Developing the brand for a new network of concussion-care clinics came with some unique challenges for Toronto agency Good&Ready. The entire brand—from the logo to the in-clinic experience—had to be designed for people dealing with brain injuries.

“The major challenge was building a brand experience with accessibility at the centre of the design process, especially for the website,” said Good&Ready co-founder Terry Drummond. “[T]he people using it will likely have serious brain trauma. Font selection and size, colours, minimal copy and minimal motion graphics were all chosen with that user in mind.”

“We started with nothing,” added 360 Concussion Care CEO Alex Johnston. “We were determined to build the brand around a better patient experience, because that is the reason behind starting the clinic.”

The Message asked Drummond to provide an overview of the key design elements and thinking that went into creating such a unique brand from scratch.

The name: 360 Concussion Care isn’t a wildly imaginative name, but that was intentional. One of the big issues is that patients get bounced around between different types of caregivers during treatment. We wanted to be clear that 360 Concussion Care was one-stop shopping for patients.

The logo: Every clinic in the concussion space uses a brain in their logo. Every. Single. One. We created a pink rosette instead. The five overlapping circles reference the brain in a more symbolic way. The only motion graphics on the site are used with this element, because we felt it showed the idea of a brain healing.

The website: The website is intended for two audiences: referring health professionals and concussion sufferers. We paid special attention to accessibility out of consideration for that second audience, as they have a brain injury. There is as little copy as possible to reduce patient screen time. The font is Graphik, which is considered one of the easiest to read. Colours are muted and motion graphics are limited.

Clinic and Tools: The brand elements were included in the clinic design because the patient should never feel that they have left the 360 experience. Plus, we used muted colours to create a feeling of calm.