Love Language

Love Language connects Deaf and hearing people through sign language. The business offers British Sign Language (BSL) interpreting face to face and by video, translation, sign language presenting and in-vision interpreting for TV, training, and accessibility consultation for organisations, along with a video relay service called LoveLanguage LIVE.

That makes it an unusual brand to build. Most identities are designed to be read or heard. Love Language’s had to be understood by Deaf customers, who may rely on pictures, signs and video to follow what is being said, while also welcoming hearing people who are learning to sign. It also had to stretch across a parent company and a growing family of sub-brands without losing its shape.

We started from one principle in the brief: stay accessible to Deaf customers while teaching hearing people. So the brand carries as much of its message as it can through clear, colourful and practical visuals, and the guidelines put imagery above everything else. Photos and video should keep as much of the signer’s body in frame as possible, so no sign is cropped out, and illustrations have to read clearly in both languages.

The identity is built on signing hands, from the logo to the illustrated hands that spell out a friendly “Hi, I’m an interpreter”. The parent brand and every sub-brand share one bright palette, with each sub-brand given its own colour, and the guidelines ask for stepped gradients that move between brand colours rather than smooth blends.

We turned those principles into a full toolkit: individual and accompanied logo versions for every sub-brand, a cast of illustrated avatars for the web, print and stationery, social banners and team introduction cards, T-shirt designs carrying a signed “Hi, I’m an interpreter” message, and the typography, document and slide styles set out in the brand guidelines.

The illustration style also carried new ideas. We designed LoveLetters, a deck of BSL fingerspelling cards, and SuperSigns, a series of scenes showing what signing lets you do that speech can’t, from talking underwater to chatting through a café window or answering with your mouth full.

As Love Language grew, it set out to tackle bigger barriers Deaf people face, starting with work. We helped shape two new ventures and pitch them for a place on a Plexal-run accelerator for products that improve inclusion in the workplace, with job creation, access and retention as the focus. Love Working was planned to make job search, interviews and settling into a new role easier, with listings that show genuinely accessible jobs and how many sign language users each employer has, built-in Access to Work applications, and remote interpreting for video interviews. Love Learning was planned to help colleagues learn sign language through flashcards, games, cultural insights and small-talk tips.

Behind the pitch sat brainstorms on the barriers, a requirements map and user flows for the app, the pitch script and deck, and two short films, one “negative” and one “positive”, following everyday moments at work such as a job search and an interview.