Affinity design apps receive all-new branding

Monday 22 June sees the launch of Release Candidate 1 of Affinity Photo, and at the same time software publisher Serif will officially unveil new branding for the Affinity apps.

But we can give you an exclusive peek at the new icons for Serif's three Adobe Creative Cloud-busting apps – Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher; Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign alternatives, respectively.

The new icons take any skeuomorphic elements form the previous branding, such as Photo's camera lens, and transform them into more abstract references to the app's purpose (Affinity Photo's geometric shutter design is particularly successful), encased in the Affinity brand triangle utilising sleek, near-flat designs.

Importantly, the icons were designed to comply to SVG standards so they work at any size online and are more efficient than a bitmap.

Ash Hewson, managing director of Serif, told us: "The previous icons were designed over 18 months ago, and we felt the imminent release of Affinity Photo would be an ideal time for a brand refresh. Normally an app would get a look and feel overhaul for a version 2, but in keeping with the Affinity development ethos of constantly improving, we felt the time was right.

"We want the branding to reflect the growth the Affinity brand has shown, the promise it has for the future, and the affinity it has with professional creatives."

The redesign work going on at Affinity doesn't end there – the website is being completely overhauled and is slated to be unveiled at the time of the Affinity Photo launch.

The 1st Release Candidate of Affinity Photo, which will be the first app from the Affinity stable to feature the newly redesigned icons, will be available from affinity.serif.com sometime on Monday 22 June. Affinity Photo is still free in beta... for now.

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