Raindrop Celebrates Black History Month

At Raindrop, we have a strong commitment to Diversity and Inclusion. This commitment ties heavily into our company value to “Make it Better”. We acknowledge that there is always progress to be made, but BELIEVE that the consistent and dedicated pursuit of improvement is the best way to achieve change.

We strive to create a space where people can bring their entire selves to work, and we want everyone who steps in our door or engages with our content to feel welcome and free to be themselves. We asked ourselves, “How can we extend this value past our employees and partners, to publicly proclaim our commitment to improvement? How do we let the world know that Raindrop welcomes diversity and is dedicated to continuous growth and learning?”

After EXTENSIVE planning and GOAL-SETTING, our DEI Committee is excited to roll out quarterly logo enhancements and Social Responsibility Initiatives! These are not superficial, aesthetic symbols, but a way that we as a company can acknowledge our commitment to inclusivity and diversity.

With these initiatives and changes, it is our goal to be proactive and consistent in our advocacy for, and support of, marginalized groups as part of our commitment to become a more inclusive and diverse company.

Our first logo enhancement will be a celebration of Black History Month!

To create this design, our committee members started with the question “What does Black History Month mean to me?”. It was through this conversation that we realized there are an infinite number of answers to this question. We began discussing why this was, when committee members shined a light on their varied experiences of being Black in America. They detailed experiences that centered on hair care, skin color, food, upbringing, music taste and more. They then recounted their realization that Blackness wasn’t a single entity. It wasn’t a standard to be achieved or a quota to be met. It was a unique experience that they could define however they saw fit. To quote a committee member, “My Blackness is something that I define for myself. It doesn’t have to fit what you PERCEIVE to be “Black”. Blackness is a SPECTRUM. It is a collection of experiences.”

Inspired by this idea of self-defined experiences, we explored how we could depict this graphically in our logo. In doing some inspiration research, our committee members noticed a consistent tendency for Black History-related materials to be red, yellow, and green – colors typically associated with Africa. Our African American committee members launched a conversation on why they didn’t feel these colors were representative of what Black History Month meant to them. To them, Black History Month was about highlighting civil rights leaders, telling the story of their struggle, and celebrating their ingenuity, not solely their African heritage. They expressed feeling a disconnect to their African heritage and wanting to find a new way to depict Black History Month and their own experiences.

After listening to their stories, we returned to the idea of Blackness being a spectrum of experiences. How then do we depict all these variations alongside the self-defined spectrum of Blackness?

After lots of listening and brainstorming, the committee landed on using a range of Black skin tones to represent the range of the black experience.

It is our hope that through these conversations and this logo change we can further our understanding, highlight the struggles and successes of the African American community, and show our fervent commitment to uplifting diversity- not only during Black History Month but year round.