Built Backwards: How The Swaddle's Voice Shaped Its New Brand
Why an evolution from a baby product directory to an independent media house necessitated a reverse-engineered branding approach.
Most rebrands start with a blank page — a positioning workshop, a logo moodboard, maybe a manifesto. But when The Swaddle came to us, they already had something most brands spend years trying to create: a clear, sharp, unmistakably bold editorial voice.
I was immediately drawn to Karla, The Swaddle’s powerhouse founder. She was from New York, had a big accent and a big personality to match. Deliberate in what she wanted, the new brand had to showcase the bigness of what The Swaddle had become since she set it up in 2017. Originally an online directory for, yep, baby goods, it soon morphed into something more ambitious, more opinionated, more useful. Based between Bombay and New York, Karla saw the disparity in free speech between the two countries. She was adamant that authentic Indian voices should be brought to the forefront - to discuss topics that had for so long been taboo in Indian society. And so it evolved — organically, unexpectedly, and unapologetically — into one of India’s most compelling independent media voices. Tackling culture, gender, politics, and identity through longform essays, podcasts, and short films, their brand had grown up. But their digital experience and brand identity hadn’t kept pace.
Step One: Don’t Touch the Voice
The Swaddle already knew how they sounded. Our job wasn’t to rewrite or sanitise that — it was to celebrate it. Their existing audience trusted them precisely because they weren’t polished in a traditional media sense. They were clear, clever, sometimes cutting — and always human.
This clarity gave us an unusual starting point: instead of inventing a tone of voice, we reverse-engineered a brand strategy and identity to support it.
From Voice to Vision
From The Swaddle’s existing tone of voice, we captured their distinct brand personality: bold and unafraid — we go where other publications won’t. Smart and expert — our incisive commentary is backed by rigorous academic research. Thoughtful and inspiring — our award-winning content is created by Indian youth, for Indian youth. And most importantly, honest and courageous — our deep reporting on taboo topics resonates with a wide audience hungry for unfiltered, authentic perspectives.
With this strong foundation, we began to explore a deeper layer: brand purpose. Why do we do what we do? What impact do we want to have on the world? Easy, right?
“The Swaddle exists to intentionally challenge the status quo and break conventions, so that Indian youth can reshape their own narratives.”
Out of this purpose emerged a concept of remix and reframe — The Swaddle is a brand that digs beneath the surface, revealing truths often obscured by corporate or state influence.
This thinking led us to our more concise brand promise:
“Throwing open the gates to socio-cultural knowledge.”
This was the spark our design team needed — a clear articulation of The Swaddle’s voice, now ready to be translated visually. The idea that The Swaddle unlocks deeper layers of learning and truth for Indian youth became the bedrock of our graphic language — a system built around visual layers, representing layers of meaning.
A System That Serves the Content
The Swaddle didn’t need a complicated visual identity. What they needed was a design system that could hold multitudes — longform articles, video content, embedded audio, and in-depth explainer pieces — without overwhelming the user or diluting the brand.
We created a flexible, mature visual system that allowed their words and ideas to take centre stage. Clean typography, a restrained but distinctive color palette, and interface cues that prioritised discovery and context over decoration. It wasn’t minimalist for its own sake — it was strategic clarity.
Built for Browsing, Not Just Reading
The old site made discovery difficult. Great content was buried. We knew that readers often come to The Swaddle through a single article — a social share, a Google search — and needed gentle but intelligent pathways into the deeper archive. There were hundreds and hundreds of legacy articles from over the years that were still relevant to today’s discourse, they just needed a new way in.
So we built a digital experience that treated each piece not as an endpoint, but as a doorway. Smart taxonomy, subtle content recommendations, and a navigation structure that allowed users to follow ideas across formats and topics.
A Rebrand That Followed, Not Led
In a lot of rebrands, design leads strategy. There are already predetermined ideas of what the brand should look like. In this one, strategy — and more importantly, voice — led design. We didn’t build the brand in the traditional sense. We translated what already existed into a form that could scale.
The result? A brand identity that’s confident, and authentic - drawing from its heritage but pushing it into the future. A platform that invites deeper reading, listening, and watching. And a media brand that finally looks as thoughtful as it sounds.
The Swaddle was already saying something important. Now, the brand knows how to carry it.
Read about the creation of the visual identity in our feature in The Brand Identity