Visualizing Impact: Design, Identity, and the BRAID Story

In the season one finale of BRAIDEd, host Keionna Thomas sits down with Professor Gauri Misra-Deshpande, the award-winning design educator who led the SCADpro project that gave BRAID its visual identity. Professor Gauri walks through the research and design thinking behind BRAID's name, logo, and brand language, and the moment Valerie Hill Rawls walked into a staged farmer's market and saw her vision made real for the first time. The conversation also covers the BRAID brand's journey to a National Mosaic ADDY Award for impact work and what that visibility means for the movement. The episode closes with a reflection from Valerie Hill Rawls, Founder of the EcoWomanist Institute Southeast, who frames the award, the cohort now in motion, and the road ahead under a single truth: BRAID is not branding for branding's sake.