# The Guardian new logo (2018)

> The Guardian launched a new logo in Jan 2018, designed by Guardian in-house and Commercial Type. 15 Jan 2018: lowercase one-line "theguardian" masthead (light-blue "the", 2005) replaced by a two-line black "The Guardian" in Guardian Headline, with the move to tabloid format and a digital redesign.

## Key facts

- Brand: The Guardian
- Launched: Jan 2018
- Studio: Guardian in-house and Commercial Type
- What changed: 15 Jan 2018: lowercase one-line "theguardian" masthead (light-blue "the", 2005) replaced by a two-line black "The Guardian" in Guardian Headline, with the move to tabloid format and a digital redesign.
- Why: The Guardian's 2018 redesign was meant to reflect the vision its editor-in-chief Katharine Viner had set out for the paper.
- Industry: Media
- Logos: https://rebrandlog.com/logos/guardian-2018/before.svg (before), https://rebrandlog.com/logos/guardian-2018/after.svg (after)

## The rebrand, explained

On 15 January 2018 The Guardian and The Observer moved from the Berliner format to tabloid, a change driven by the need to cut printing and logistics costs as part of a plan to break even. The Guardian said the move would save several million pounds. A new design for print, website and apps came with it.

The lowercase one-line theguardian masthead, introduced in 2005 with a light blue the, was retired. The design team itself acknowledged that the all-lowercase switch had once signalled the paper's different place in the market. Its replacement is a two-line, black The Guardian in a new face, Guardian Headline. The colour system also changed: instead of colour marking journalistic tone, five colours now mark the five core pillars of coverage.

The masthead evolved from a titling font created by the in-house design team, working with Commercial Type, and the redesign was meant to reflect the vision Katharine Viner had set out in an essay.

Editor-in-chief Katharine Viner introduced the new look as bold, striking and beautiful, and the Guardian said the redesign of print, website and apps was led by Alex Breuer and Chris Clarke, with a new typeface, Guardian Headline. Readers were divided. Three months on, readers' editor Paul Chadwick reported that many had adjusted, but complaints centred on the two-line masthead, the use of colour and readability, and a sense that something distinctive had been lost.

Press Gazette set out the money behind the masthead. The tabloid switch had been announced the previous June as part of Guardian Media Group's three-year plan to break even; its £80m presses in London and Manchester would be sold or scrapped, affecting about 50 roles, and printing would be outsourced to Trinity Mirror. Editor-in-chief Katharine Viner revealed the black and red masthead, which replaced the lowercase blue and white design used since 2005, in a video, and wrote that it was the result of months of work by designers and senior editors, adding that the move reinforced the paper's commitment to print.

The new masthead is more serious and more traditional than the one it replaced, and that was clearly the point: a paper making a case for trustworthy journalism wanted to look like one. Something was lost. The 2005 lowercase was one of the most distinctive newspaper marks of its time, and the 2018 version is good but conventional.

In short: More serious, more traditional, less distinctive. A considered trade.

## Sources

- https://www.theguardian.com/gnm-press-office/2018/jan/14/guardian-and-observer-launch-new-tabloid-format-and-digital-redesign
- https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/15-21-january-2018/guardian-introduces-tabloid-format-redesigns-platforms/
- https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/print-in-the-digital-age-redesigning-the-guardian-newspaper/qa-with-alex-breuer

## Cite this

Rebrand Log, "The Guardian new logo (2018)", https://rebrandlog.com/rebrand/guardian-2018/, last updated 2026-10-20.