The Association for Autism and Neurodiversity (AANE), is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping autistic and similarly neurodivergent people build meaningful, connected lives. They provide individuals, families, and professionals with education, community, and support, in an inclusive atmosphere of validation and respect.
In 2016, AANE (then the Asperger/Autism Network) celebrated their landmark 20th anniversary. For the occasion, I was first hired to developed not one, but two adaptations of their existing logo—the second of which established the theme for a comprehensive marketing campaign for their 20-year annual benefit gala. The success of that first collection of projects has led to numerous collaborations in subsequent years, including multiple annual reports, sub-branding for several AANE programs, 25- and 30-year logo adaptations, a brand identity update to reflect the organization's new name, and additional fundraising materials and gala campaigns.
"Tye is the perfect partner for AANE." — Cathy Aikman | Director of Marketing and Communications, AANE
"...I was incredibly impressed with how easy it was to communicate with [Tye]... He listened carefully...and seamlessly merged our intent with his design. The final product was beautiful." — Kim Wutkiewicz | Development Associate, AANE
"Tye’s work more than exceeded expectations; everyone was thrilled. ... Working with Tye is easy, and there is more creativity, sharing of ideas, and feedback than with in-house/corporate designers." — Sheri Singer | Campaign and Special Events Manager, AANE
The first objective was to adapt a variation of the existing logo to specifically celebrate AANE's 20th active year.
The direction was two-fold:
1. "Simple. Quality without being staid. Nothing cutesy."
2. "Don't overpower the messages of the existing logo: modern, active, creative, moving forward, and community."
My approach was to work within the existing framework, subtly building the "20 years" message cohesively into the original artwork.
Many organizations insert large numerals into their logos to celebrate landmark anniversaries. This less typical approach of integrating the numberals into the existing brand mark was well received by the AANE team.
After the "20" glyph adaptation was established, it was put to work in this "Celebrating 20 years" banner, for use in all communications related to AANE's 20th year. A monochromatic teal variant helped to reduce perceived redundancy in contexts where the banner appeared alongside the standard AANE logo.
Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign
"20 YEARS, 20 FACES" LOGO: For their 20th annual benefit gala, the AANE team chose the theme "20 years, 20 faces"—a concept for celebrating the diversity of AANE's people, resources, and accomplishments over its twenty years in operation.
"20 YEARS, 20 FACES" ARTWORK: To bring the "20 faces" metaphor to life we created a mosaic of twenty "faces" comprising AANE, toned with brand colors to convey diversity, in differing arrangements depending on contexts. These "faces" are not all literally portraits; while they include staff, beneficiaries, contributors, and relevant historical figures, there are also relevant book covers and even works of art by members of AANE's artist collaborative.
SAVE THE DATE & EVENT INVITATION MAILING
EVENT PROGRAM BOOK & EVENT DONATION CARD
Savage Interactive Procreate, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign
Starting in 2019, AANE began branding their annual fundraising gala the "Uncommon Gala," to celebrate the qualities that make the neurodivergence community extraordinary.
AANE hired me again to create a new campaign that would reflect many ideas, including celebration, positivity and fun, diversity, unconventionality, acceptance, understanding, and respect—and they wanted it to be a bit whimsical yet still clean and professional.
With the success of the 2019 Uncommon Gala, AANE and I continued to work together on their second annual 2020 Uncommon Gala, reinterpreting the original visual concept to further emphasize the diversity of their ever growing community.
As the world was adapting to remote lifestyles during the Covid-19 Pandemic Lockdown, the 2021 Uncommon Gala was held virtually.
The AANE team was happy with the previous year's visual concept, so I iterated on it for a virtual theme, using inverted text in a stripe as a visual metaphor for streaming video transmissions connecting the community.
Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign
(Selected spreads)
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator
