Non-profits
Brand Refresh | System Design | Web Design
KABOOM! is a national nonprofit working to end inequity in playspaces. Hence, every child, especially those in under-resourced communities and communities of color, has access to safe, high-quality play spaces. As part of a larger brand refresh, they needed a new logo that clearly expressed their complete mission around playspace equity while feeling more contemporary, credible, and built to last. The brand strategy, summed up as “spark a playspace revolution,” treats every playground as a starting point for broader community change. Therefore, the identity had to convey hope, pride, and positive action.
The brief called for a logo that could sit comfortably beside corporate partners, community organizations, and on-the-ground volunteers, and signal that KABOOM! does more than build playgrounds. The selected version evolved the existing mark instead of replacing it. The comic-style spark was distilled into a cleaner, line-based “Spark K” that wraps around the wordmark and connects to the A, improving legibility while maintaining a sense of motion—a chunky, rounded wordmark balances professional weight with kid-friendly softness. A simple set of hand-drawn arrows, squiggles, and playground-inspired shapes can be used on its own or with photography to create a more playful tone. A palette of deep purple, light purple, and green, accented with orange, pink, and yellow, keeps the brand bright, energetic, and clearly rooted in the world of kids and play.
In this project, I translated the brand strategy into multiple logo concepts for the pitch, then led the refinement of the chosen “Spark K” direction from sketch to final artwork. I re-drew the Spark K as a continuous line that encloses the wordmark and locks into the A, adjusted letterforms and spacing, and defined how the mark should scale. Building on the K’s stroke, its line weight, curves, and rounded corners, I developed the family of hand-drawn emphasis elements and their usage rules, contributed to final type and color decisions, and designed the brand guideline book that documents how the logo and graphic system should be applied.
Impact
Since KABOOM!’s 2020 brand refresh clarified its vision to “end playspace inequity,” the organization has seen measurable growth in impact. From 2021–2024 alone, it created or transformed 305 playspaces across North America, giving more than 520,000 children new places to play and engaging nearly 26,000 community members. Those four years added roughly 0.5 million kids to its lifetime reach—about a 4–5% increase on the 11.5 million children served in its first 25 years—reinforcing KaBOOM!’s position as a leading U.S. nonprofit in playspace equity and a key partner for brands, foundations, and public agencies working on child-friendly public space.
Press
BrandNew
Agency:
Purpose (NYC)
Client:
KABOOM!
Role:
Brand Identity Refinement & System Design (Lead), Brand Book Framework & Key Sections
Creative Direction:
Emma McDonald, Jessica McGhee, Colin Quinn
Strategy:
Catherine Addo,
Mohini Narasimhan
Principle:
Anne Keenan
Project Management:
Firdaus Rashid