Healthcare IT · Brand Transformation
Rebuilding a 1996-era brand from scratch em and the system that outlasted me
KLAS Research needed more than a refresh. They needed a complete visual identity — built from judgment and vision, with no existing system to inherit and no precedent to follow.
COMPANY
KLAS Research
ROLE
SOLE UX Designer
TIMELINE
Jan 2016 – Jun 2023
DISCIPLINES
BRAND • UX • Print • Video
SELECTED WORK
When KLAS Research’s director of marketing hired me in January 2016, the company’s visual identity hadn’t meaningfully evolved since the logo was created in 1996. That logo used an obscure serif font from a different era. Brand materials were built in Microsoft Office with no consistent color system or typography. The website had been built entirely by developers with no design involvement — functional, but visually inconsistent and disconnected from the research credibility KLAS was building in the healthcare IT space.
KLAS wasn’t broken. But it looked like it was. In healthcare IT — where trust, authority, and credibility are the entire value proposition — that mattered enormously. Vendors paid for KLAS research because it was accurate and impartial. The brand needed to look like it deserved that trust.
I was given full creative latitude. There was no design system to inherit, no brand guidelines to follow, and no predecessor’s work to reference. Everything needed to be built from judgment and vision.
THE BRIEF
Establish a coherent visual identity for KLAS Research — one that communicates accuracy, authority, and impartiality to healthcare IT vendors, providers, and research professionals.
THE ROLE
Sole designer. Full creative ownership across brand identity, website UX, marketing materials, presentation templates, product UI, and branded merchandise.
BEFORE & AFTER
From copy-shop print quality to a coherent design system
The hardest kind of design problem isn’t a disaster — it’s mediocrity. The existing KLAS brand wasn’t broken, it was unremarkable. Making the case for change required both diagnosis and vision.
“The hardest part wasn’t designing the new brand — it was earning the trust to change the old one. When my previous employer called to complain they’d lost me, that credibility was already established.”
Jeff Petersen — on building creative authority