Guardian Soulmates Rebrand

Soulmates is one of the UK’s longest running online dating brands and is a flagship commercial business of the Guardian. To support a shift to an international growth strategy, Soulmates required a new brand identity to allow it to stand on its own two feet, while still feeling part of the Guardian family. My objective was to capture and express the personality and values of the Guardian, which included a new logo, custom typeface, imagery, copy and iconography — an entire brand toolkit.

Bespoke font
Soulmates’ custom typeface is one of the brands most distinctive features. Derived from the Guardian’s own font family, Soulmates Sans shares the master brand’s DNA, but with a softer tone. Typographic ligatures (special connections between letters) make for simple, but beautiful pairings.
Icons, logo and visual design
Soulmates’ icons support the idea of a simple, special connection, while also providing an ownable asset that reflects the aesthetic of the bespoke typeface. To reinforce this aesthetic, the icon set extends to representations of the cultural past-times that the audience might connect over — film, music, food or fashion. Integrated into the website and marketing, they highlight bespoke content that may inspire users on ideas for dates.
Extensive guidelines
The brand guidelines that we produced capture all the spirit and energy of Soulmates, and present it back in a way that is practical and easy to understand, while inspiring best-practice application.