Rebranded a federally-funded SF preschool from the ground up — building a brand system and multilingual website that earned funder trust, cut staff workload by 90%, and made critical resources accessible to the families who need them most.
Problem
Kai Ming's fragmented identity failed to build trust with grant funders — or feel approachable to the multilingual families it served.
What I Did
Led end-to-end rebrand and UX redesign — from strategic positioning to multilingual web architecture — managing stakeholders, timelines, and cross-functional handoffs over 3+ years.
Result
93% user satisfaction rate. Staff support load cut by over 90%. Stronger institutional credibility with funders and increased enrollment inquiries.
The Problem
Kai Ming needed to earn trust from two very different audiences simultaneously: grant funders who expect institutional credibility, and multilingual low-income families who need warmth and clarity. The existing brand did neither. The logo was outdated, the website was hard to navigate for non-English speakers, and the lack of visual consistency undermined confidence at every touchpoint. The design challenge wasn't aesthetic — it was strategic.
Design Process
01
Interviews with parents, educators, and leadership to map trust gaps — and define what the brand needed to say to each audience
02
Positioned Kai Ming between institutional credibility and community warmth — a deliberate tension that shaped every visual decision
03
New logo, color, type, and illustration language — designed to flex from formal grant applications to bilingual family flyers without losing coherence
04
Managed phased rollout across print, web, and campaigns — coordinating stakeholders, vendors, and dev handoff over 3+ years of ongoing brand stewardship
Brand Identity
The new identity needed to hold a contradiction: institutional credibility for funders, and human warmth for families. The solution was a modular mark — stable and professional at small sizes, expressive when applied to print and environmental contexts.
Web Design
User research revealed the core problem: families couldn't find what they needed, and the visual experience felt cold and confusing. The redesign applied the new brand system to every web touchpoint — clear visual hierarchy, culturally-sensitive imagery, and multilingual layouts built for low-literacy users. The result was a site that communicated the same warmth and professionalism as the brand itself.
Results
A cohesive brand system and restructured website transformed how families experienced Kai Ming — and freed staff to focus on what they were actually hired to do.
93%
User Satisfaction
Post-launch satisfaction rate across families using the redesigned site
90%+
Staff Time Saved
Repeat phone inquiries dropped dramatically — families found answers independently online
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Enrollment Inquiries
Cohesive brand presence increased institutional credibility and application rates
