Healthcare IT · Brand Transformation
Rebuilding a 1996-era brand from scratch em & 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
2016 — 2020
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.
BEFORE
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 WORK
From marketing designer to studio director, still the only one in the room.
I didn't come in to run a rebrand project. I came in to own the brand. Over seven and a half years, that meant building and maintaining every marketing, digital, and UX surface the company put in front of customers — then taking on the broadcast studio on top of it, still as a team of one.
Logo System
Arch icon mark referencing a mountain, an arch, and forward movement. I directed the visual identity: color application, typographic pairing, mark placement, and scaling rules across all touchpoints.
Website Redesign
Started with the login/signup UX — the first thing paying customers saw. Then rebuilt the site page by page: information architecture, component design, photography direction, and content hierarchy.
Product UX
Designed the authenticated vendor portal — account settings, product score dashboards, vendor admin, data visualization components, and the advanced tools interface. Complex healthcare data made legible and trustworthy.
Award Mark System
Started with the login/signup UX — the first thing paying customers saw. Then rebuilt the site page by page: information architecture, component design, photography direction, and content hierarchy.
Marketing & Collateral
Designed the authenticated vendor portal — account settings, product score dashboards, vendor admin, data visualization components, and the advanced tools interface. Complex healthcare data made legible and trustworthy.
SELECTED WORK
A brand system
built to
scale & survive
From the homepage to the vendor portal to the award marks — everything used the same visual language, maintained by one designer, across 7.5 years.
1996
2016
2020
CMYK 0, 45, 99, 0
RGB 249, 157, 30
HEX #F99D1E
CMYK 17, 81, 94, 6
RGB 196, 80, 46
HEX #C4502E
CMYK 83, 51, 0, 0
RGB 42, 117, 187
HEX #2A75BB
CMYK 66, 65, 66, 66
RGB 47, 43, 40
HEX #2F2B28
Primary
Color Palette
CMYK 66, 26, 100, 9
RGB 99, 140, 61
HEX #638C3D
CMYK 76, 45, 73, 38
RGB 54, 86, 67
HEX #365643
CMYK 99, 76, 29, 14
RGB 16, 73, 118
HEX #104976
CMYK 59, 13, 2, 0
RGB 92, 180, 225
HEX #5CB4E1
Primary
Color Palette
Secondary
Color Palette
The effort
A redesign that never shipped
In 2020 I drove a full website redesign from concept through high-fidelity wireframes, working directly with stakeholders and executives. The work improved the main navigation and brought key reports to the forefront. It was my last UX assignment before moving to the video studio full time. A new designer took the project in a different direction. The wireframes never shipped — but the thinking was sound.
Read The Deep Dive
The problem
A brand system built to
scale
and survive
From the homepage to the vendor portal to the award marks — everything used the same visual language, maintained by one designer, across 7.5 years.
Read The Deep Dive
THE SCALE
A badge that had to earn its place on someone else's website
The Best in KLAS award mark isn't decoration. Vendors display it as a credibility signal to their own customers. That changes everything about how you design it. The award system was already established when I arrived. My job was to make it worthy of what it represented, modernizing a dated mark into something vendors actually wanted to put on their websites, while keeping the recognition it had already built in the market.
Read The Deep Dive
SELECTED WORK
A brand system built to scale and survive
From the homepage to the vendor portal to the award marks — everything used the same visual language, maintained by one designer, across 7.5 years.
