Headway ABI Australia

Headway ABI Australia has been supporting people living with acquired brain injury since 1986. Nearly four decades of care, community, and expertise. However, the logo was, honestly, wasn't carrying any of that weight.

The old mark was busy. Colourful butterflies rendered in a realistic illustration style, competing words, skewed text, visual noise everywhere. The symbolism was there, such as butterflies, brain waves, but it was getting lost. Worse, it could read as juvenile. For an organisation asking people to trust them with some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives, that mattered.

I looked into Headway's story, the audiences it engages, social media, paid special attention to what the brand is trying to convey. In the end, I coin keywords such as sophisticated, clean, modern. Communicate responsibility and competence, but also care. Don't lose the humanity, too.

Then I made the decision to keep the symbolism but abstract it completely. The butterfly and the brain weren't wrong ideas. They were just executed too literally. So I kept both, but let them dissolve into each other. The logomark shows two butterflies in geometric, fluid form. Where they connect, they form two hearts. Care embedded quietly into the structure, present if you look, not shouted. From above, the whole shape reads as a brain. It's doing a lot of work without saying anything loudly.

Every curve, line, and proportion was hand-crafted using the golden ratio. It's the kind of detail that most people will never consciously notice, and that's exactly the point — it's what makes something feel right without knowing why.

For colour, I mostly kept the existing palette to make the transition into the new brand feel seamless for the organisation. But the hierarchy was completely rethought. Purple becomes the dominant colour, confident and owning the space, while the yellow, blue, and green step back as accents. That shift alone does significant work — it makes the brand feel more mature, more sure of itself.

The logotype pairs Amiri, a classic serif, with Inter, a practical sans-serif. The combination adds warmth and familiarity while maintaining credibility. And throughout, every colour combination was accessibility tested — for an organisation serving people with neurological conditions, that wasn't optional.

This project was completed as a volunteer engagement. The work was done with the same care and rigour as any paid brief, because the organisation and the people they serve deserved nothing less.