Hasta La Ideas

London studio SocioDesign has created a logo, website and identity system for digital development agency Soap Industries, inspired by industrial lettering and vintage insignia.

The project is one of several new pieces of work from Socio, which was founded by Nigel Bates and James Cramp in 2004. The studio recently updated its own branding and launched a new website yesterday, built by Emil Olsson.

Founded by a team of developers, Soap is launching in Spring this year and will specialise in creating mobile apps. Socio was asked to create an identity that would convey a sense of craft and care and developed a pastel scheme that plays on the company’s name.

“Soap [want to] differentiate themselves from their competitors through craft and detail in their service,” says Bates. “They chose the name to reflect the hard working nature of the agency…and saw Soap as an object that epitomised the robust work ethic of 1930s industrialism,” he adds.

In keeping with the industrial feel, Socio created a logo in the shape of a bar of soap and two supporting marques inspired by vintage stamps and insignia: one communicates the company’s focus on ‘mobile apps and innovation’ while the other reads ‘Made by Soap’.

Soap’s logo, address and contact details are printed in gold foil on business cards and stationery and the ‘Made by Soap’ stamp appears on the debossed cover of a ‘credentials book’, which outlines the company’s ethos and experience.

The marques also appear on the brand’s website, which features the same pastel and grey colour palette. Logos were created using a custom drawn angular font, and Milieu Grosteque’s Maison Neue is used for accompanying text.

“We felt that the inherent contradictions of the brand were a key feature to highlight – the intangible nature of their business versus the tactile nature of something like Soap,” says Bates. “The unusual combination of metal foils and soft pastels served as a visual embodiment of these…[and] the three varying marques gave the brand the versatility it needed to span print and digital collateral,” he says.

While it’s inspired by vintage products, lettering and symbols, Bates says the aim was to create something modern and simplified, rather than a pastiche.

Images: György Kőrössy

It’s a nicely crafted identity and an unusual approach for an app development company – as Bates points out, most opt for brighter, screen-based colours.

As well as creating Soap’s branding and updating its own, Socio recently produced an identity system and quarterly magazine for marketing agency KAE and designed two websites with Mark Bloom’s Mash Creative: one for scenographers collective Curious Space and another for production company Kickstart (below). See more images from each project here.