Couch
Built a warm, character-led brand, website and app for Couch, so asking for help feels less clinical and more like coming home.
Brand identity, website, app and social media for Couch, an online therapy service built to make talking to a therapist feel as easy as sinking into your sofa.
Couch is an online therapy service that connects people with licensed therapists by video, voice or chat.
Couch wanted to make therapy feel approachable for people who had never tried it. We built the identity around the logo's own idea, a “u” held by a dot, and grew it into a cast of characters, a website, an app and a social presence that all speak in the same warm voice.
This case study walks through how it came together.
Client
Couch
Services
Brand identity · Illustration · Website design · App design · Social media
Timeline
2022
Sector
Mental health · HealthTech
Project visuals
Logo, guidelines and brand applications
The challenge
Most people don't skip therapy because they don't need it. They skip it because it feels intimidating.
Mental health brands often fall into two traps: cold and clinical, or soft and vague. Couch needed to feel safe enough to trust with something personal, and friendly enough that a first-timer would actually press “Get started”.
Lower the stakes
Every touchpoint had to make the first step feel small.
Show people, not pills
No stock photos of sad faces at windows. Just warmth, humour and honesty.
The crew
We turned the logo into people.
The “u” in the wordmark, with its dot above, already looked like a person with open arms. We drew it out into a family of characters with one body, one head and a handful of poses, so the team can show any feeling, from anxious to proud, without ever showing a real face.
Website
A homepage that feels like walking into a warm room.
The site leads with the promise, “Therapy that feels like home”, and a scene of two characters talking on a couch. From there it answers the questions first-timers actually have: how it works, who the therapists are, what it costs and what happens between sessions.
App
From “I'm not sure” to “I'm booked” in four screens.
A two-minute check-in asks gentle questions, matches you with a therapist and books your first session. Between sessions, small tools like mood check-ins, breathing and journaling keep people steady, and the characters react to how you feel.
Social
Content people actually want to share.
Instagram posts mix honest reassurance with practical tools, like box breathing and therapist tips, all told through the crew. A sticker pack brings the characters into everyday chats.
