Meet... Octy...?

When I created NeuroStory Collective I was massively delayed because I wanted to create a coherent brand and to do that I needed, first of all, a name (that's taken years to settle on) and then I needed to decide my brand colours, create a logo and design a website. 

My business has been called How to Human, Story Collective, Manual of You, Neurostories, Neuro Narratives and much much more before settling on NeuroStory Collective (I explain why on the home page). 

I was stuck on brand colours for a long time until I decided that this time I was going to use 'dopamine decor' as my guidance and just use colours and pictures that sparked joy and not overthink it (the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive).

During my colour scheme search I came across this picture...

And I absolutely loved it! Like autism, our fingerprints are entirely unique and full of colourful diversity and just like that I found my logo. 

But it's a complicated logo to throw in when I'm doing a social media post or just want to leave an easily identifying marker. I was inspired by Autistic Realms and the penguin they had showing up on their posts and that got me thinking... Shouldn't I have a business maskot? But what? My favourite animal? I tried panda and sloth but it didn't really fit the bill. I tried cats, dogs, bunnies and other common house pets but again, it didn't feel right. Instead I started thinking about what animal I'd say represents autism... the wise owl... the colour changing chameleon... hmm, no, there was something too stereotypical about that. 

For some reason the book "Other Minds - The Octopus and The Evolution of Intelligent Life" came to mind... and I started thinking. Octopi are known for 

- being independent

- enjoying solitude

- needing freedom to work well

- shifting and changing to fit their environment

- being intelligent

- being adaptable

- and creative

- relying on their intuition

- liking control

- and capable of chaos (think mythology and enraging the mighty octopus so it crushes ships!)

- being creatures of the 'deep sea' (misunderstood or feared)

- being seen as wise and in some mythologies as guides 

- being great problem solvers

Hmm... sound somewhat familiar...

And then there are their tendrils... 

https://eisforerin.com/2015/08/10/tendril-theory/

Once I was down this route, it turns out that I'm not the only one who's had these thoughts as Carolyn Gage shows in her brilliant blog: Ruminations on Octopuses and Autism 

(Both tendril theory and Gage's blog were brought to my attention by the amazing Helen Edgar, founder of Autistic Realms)

And then my business maskot was born.... Well, sort of... I can't draw, so I had to get some A.I. help (man, that proved far more difficult and infuriating than first anticipated). But I can never take something someone else has done and claim it as mine without 1) giving due credit and 2) making alterations. 

So, the final result...

(Of course, full of 'Easter eggs' to uncover!)

Meet Octy... Well, that names doesn't really work either, but what to call my new business maskot? 

Please comment below with your suggestions!!