Research-Driven Branding for a Mental Health Startup
2019 · User Research, Branding
Challenge
Therapi is an early-stage startup whose platform helps clients find therapists, and therapists network with each other. I was asked to develop an identity for the company would appeal to both groups of users and establish the company as a forward-thinking player in health tech.
Approach
For this project I challenged myself to anchor the semi-subjective process of logo design to quantitative and qualitative data. What this meant at a practical level was going beyond client feedback and actually talking to real therapists and patients.
Using iterative rounds of sketching, client discussion and user surveying, I was able to collaboratively and progressively take the logo from a set of competing abstract concepts like "human connectedness" and "a place for therapy," to single polished design.
• 30+ Low-fidelity sketches
• 2 Surveys (n=60; 25 therapists, 35 patients)
• 4 Rounds of client feedback
• 1 Final high-fidelity design
Result
The project was a success. The team and I not only arrived at a logo that we like, but tested well with patients and therapists alike. The thick, clean, rounded letterforms convey a soft but sturdy friendliness, and the logo draws directly from the act of conversation, which research found was most strongly associated with therapy.
"Good therapy is fundamentally about two people talking to each other."
"it should reflect the self-awareness and happiness that people associate with good therapy."
Layout: it was a challenge to execute the motif of conversation without it feeling cliché. I went through dozens of iterations of overlapping speech bubbles before deriving these vertically-offset rounded rectangular forms. It was important that the mark felt balanced in a square bounding box, and read well left to right.
Color: While therapy often deals with difficult topics, it was important to me that the logo avoid being too somber. To strike a balance, I mixed relaxing cool purples and blues with a punch of teal to keep things playful.
Smile: The smile mark was a happy accident. Initially, it felt too obvious. However, we got a lot of positive user feedback and I think we realized the fun and personality it added. We decided to keep it.
