&Walsh turned queer dating app Lex's brand into an ever-growing playground

Founded by Kell Rakowski as the Personals Instagram account, then a 'low-fi, text-centred' app launched in 2019, Lex needed its identity to reflect that it now builds communities and friendships, not only romance.

Brand the app as an ever-growing queer playground: a whimsical fluid logo, Lex Green and spring tones instead of the rainbow trope, and rough textures.

&Walsh delivered the messaging framework, visual identity, UX/UI toolkit and desktop and mobile website design and development; sweet, simple illustrations of flowers, flames, mountains, hearts and stars juxtaposed with rough textures; and copy for custom stickers communicating pronouns and interests, written by and for queer people and informed by direct user feedback.

No usage figures reported; Creative Review framed the identity as signalling 'a safe, queer space for all kinds of relationships' and carrying Lex's evolution from dating app to community platform.

Lex (short for Lexicon) began life in 2017 as Personals, an Instagram account by Kell Rakowski that mimicked old-school newspaper personal ads; around 10,000 personals later, Rakowski launched the app in 2019 as 'a low-fi, text-centred dating app where queer people could be their unapologetic selves without facing censorship from major media sites'. By the time &Walsh was brought in, Lex had evolved beyond romance into a space where communities are built and friendships are forged — and the brand needed to tell that story.

&Walsh's answer was 'an ever-growing queer playground'. The identity centres on a whimsical, fluid logo and avoids the classic rainbow trope: the main colour is 'Lex Green' with a palette of fresh spring tones, alongside simple illustrations of flowers, flames, mountains, hearts and stars set against rough textures — growth, energy and wellbeing with 'a raw edge', as Creative Review quoted the studio.

Because Lex is a text-based app, the messaging framework got special attention: copy lines written by and for queer people power custom stickers that users can deploy on and offline to communicate pronouns, special interests and more. &Walsh also built the UX/UI toolkit and designed and developed Lex's desktop and mobile website, work informed by direct feedback from Lex users.

Lex's product is words, so the identity leads with a messaging framework and typography-led play rather than photography.

Dropping the rainbow trope differentiates Lex from every Pride-month palette and signals a brand with its own culture.

The stickers extend the brand off-screen — pronouns and interests as shareable objects — serving community, not just dating.

Direct user feedback kept the system accountable to the people it depicts.

Skip the category's default symbols — a queer brand can signal belonging through its own palette, voice and playfulness instead of the rainbow.

The rebrand was unveiled in January 2023 across app, stickers, website and messaging; Creative Review reported no adoption figures, presenting the work as identity and tooling rather than a metrics story.