As our industry finds itself at the center of the conversation about workplace diversity, we must shine a light down our own halls and ensure we’re being reflective of the people who use the products we build.
With this call to self-awareness comes a responsibility to continually make things better than they are. We’re on the hook now. We acknowledge that we have room to grow, and we push ourselves to reach out and actively elevate those who might otherwise be suppressed. We do this through the events we host, the education we support, and the jobs we offer -- in the hope that the change we bring about today will ripple through the larger community.
Inclusion and diversity matter at Braintree. As a company, we’ve looked at where we are today, and talked about a plan to get us to where we’d like to be. We’ve been empowered to take action and work together to identify the opportunities and experiences we want to offer, and from there make them happen.
Braintree formed an internal inclusion and diversity program comprised of teams focusing efforts toward our recruiting practices, our place in the community, and what happens within our own walls. Teams meet often and share progress with the entire company. With this kind of visibility, the program needed a face -- enter the Brand Design team.
We started by naming the program.
After a lot of thinking and research we felt straight and to the point was best. It’s about inclusion and it’s about diversity; let’s not be confusing with fluffy terms or acronyms that could leave room for misunderstanding.
Next, we asked: “what does this program look like?”
We started with color. Our brand guidelines gave us 4 bold colors to start:
We added 2 more to complete the rainbow, giving a nod to LGBTQ+:
Next we added skin tones based on the Fitzpatrick Scale, which was also used in the creation of the new, much-applauded, more diverse emojis.
Although these colors do not represent all aspects of diversity, we found when you combine and randomize them, they do create a diverse array that can then represent the program as a whole.
The use of pixelated blocks allows us to create an endless array of graphics and assets to support the program.
Now for the logo.
We had the building blocks, and so we set out to sketch:
As with any logo, it needed to be able to stand alone as well as be paired with other elements. How would it look in an email, a presentation, on swag, or in print?
We also began to consider adding a graphic to the logo. We designed a multi-colored bar -- giving a nod to our randomized grid of diversity. This bar supports and anchors the text in the logo without distracting from the most important piece.
As diversity issues become more central to our workplace conversations, we were inspired to give everyone at Braintree something to express their dedication to equality and acceptance. We created pins and stickers -- crafting pixel-based graphics out of our multicolor grid -- which we gave to everyone in the company. And we will continue to find ways to communicate the message and inspire each other to want to make our place of work, as well as the world we live in, a better, more accepting place.