"Black and Neurodiverse (B+ND pronounced BaND) is a non-profit platform created by Tyla Grant as a result of the lackluster response from existing organisations that serve neurominority groups during the resurgence of Black Lives Matter. In June 2020 a campaign was launched to set up a Neurodiversity Assessment Fund which provides grants to Black young people who suspect they are neurodivergent. This will be at the centre of B+ND’s first campaign to raise awareness about life at the intersection of being neurodivergent and Black and how this manifests as increased barriers to diagnosis."

- Tyla Grant (Founder)

Mood + Tone

When I spoke to Tyla she told me she was motivated to start B+ND because she was sick of black neurodiverse people being overlooked. She wanted a bold brand identity that was unapologetic, confident, yet welcoming to the community which it serves.

We imagined something elegant, punky, black, and radical. I thought of fast gestural brush strokes, vibrant colors that had a gentle pop on a dark background, high contrast yet not overwhelming. I pitched this mood board to establish a visual tone for the brand.

Color

I first established light and dark tones; choosing a muted warm off-white and 30% reduced warm black. I also added a very dark navy to be used with the black. Combining these tones with textural elements produced subtle and elegant backgrounds that felt bold but not overstimulating. For the hues I went with a cooled down and purple tinted version of RGB colors. I also added lighter tones of each hue so the palette can be colorblind-friendly.

Logo

The logo is a brush lettered ‘B+ND’. The ‘+’ is represented by a star. The star has it’s vertical points slightly larger than its horizontals so it also can look like a capital A. This helps the viewer read the logo as the organization name (Pronounced: BAND).

Using a Sumi ink brush, I lettered B+ND on a bunch of computer paper. I then went through them narrowing down my favorite forms. I polished the letterform and slowly the form for the container started coming to me. I thought about how a circle and square can represent different containers for the mind, logic, form, things coming together. I didn't want something geometric, I wanted a form that looked familiar, but also like it grew organically like the development of the mind.