BaBL Lab

The Brain, Behavior, and Broader Learning (BaBL) Lab is a research laboratory focused on studying the causes and consequences of individual learning differences in language and reading skills. Founded in March 2022, they were in need of a brand identity and website to launch their lab.

I was approached by Dr. Yamasaki to create a brand identity that would include a logo, brand guidelines, website, and various design collateral. We spent a lot of time in discovery to come up with a solid plan for the brand.

Because the BaBL Lab focuses on the study of early childhood and young adulthood, the brand needed be fun, approachable, and put the children coming in for tests and studies at ease instantly.

PROJECT COLLABORATORS

Dr. Brianna Yamasaki
Lab Director

Coming in for an MRI scan and brain study can be scary for a child so the brand needed to be Approachable, Fun, Colorful, and Disarming.

Logo Exploration

After gaining a clear understanding of what was needed for the brand through our discovery meetings, it was time to start work on the logo. My process starts in Adobe Illustrator getting as many ideas down as I can. Then refining down all of those ideas into a succinct and easily digestable presentation.

I wanted to make sure to present options that included both serif and sans-serif fonts, color variations, and logos that would resonate well with both the children in the studies, and Dr. Yamasaki’s professional colleagues. You can see below the five options that I ultimately presented to the client.

The Final Logo

I couldn’t have asked for a better reception to the logo options. Dr. Yamasaki was so happy with all of them and took the time to think through which logo resonated best with her and worked best for her Lab Identity. Ultimately the below logo was selected.

An interesting development that occured once she saw the logo was that she realized she wanted a way to showcase in the logo what areas of study the lab focuses on. So her and I collaborated on an alternative version of the logo that included icons to showcase this.

Adding a Web Presence

Once I had the logo and branding nailed down it was time to start on the website. I was in charge of both design and development of the website. One interesting thing about this project is Dr. Yamasaki came to me with the idea of a mascot for the website. She absolutely LOVES penguins and so wanted to integrate this into the design.

She actually came to me with the design of the penguin that we use on the website currently. It was really cool to see and for her to have such a personal hand in the design of the website. Another cool element of the website is each page category is color coded, so all About Us pages are green, contact pages are pink, etc. Helps add a bit of continuity to the site as users navigate around it.