Pretty settled on this for the final brand mark:
Played a little with abstracting the mark near the end.
Discovering the beauty behind design.
Focus on the critical 20% of a system that provides 80% of its functionality.
A system must be useable by people with a range of abilities / knowledge. Accessibility can be broken down into: perceptibility, operability, simplicity, and forgiveness.
Present brief chunks of information before presenting all new information. Two flavors: expository (audience has little to no knowledge on subject) and comparative (audience has existing similar knowledge.)