We Independent Brand Identity and Web Design
2025
A research-led rebrand for a community-driven nonprofit.
We Independent is a non-profit founded in 2024 to help women on dependent visas adapt to life in the U.S. As the lead designer working alongside seven UX volunteers, I reframed the organization's mission from broad community support to a focused resource hub, then led the design of a new brand identity, guideline system, and website. In the months following launch, the community grew 4x and site traffic increased 64%.
Team
5 UX Designer
6 Software Engineers
2 PM
Role
Brand Design
Product Design Lead
Tool
Figma
Illustrator
Duration
5 Months
For dependent visa holders. A struggle that doesn't look like struggle.
We Independent is built for women on dependent visas, those who moved to the U.S. alongside partners on professional visas like the F-1 or H-1B. They left behind careers, credentials, and communities, and found themselves in a life without work authorization or local networks. What follows is a quiet kind of hardship: language barriers, lost community, and a shattered sense of self-worth - a widening gap between who they were and who they're permitted to be.
From scattered mission to focused identity: resource curator and community for women on dependent visas.
We Independent was founded by a dependent visa holder who had lived the problem herself and wanted to build a community so others wouldn't have to navigate it alone. But the deeper I got into research, there was a deeper issue. With a small volunteer team stretched across too many goals, the org was trying to serve everyone at once — and without sharper focus, nothing quite landed.
The site leaned on the formal term "dependent visa holder," a label most of the audience doesn't actually use to describe themselves, so the women WI existed to serve often didn't find it. Before a redesign could do anything meaningful, the real work was further upstream: helping WI figure out what it actually wanted to be.
Old
New
A mark that holds both "we" and "I."
The logo fuses two letters into a single form: "w" for the community and "i" for the individual. The curves lift upward like raised arms, echoing the journey the brand stands for. It's about finding yourself again, within a community that holds you. A warm orange carries the energy and openness of the voice.
A consistent brand guideline with a trustworthy, refreshing and embracing voice.
In collaboration with Seri Kwag, We established a brand system for the entire team to work from, covering typography, logo usage, imagery, and tone. The goal was consistency with warmth: every touchpoint, should feel welcoming, trustworthy, and grounded in the same voice.
A community-driven resource hub, built to make essential information accessible.
I led the end-to-end design alongside seven UX volunteers, shaping both the experience and the voice of the site.
Tone: walking alongside, not rescuing. The copy reads as a peer, not a savior — someone who's walked the same path and is sharing what she learned. Warm and supportive, without positioning the audience as broken.
Service: information, reframed around real needs. We restructured WI's resources into four areas women actually search for: Legal, Wellbeing, US Living Guide, and Career Compass.
Community: events, comments, and a personal hub. Events and comments give the resource a pulse, turning static pages into a living space. A personal hub lets each user save and manage the information she needs, while giving WI more touchpoints to stay connected with its community.
