Professional creative software company Affinity has unveiled a comprehensive rebrand alongside a major product relaunch, marking a significant transformation for the design tool that was acquired by Canva in March 2024. The rebrand introduces a playful yet precise visual identity that distinguishes Affinity from both its parent company and competitors in the professional design software space, while also announcing that the platform is now free to use.
The rebranding effort was led by Tom Carey, Canva's creative director for Europe, who previously worked at Wolff Olins and Meta Reality Labs and contributed to the Sydney Opera House redesign. Working in collaboration with Design by Twist, Carey faced the challenging task of creating an identity that would feel connected to Canva while maintaining its independence and appeal to creative professionals.
"It needed to feel connected to Canva, because otherwise what's the point?" Carey explained. "But it couldn't just feel like a version of Canva. To get creatives on board, it had to feel independent and stand for something." The new identity needed to move away from Affinity's previous angular design and differentiate itself from other professional design tools, which Carey described as "really complicated, getting more and more corporate, and costly for individuals and brands."
At the heart of the rebrand is a distinctive lowercase serif "a" logomark and symbol, created in collaboration with designer Rob Clarke. The logo features swooping curves that represent the expression of artists and illustrators who use the product, combined with sharp, precise points that acknowledge graphic designer users. "There's lots of uppercase, geometric, graphic brands in the world of software," Carey noted. "We wanted to have something that felt more approachable and wonky."
The brand's custom typeface, Affinity Serif, was developed in partnership with Ohno as a bespoke adaptation of their typeface Swear, available in six weights. The typeface demonstrates remarkable versatility, appearing "super precise and premium" when used light and small, while its "big, fat, expressive italic form" looks "more bold and a bit weird," according to Carey.
Affinity's new brand voice is characterized by wit and insider humor, extending from copywriting to the clever use of its new file extension ".af." This abbreviation appears on every file exported from the program and is playfully incorporated across merchandise, such as the "Sketchy.af" notebook, creating tongue-in-cheek branding moments throughout the user experience.
The color palette moves beyond traditional monochrome schemes, featuring tactile, material-inspired colors including charcoal, graphite, putty, and paper, with a lime green accent that adds "a punch of punk." These muted tones serve as an intentional backdrop that allows users' vibrant creative work to take center stage, aligning with the brand's "for creatives, by creatives" ethos. The rebrand also incorporates six brand ethos tags created by Made By James.
The rebranding process involved extensive consultation with a panel of design professionals and an advisory board featuring industry luminaries including Debbie Millman, Eddie Opara, and Lisa Smith. To navigate the multiple opinions and considerations, Carey adopted a practical approach by creating two prototypes early in the process: one distinctly Affinity-focused and another resembling a professional version of Canva. "Rather than people debating words on a page, like it should be 70 percent Canva or 30 percent Canva, I wanted to share designs early, show what that would look like, because as soon as people see stuff, they change their minds," he explained.
The final design system is modular and adaptive, functioning as what Carey describes as a toolkit similar to jazz, with design elements acting as instruments to be played. Drawing from his past experience, he aimed to create a strong brand DNA with emotional intelligence that can adapt its tone for different audiences, from typographers to illustrators. The system is designed to sit alongside Canva as its refined sibling that has "recently come out of their shell," capable of flexing and changing according to context while maintaining its distinctive character.
