The Mental Health Association of San Francisco (MHASF) is a peer-run nonprofit with the mission to to cultivate peer leadership, build community, and advance social justice in mental health. They offer services and resources such as their warm line and various support groups for San Francisco and other California residents. I collaborated with them to create a refreshed brand and website redesign.
After auditing the original site and speaking with the team more, I noticed some design opportunities. First, we could create a brand and visual identity that is fresh, approachable, and accessible. We could also create a clearer site map with their most-used services (especially the Warm Line) easily seen with an increased accessibility to educational resources. And of course as a nonprofit, encourage donations.
To have a better sense of the potential of the refreshed brand, I asked them to give a few adjectives that best described the organization and its presence in the community. These terms were grouped into three main pillars that would guide our design decisions.
Typography, brand colors, color usage, color accessibility guidelines, adjusted logo, and UI components. Blob shapes as a visual motif became a feature of the new brand, embodying inclusivity, diversity, and welcomeness.
I reorganized menu with text hierarchy for quick overviews, and made the Warm Line and Donate links accessible from global navigation with conversational copy. I also created a global footer with an additional Warm Line entry point.
MHASF has a plethora of educational information, events, and services that could incorporate the refreshed brand.
The Warm-Line is MHASF’s most-used resource, so it was crucial to maintain the new brand’s pillars on this page. Their most important CTA’s had to be visible at the top. Below it, we told the story of what it is, its purpose, and why the organization is trusted.
