The story behind the Logo
When Amanda and I set out to design a baby tracking app with midwife-led support, one that helps you understand your numbers and your patterns, backed by fact-based education written by Amanda, we agonised over how to communicate that. The front door is obviously the app icon and logo. It's the very first thing you see when you browse the App Store or come across any of our socials, and it's your first impression of MilkMade.
MilkMade is an app you'll be using every day, often multiple times a day, so we wanted it to feel authentic and premium and, most importantly, like it belongs on your home screen. With that in mind, I want to walk you through our design process for the icon and logo, and explain why we did what we did.
The letter M
Because of the alliteration in the name MilkMade, we wanted to incorporate the letter M into the logo. Letter-based icons are synonymous with some of the biggest brands in tech, and that's something we wanted to emulate. We have big ambitions for MilkMade, and part of that meant including the M.
That being said, simply using the letter M, or stacking two Ms on top of each other, didn't sit right. A single letter can mean so many things, and we could easily have been confused with other big apps like Medium. Part of icon and logo design is doing something different so you stand out.
So I sketched. I drew the M in capitals and in lowercase, on sticky notes, whiteboards, scrap paper and notebooks. But the one that resonated was drawn on the shower screen door…
The love hearts
Most nights, I run the shower for my older two children and hand them their towels when they're done. My daughter gets full credit for the love hearts. She draws them everywhere, and one evening, as I was passing her a towel, I watched the way she drew a love heart on the shower screen and then wiped it away. It dawned on me: a love heart looks like an M if you don't connect the lines at the bottom. That was my "aha" moment.
I knew I had to incorporate a love heart, and from there it was just a matter of trialling different ideas: side-by-side hearts, an M inside a heart, a heart inside a heart with an M. You name it, I tried it. I showed Amanda a collection of what the logo and icon could look like (I'll admit I sanitised the list, because I was overly critical of some of them).
Then Amanda mentioned something about her hospital shifts: her patient load is effectively double what she's assigned. If she's looking after three women after birth, she's really looking after six people, because each one is a mother and a baby. That was the next "aha" moment…
Joining two hearts
A simple sketch linked two hearts at a single point, and suddenly it became a symbol: a parent holding hands with their baby. It felt right. The shadow on the hearts became incredibly important, because it's what shows that "holding hands" moment. This was it: the letter M, two hearts, and a connection that symbolises the bond between parent and baby.
It may seem simple (and in truth it is), but the icon and logo are a symbol of the effort we've put into this app. Every choice in MilkMade's design has been intentional and thoughtful, and designed to be frictionless for any parent who uses it. The logo is no exception. I'm incredibly proud of it and the way it came about, because it wasn't an afterthought. It was inspired by my family, and seeing it on people's phones is an achievement in itself.
Patrick Hall
