Icons representing the six senses of neurodiversity, by MagneticNorth for the BBC

Manchester-based design studio MagneticNorth has created a set of icons to represent touch, taste, sound, vision, smell and balance, for the BBC’s Cape initiative. Cape (Creating a Positive Environment) is aiming to raise awareness of the need to improve access to work for people with conditions such as autism, dyslexia and Tourette’s.

The icons aim to highlight the fact that senses affect those with neurodiverse conditions in hugely different ways, and will be used as part of a brand toolkit for Cape platforms and events. Its recent Connecting the Dots event, for example, was organised by sense rather than condition, and had bands performing as part of “sound” and installations as part of “vision”.

Each icon uses a triangle as its focal point in various forms — such as an eye or tongue, or see-saw — drawn from the angular logo. The logo uses an infinite symbol, with half-filled, half-line work to represent the two sides of the brain.

“The brand has been designed in an abstract way, as it would be naïve to think we, as designers, can visually represent how neurodiversity affects people with one colour or icon,” says the design team.