablet size
One template serving two brands, so updates happen once
TV channel launch creative for YouTube, web, newsletter and social with safe zones respected
Real reviews and real community comments used as proof inside the listing
Two brands now ship from one file, and a feature change reaches both stores without a redesign.
What I Had to Work With
Two brands with different machines, experts and wordmarks that had to feel related but not identical.
The constraints shaped most of the decisions:
Six device formats across the two stores, each with its own pixel dimensions
German copy with long compound words that break layouts built for English
Trademark rules around the Thermomix name on the ZauberTopf side
A feature set that kept changing, so the listing had to be easy to update, not just good on launch day
Social and newsletter safe zones that cut into the TV creative's composition
What I'd Do Differently
A short video as the first screenshot is the change I would make first. The expert on camera, a recipe going from plan to plate in ten seconds, would do more than the strongest still.
And then:
Localising the sequence for other German speaking markets with local reviews
Testing the review led opener against a feature led opener, since the reviews are the most distinctive asset
A lighter, more editorial layout for the iPad set, which has room the phone set does not
What I Learned
Build for the second brand from the start. A template that swaps cleanly is worth more than a prettier one off.
Real reviews beat written claims. Three genuine five star quotes on the first screen carry the listing.
Device sizes are a design constraint, not a production step. Headlines written for the largest phone will fail on the smallest unless they are re-set.
