Walk In My Shoes
Building empathy one step at a time — a scalable brand and teaching system for an interactive school assembly program.
- Client
- Walk In My Shoes Program
- Category
- Brand Identity · Print · Web · Education
- Year
- 2019
The problem
Walk In My Shoes began as a single-school empathy assembly in Fairfax County, VA, but its founder needed a brand identity and teaching system that could travel — across classrooms, districts, countries, and cultures. The challenge was not just a logo; it was building a complete, budget-conscious identity plus a Replication Guide that could be reproduced affordably in print and digital formats by educators with limited resources.
My role
Lead Designer & Brand Creator
- Led secondary research and competitive analysis across national and international empathy, anti-bullying, and social-emotional learning programs.
- Designed the logo, color palette, and visual assets to be friendly, accessible, and adaptable across print, web, signage, and apparel.
- Selected a two-color print approach to keep production costs low while maintaining strong visual impact.
- Created the Replication Guide — the core teaching tool — for both digital and print distribution.
- Built a CMS-driven website to reduce ongoing maintenance costs for the client.
- Developed signage and T-shirt designs to extend the program's presence in school environments.
Process
- Step 01
Research & competitive analysis
Reviewed empathy-building and anti-bullying programs at national and international levels to identify visual conventions, accessibility gaps, and opportunities for a friendlier, more inclusive identity.
- Step 02
Brand strategy & identity design
Developed a logo, color palette, and asset system built for reproduction across mediums and cultures. The identity was intentionally approachable, child-friendly, and flexible enough to work in print, digital, signage, and apparel.
- Step 03
Replication Guide & teaching materials
Designed the primary teaching tool — the Replication Guide — for both digital and print distribution, giving educators a clear, self-contained resource to run the program independently.
- Step 04
Web, signage & promotional rollout
Built a CMS-driven website to keep maintenance costs low, and produced signage and T-shirts to support program delivery in schools.
Brand palette
- WIMS Blue#0A9AD8Primary logo and headlines
- Navy#1A2B5CGrounding and text
- Bright Yellow#FFC847Optimism and energy
- Magenta#E83D8CAccent and warmth
- Lime Green#8BC53FSecondary accent
Measurable results
Walk In My Shoes taught me that a brand for a nonprofit or educational program must be generous — designed to be reproduced by non-designers, translated across languages, and worn on a T-shirt. The constraint of a two-color print budget became a creative advantage: a clean, bold system that stays recognizable everywhere it travels.
A brand built to travel
Walk In My Shoes is an interactive empathy-building assembly program that grew from one elementary school in Fairfax County, VA, to a multi-city, multi-language initiative. As Lead Designer, I created the brand identity, visual system, and core teaching materials with a clear constraint: the program had to be reproducible on a tight budget across print, digital, and in-person formats.
Friendly, flexible, and budget-conscious
Research-driven identity
Secondary research and competitive analysis across national and international programs informed a visual direction that felt accessible to children and credible to educators.
Two-color print system
A limited palette kept production costs low without sacrificing personality, making signage, T-shirts, and printed guides affordable at scale.
CMS website
Built the website with a content management system in mind so the client could update content without ongoing developer support.
Common questions
What was the core deliverable?▼
The Replication Guide — a digital and print teaching tool that lets educators run the Walk In My Shoes assembly program independently.
Why only two colors for print?▼
Budget was a key constraint. A two-color approach made bulk printing, T-shirts, and signage affordable while still giving the program a bold, recognizable identity.
Where has the program been used?▼
Beyond Fairfax County schools, it has been implemented in Miami, is launching in Chicago, supported a doctoral dissertation in St. Maarten, and was translated into Spanish to train 400 educators in rural Mayan Guatemala.