A brand system translating neuroscience research into a human-centered visual language
The Mind Lab is a neuroscience research lab at the University of Minnesota focused on understanding how brain function and motor behavior relate across neurodevelopmental and neurological conditions. Instead of searching for a single defining marker, the lab looks at patterns, using case-control methods, motor assessments, and brain measurements to better understand how individuals compare and overlap. A large part of the lab’s work involves building detailed participant profiles and mapping shared features across different diagnoses. This approach recognizes that neurological conditions aren’t always cleanly defined, and that meaningful insights often emerge from similarity, variation, and comparison.
Brand Framework
Visual Identity
Brand Guidelines
Content Strategy
The Goal
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The goal of this project was to turn a complex, research-heavy mission into a visual identity that feels clear, thoughtful, and approachable. The brand needed to communicate scientific rigor without feeling cold or overly technical. At the same time, it needed to reflect the lab’s openness to complexity, supporting research that looks beyond labels and embraces nuance, overlap, and neurodiversity. The identity was designed to feel structured, but flexible enough to represent many profiles within a single system.
The Brand
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The brand identity takes its cues directly from the lab’s work. The logo references neural structures and connectivity, grounding the system in neuroscience. Its balanced, modular form reflects the idea of comparison and mapping, core to how the lab studies patterns across individuals. The split color palette represents neurodivergence: distinct pathways coexisting within a shared structure. Together, these elements create a brand that feels analytical but human, designed to support research that values insight, connection, and complexity over simple answers.
