Understood.org is a non-profit dedicated to serving the 70 million people in the United States who learn and think differently. From purpose to tactical solutions, the organization is positioned to help individuals who learn differently thrive at home, at school, and in life from childhood to adulthood.

In 2019 the organization shifted strategy and direction, to support organizational needs entire Marketing and Brand team was created. I was brought on to help with the org-wide rebrand initiative.

With accessibility top of mind, we started by working with branding agency, Wolff-Olins, to define the brand visually around the idea of “shaping the world for difference”. We then reached out to audio branding agency, Listen, to help mold an adaptable sound identity for the new brand.

Built to be Understood: designing with accessibility in mind.

To invite a new audience to Understood, the visual and verbal identity were created to bring people in and de-stigmatize the differences they face. All the design elements were thoughtfully shaped to be accessible for all.

The new typeface, designed in conjunction with Martin Vácha and his foundry Displaay, was created to improve readability for people with dyslexia. The font was customized to make certain letters and numbers more distinguishable for readers. The wordmark has been carefully crafted with accessibility in mind, using our primary typeface Understood Sans as the base.

The logo is a unique signature and acts as a visual anchor to all
brand communications. It’s constructed to represent the idea of shaping the world for difference. The organic shape emerging from behind the conventional “U” negative shape in the center represents that we all experience the world differently.

To complete our visual look, we collaborated with illustrator Ka Young Lee, who created a visual library to reflect the diversity of the world we live in and show all types of people in all environments. In addition to create engaging articles that bring stories our individuals with learning and thinking differences to live.

To make sure we create product that is comfortable for all users, we made sure visuals translate to dark mode.

Social media launch

Since the rebrand in 2021, we’ve grown our social footprint across
six platforms to a following of nearly 1M, organically.

Website before & after

CREDITS

Client: Understood.org
Branding Agency: Wolf Ollins
Illustrator: Ka Young Lee
Role: Creative direction, art direction, creative & design team lead, brand development, strategy, recruiting.