Counter Culture Coffee's limited edition series is an ongoing collection of seasonal and specialty releases — each one distinct, but clearly part of the same family. The packaging had to give each coffee its own personality while maintaining a visual system coherent enough to live together on shelf.

When Counter Culture Coffee and Fritz Coffee — a beloved specialty roaster from Korea — decided to create a collaboration blend, the result was Gemini: two roasters, two partner farms, one 50/50 blend. The name says it all. My job was to make the design say it too.

I led the full visual direction for packaging, merchandise (milk glass mug, fabric poster, sticker, keychain), and promotional materials for both ecommerce and wholesale channels.

The concept started with a single question: what if Fritz's iconic seal mascot had a twin in the U.S.? From there, the "twin seal" idea became the heart of everything. I chose red, blue, and white — colors that carry meaning in both countries — and designed the front of the box in English, the back in Korean. Two languages, two cultures, one package. The merchandise line followed the same visual system, keeping the packaging as the anchor of the brand world.

The final collection launched across U.S. online and retail channels. More than a product, it became a small cultural bridge — proof that design can hold two identities at once without flattening either one.

The East Asian Leadership Initiative (EALI) needed a new visual identity — one that could represent all of East Asia, not just one corner of it. The original logo read too specifically as Korean, and the goal was to create something more inclusive without losing cultural weight.

I led the full logo redesign process, from concept development through final delivery.

I presented four directions across a spectrum: traditional and heritage-rooted on one end, minimal and contemporary on the other. Throughout, I was deliberate about what I left out — avoiding visual shorthand that might read as belonging to a single country. East Asia is not one aesthetic, and the logo shouldn't pretend it is. The client selected the most minimal direction: clean, modern, and quietly respectful of the region's depth.

The final mark now represents EALI across its logo, brochure, and event materials — minimal enough to stay out of the way, and open enough to hold the range of the region it represents.

A general introduction brochure for EALI, built within the school's brand guidelines to present the organization to a wider audience.

A poster series for the North Korea Missions Seminar, an event hosted by EALI.

What happens when you pair specialty coffee with Korean Twisted Doughnut? You get Tw!st: a food truck concept built around comfort, culture, and a very good pun.

I conceptualized and designed the entire brand world: logo, menu, merchandise (aprons, tote bags), social media graphics, and a custom lettering style.

This started as a school project and turned into something I genuinely got invested in. The visual direction came from the donut itself — that coiled, textured spiral. I let that shape inform a custom lettering style that brought the same tactile, twisted quality into the type. Everything else followed: warm, a little playful, the kind of brand that feels like it belongs on a street corner you'd actually want to visit.

A fully realized concept brand that blends Korean food culture with specialty coffee in a way that feels natural rather than novelty.

Wisdom Forest is a concept for a coffee shop-library hybrid — a place designed for people who want good coffee, a good book, and a low-pressure way to be around others. A cozy retreat that doesn't demand anything from you.

I designed the full identity: logo, merchandise, and a live landing page built on Wix.

The palette of navy and soft pink was chosen carefully — navy for groundedness, pink for warmth. Together they hold the feeling I was after: calm but not cold. Tree imagery and literary quotes about knowledge and books carry through the posters, bookmarks, and branded materials, layering in a sense of place before the space even exists. The audience I had in mind: young people who love ideas and solitude, but still want somewhere to belong.

A brand that feels like somewhere you'd actually want to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Twelve coffees. Twelve days. One box that had to make each reveal feel like a gift. Counter Culture Coffee's holiday advent calendar set was part product, part experience — and the design had to carry both.

I handled the full design scope: box and label packaging, the accompanying booklet, a physical scratch-off element, and the interactive landing page.

The tricky part? I didn't have detailed tasting notes for all twelve coffees when I started designing. So instead of leaning on specific flavors, I built a flexible visual system that could travel. The concept became a world tour through coffee — passport stamps, postage marks, the feeling of opening something that came from far away. That language ran consistently through the booklet and labels. On the landing page, each day's coffee was hidden behind a clickable element that revealed it with a small animation, echoing the scratch-off mechanic on the physical packaging.

A cohesive holiday experience that worked across print and digital — where the design itself became part of the daily ritual.

Counter Culture Coffee's annual Transparency Report shares the story behind every cup — from farm-gate coffee prices to employee data to carbon footprint — organized around three pillars: People, Product, and Planet. The challenge was to take dense, data-heavy information and make it something readers would actually enjoy engaging with, not just skim past.

I led the full layout and design direction for both the print and digital versions of the report.

With so much data to communicate — sourcing prices, farm partnerships, workforce demographics, environmental metrics — the priority was clarity without sacrificing warmth. I built custom infographics for each section, turning raw numbers into visual stories readers could follow at a glance, while keeping the overall system flexible enough to hold both quantitative data and narrative content within the same pages.

The report was released in both print and digital formats, giving Counter Culture Coffee a transparency document that felt as considered and human as the coffee itself.

Written by Beth Kim (임은경) to meet mothers in the exhaustion and quiet gaps of raising children, this bilingual (Korean-English) essay collection blends personal stories with reflection questions and short devotional thoughts at the end of each chapter, accompanied by original illustrations. I designed the cover, full interior layout, and managed the book through print production — 188 pages, published April 2026.

I led the cover design, complete interior layout, chapter illustrations, and print production management from start to finish.

Each chapter holds three distinct voices — the essay, reflection (sharing) questions, and a one-line devotional thought — running in both Korean and English side by side. The layout needed to let these voices, and two languages, coexist clearly without feeling cluttered. I built a typographic system that separated each mode while keeping the whole book visually unified, and illustrated a small piece for each chapter to give tired readers a moment to pause between sections.

Since its release, the book has received a 5.0-star rating from readers who describe it as "a poem-like book that lingers in the heart" and one they return to again and again — proof that the quiet, structured warmth of the design matched the honesty of the writing itself.

Additional book design and production projects — cover design, interior layout, and print management.

So Loved is a small brand making polymer clay earrings and stationery. When the brand took on a new name, it needed a new logo — one that could carry the same one-of-a-kind, handmade feeling as the products themselves. Instead of building the mark from a typeface, I built it from the owner's own handwriting, a signature that couldn't belong to anyone else.

I started with handwriting samples from the owner, then digitized and vectorized the strongest letterforms into a clean, usable logo. From there, I built out the supporting typography and color palette so the handwritten mark could sit comfortably across the brand's everyday applications.

The final deliverable was a logo paired with a brand guide — color palette and typography — giving So Loved a distinct, personal mark that carries the same handmade spirit as its products.

Life Plus Family Center (LPFC) is a Christian nonprofit where I currently work, helping build healthier, happier families through counseling and education. The organization wanted a brand identity that struck a balance — warm and family-centered on one hand, professional and trustworthy on the other, so the visual system could carry the weight of its work while still feeling like an invitation rather than an institution.

The logo takes its shape from the letters L and + — formed into the image of a child seated on a parent's lap, a quiet visual metaphor for the support and care LPFC provides to families. A blue color palette carries the sense of trust and brightness the organization wanted to project, staying professional without losing warmth.