Chapter 3: The Lighthouse
Mira climbed the last step. Below her, the sea was quiet. She opened the small wooden door, and light poured in.
IncluRead · Brand strategy & identity
Reading should feel like a book opening up, not a wall getting higher.
Begin the journey ↓01The why
It isn't about ability. It's about design.
For some children, reading is not difficult because they lack ability. It is difficult because traditional reading experiences are not designed around the way they read.
Frustration
- difficult text
- anxiety
- avoidance
- loss of confidence
IncluRead
- accessible
- comfortable
- confident
- empowered
02Who I design for
The identity starts with people.
Empathy map: Children
“I'm not slow, reading just takes me longer.” “Will this make me feel different again?”
03Competitors and references
What's already out there.
DyslexiaBuddy
Reading coach for kids with dyslexia; customisable fonts, colours, spacing.
What works
- +The fox character makes the brand feel friendly and approachable.
- +The glasses connect the character to reading and learning.
- +The orange colour gives it a warm, playful feel.
- +The logo is easy to recognise and works well for a product aimed at children.
What feels off
- −It feels quite child-focused, less suitable for teenagers or adults.
- −The illustration is fairly detailed, so it may not work at very small sizes.
- −Character + glasses + book makes the logo feel a little busy.
- −It looks more like an educational children's app than an accessibility brand that could grow with the user.
Friendly and memorable, busy, less suitable for adult audience.
The gap (hypothesis)
A brand for teens and adults too, that looks like a good normal reading app and treats accessibility as a feature, not a label.
I also checked
Read&Write, Helperbird, Dyslexia Reader by MDA, Lexy, Fluency.
Adjacent brands the client admires
Headspace / Calm (calm, friendly), Duolingo (encouraging), Be My Eyes (warm, dignified), Kobo / Libby / Storytel (reading brands), Lexend (readability as design).
Common patterns
Bright primary colours, cartoon mascots, book or brain icons, a “for kids” tone. The other extreme: plain, generic-blue tool look.
04Mood board
Warm, calm, bookish.
- The feeling. The logo should feel like a quiet room: soft window light, warm wood, a hand turning a page. Reading here is unhurried and safe, and the mark should give the same first impression, calm, welcoming and confident.
- The form. The mark is built from the letters themselves. The "i" has a round dot and a plain stem, and the "R" is wide and open, so no two shapes can be confused. Heavy, simple forms keep it clear at favicon size and in one colour.
- The test. Accessibility must show in the logo, not just in the product. The palette stays the same as the platform: soft blue #6694BF, bright teal #1CAAB7 and warm off-white #FBF9F7. On white, the blue is about 3.4:1 and the teal about 2.8:1, which is fine for a large symbol but not for small text, so the wordmark uses a deeper shade of the same blue. Every colour pairing is checked before approval.
- The promise. Open letterforms, generous spacing, and characters that are easy to tell apart, in the spirit of Lexend. The logo doesn't just say "accessible". It shows it.
Soft blue
#6694BF
Teal
#1CAAB7
Deep blue
#2F5F8F
Mist
#DCEBF3
Paper
Warm off-white
Ink
Body text
05Brand personality
Where IncluRead sits, and why.
PlayfulSerious
Playful, but not too child-focused.
FriendlyClinical
Friendly, but still credible. “Not a hospital.”
ChildlikeGrown-up
Grown-up enough for teens and adults, a real book, not a baby book.
QuietLoud
Calm and clear, with a confident symbol.
Special needsEmpowering
Empowering, rather than defining someone by their difficulty.
Tap or hover a marker. Three words for the brand: Accessible · Empowering · Supportive
06The brand idea
The idea that opens up.
The old narrative
Reading difficulty is a deficiency to be fixed.
- The reader is the problem, so the tool becomes a treatment.
- Clinical language, childish visuals, a sense of being singled out.
- Help arrives as a label: special, remedial, behind.
- Reading stays something to get through, not something to enjoy.
Switch between the two to see the shift the brand is built on.
Everything starts with one change of belief: the reader was never the thing that needed fixing.
Once the page adapts, reading stops being a test of ability and becomes an experience that can be chosen freely.
The brand idea
Every reader, on their own terms.
IncluRead gives readers access without labels, support without stigma, and quiet confidence in a space that treats them as capable.
This belief guides every decision that follows: the voice, the colour, the typography and the mark itself.
07From word to symbol
Concept mining the name.
Openness, nothing closed or gated.
Avoided entirely: scrambled letters, brains, medical imagery.
“Good identity design is a visual translation of the brand idea.”
08The logo exploration
Working towards design decision.
- What worked
- Says "reading" instantly; easy to explain; gives a ready-made app icon.
- What didn't
- Very common in reading and education brands, so hard to stand out; says nothing about accessibility or dyslexia; symbol plus wordmark gets crowded at small sizes.
09Accessibility as a brand principle
Accessibility is the brand.
- ✓Readable typography
- ✓Sufficient contrast (4.5:1+)
- ✓Clear hierarchy
- ✓Generous spacing
- ✓Simple language
- ✓Predictable interaction
- ✓Accessible colour pairs
Test the system
What the logo must pass
1. Instantly legible at small sizes
The symbol must read clearly at 16×16 px (favicon) and 32×32 px. No detail thinner than 1 px at 16 px. Also tested at 8 mm wide in print.
2. Works in one colour, light and dark
Versions in full colour, black and white. Tested on soft blue #6694BF, teal #1CAAB7, white and black. Clear space equals the height of the letter "I". Minimum width: 80 px digital, 20 mm print.
10The brand in action
One system, many places.
IncluReadLibrary · For schools · Parents
Reading should feel easier.
11Brand behaviour
How IncluRead behaves.
How the product behaves becomes the rules for the logo and the visual identity.
→ What it means for the identity
The logo is drawn for the reader with the most visual stress first: open, simple letterforms, a clear i and R, and no mirrored shapes that could be read as b or d.
→ In practice
If the mark is readable at 16 px for a child with dyslexia, it works for everyone, everywhere.
12Where I've landed
From insight to identity.
Logo
In development
Colour
Type
Aa Aa
Shapes
Imagery
Voice
“Your pace.”
Interaction
Continue Reading
Next: logo design
I started with a simple question:
How can we make reading feel more accessible without making children feel different?
The answer will shape not only the logo, but the entire experience.