Stuff & Nonsense product and website design

Neurodiverse Training

The story of how I helped training company Neurodiverse Training reach a wider audience with a new website.

Neurodiverse Training website
Client
Neurodiverse Training
Sector
Healthcare
Training
Duration
1 month
What I did
Branding design
Creative design
Website design
User experience design

Neurodiverse Training offer consulting and training on ADHD, autism, and neurodiversity to organisations including the NHS. Their business has grown and they’ve attracted larger clients, so their founder Loren Snow asked me to design a new brand and website.

As Loren’s personal brand plays a part in attracting new business, they wanted a visual connection between personal and business brands. So, I designed a distinctive colour palette, visually connected graphic assets, and layouts which Loren’s team and their web developers can integrate into their websites.

Neurodiverse Training website
Neurodiverse Training website
Neurodiverse Training website
Neurodiverse Training website

The outcome

New visual identity encompassing business and personal brands

Ensures consistency across print materials, social channels, and websites.

Bespoke designs for Squarespace which don’t look like templates

Distinctive colour palette, visually connected graphic assets, and layouts.

Design guide ensures easy implementation by third-party developers

Interactive style guide and assets library available online and in version control.

Andy worked with me every step, to my schedule, and he brought my ideas to life beautifully. He was an absolute pleasure to work with and is enthusiastic, composed, and cool.

Loren Snow

The details

Clients mostly ask us to design and develop their websites which means we’re never limited by the functionality of a WYSIWYG website platform like Squarespace, WiX, or similar. However, the Neurodiverse Training team were familiar with those platforms and asked me to design with them in mind.

How do you decide on project goals?

For businesses, goals might include feeding the sales pipeline or increasing conversions. Charities might aim to increase donations or raise awareness of important issues. Government organisations might want to communicate information better, and political parties might aim to increase their memberships. I begin each project with in-depth discussions on these goals, how I might accomplish them and ultimately measure if our work has been successful.

Discussing the project goals with Neurodiverse Training made the importance of integrating their business and personal brands clear. While the initial goal was to redefine their branding, it was also important to create a design system which includes colours, graphic styles, layouts, and typography will be used on both business and personal websites.

How do you develop a distinctive colour palette?

No matter the size or type of organisation, establishing and sustaining a consistent and unique identity is essential in everything visible to customers. This involves consistently applying colours across all printed materials, signage, social media, and websites. When I’m creating a brand new palette of colours, I think about what they say about an organisation and its personality. Alternatively, when I’m refining an existing colour palette, I ensure they’re adaptable to use across various media.

Neurodiverse Training colour exploration
Neurodiverse Training colour exploration

I began my process of designing for Neurodiverse Training by researching relevant brands in similar spaces to evaluate any commonly used colours, their hues, saturation, and vibrancy. I also studied the colours that Loren had chosen previously. Blending two of their previous colours created a teal which then formed the basis of a new set of coordinated colours.

Neurodiverse Training colour exploration
Neurodiverse Training colour exploration

How do you make a design which stands out?

Page layout is a crucial element in visual storytelling. Still, far too many websites use grids from Bootstrap and Google’s Material Design frameworks. Those frameworks—and plenty more besides—include a generic grid with twelve even-width columns. The result is an endless sea of carbon-copy products and generic-looking website designs. Brands have individual stories about their products, work, and themselves; designers can use layouts to tell them. Just as colours evoke feelings and typefaces have tones of voice, layouts—including compound, modular, and ratio-based grids—make similar statements.

Neurodiverse Training artwork
Neurodiverse Training artwork
Neurodiverse Training artwork
Neurodiverse Training artwork
Neurodiverse Training artwork

Neurodiverse Training has previously used WiX, but had decided to migrate to the Squarespace platform with its out-of-box 16-column even-ratio grid. My challenge was making a design that utilised the built-in layout without the result looking like a generic template. To accomplish this, I designed a series of asymmetric layout components which mask Squarespace’s grid structure.

These clients have trusted me with their designs

If you want a website which captivates customers and encourages them to engage, I can help.

Hire me. I’m available now to work on product and website design projects.