Let's deal with the obvious objection first, because pretending nobody's thinking it would be worse than just saying it: a cartoon dinosaur on a brand for autistic and neurodivergent adults sounds, on paper, like exactly the kind of thing that gets criticised for infantilising the people it's meant to represent.
That criticism would be fair if the reasoning stopped at "dinosaurs are fun." It doesn't. Here's the actual case.
It's not decoration, it's a pattern
Ask anyone who spends real time in autistic communities — parents, teachers, autistic adults themselves — and a specific pattern comes up often enough that it stops being a coincidence: dinosaurs are one of the most common special interests going. Not universal. Not everyone's thing. But common enough, and specific enough, that it functions almost like a quiet signal when you see it. If you know, you know.
That's the part that matters. A special interest isn't a preference, and it's not childish in the way the word usually gets used dismissively. For a lot of autistic people, a special interest is a genuine source of joy, expertise, and identity — something engaged with deeply, often for years, often bringing real comfort in a world that's frequently overstimulating. Building a mark around that isn't the same as building one around glitter and rainbows because it looks "fun for kids." It's building around something specific, real, and load-bearing for a meaningful share of the community.
The part we got wrong until it was pointed out
Here's where we're being straight with you, because that's the deal: an unexplained cartoon dinosaur on a hoodie, with no context, no story, no reasoning visible anywhere — that genuinely does read as random or juvenile. We had that pointed out to us plainly, and it was a fair hit. A symbol that means something and a symbol that just looks like it should mean something read identically to someone seeing it cold. The only difference is whether you've explained it anywhere.
So: this is us explaining it.
Why a silhouette, not a cartoon
There's also a design decision buried in here that's easy to miss. Our mark isn't a big-eyed, rounded, cartoon dinosaur — the kind you'd expect on a kids' lunchbox. It's a clean, sharp-edged, single-colour silhouette. Mid-stride, mouth open, tail out. That's a deliberate choice. We wanted something that could sit on a premium garment without embarrassing itself — recognisable at a glance, serious enough to wear to work, specific enough that it isn't just "generic dinosaur clipart."
The difference between "childish mascot" and "identity mark with real meaning" is almost entirely in the execution and the explanation. Take away either one and you're left with the version that gets (rightly) criticised. We're trying to earn the other version.
What we want it to become
Not a logo people notice and move past. A signal. The kind of thing where, across a room, on a train, in a school corridor, someone catches sight of it and has a half-second reaction that isn't "why is there a cartoon dinosaur on that hoodie" but "oh — I get that." That reaction is the entire point, and it only works if it's actually meant, not just applied.
We think it's a good bet. We might be wrong. But it's not a random one, and now it isn't an unexplained one either.
If dinosaurs aren't your special interest and this mark does nothing for you, that's completely fine — it was never trying to speak for every autistic or neurodivergent person, just to mean something real to the ones it does land with.