Make Good: Kale & Flax 2020-2023 Impact Report

This work isn’t easy. It isn’t simple. But it is meaningful, and if you want to make an impact, leave your ego at the door, please.

— Miyuki Kasahara, COO & Head of Strategy

Kale & Flax is a human-centered design company located in Louisville, KY. Our passion for all things digital goes back to the days before Juno email and Angelfire sites. All of our work starts with empathy, which means we tackle challenges head on, and everything we do is centered around one simple, clear end goal — amplifying your impact on the people who matter most.

We care about how things work, who they are intended to work for, and what they mean relevant to the overall vision of your project or organization. Solving everyday problems is our passion. That’s what’s kept each of us up at night.

What we do.

Design Thinking / Research

Digital Strategy

UI / UX & Experience

Growth Acceleration

Design Systems & Planning

Branding & Identity Kits

Social Media Strategy

Capital Campaigns

In-Store Activations

Lean Innovation

From startups to Fortune 500s — we’ve designed, coded and shipped hundreds of ideas into impact.

A human-centered design company. We create and change culture through meaningful design, empathy, data and digital strategy.

We launched Kale & Flax in 2016 based upon the simple belief that small things make a big impact.

With an empathy based philosophy, and a design approach that strives every day to become more and more human-centered in our work, it allows us to quickly align with organizations who share our values and principles. At the same time, being a creative company in an often times monotonous world, means we are often shoulder to shoulder with our client partners facing challenges that are not easy to navigate — especially in a post-pandemic world. We discover, ideate and test again and again until atoms collide.

The effects of a global pandemic had us on the edge of our chairs throughout every call, but we never gave up, or gave in. We stayed consistent and optimistic, helping our partners in their fight to make an impact while staying alive to face another day. This state of co-survival with the causes we believe in over 18+ months made us take an honest look at our own foundation, and gave us reason to pause and reflect on the reasons we do the work that we do every day for what matters most to us — the people. We have not softened our commitment in amplifying good, lifting up underrepresented places and people, or re-imagining new possibilities when we lock arms and work together.

We have always been committed to meaningful partnerships and work, and we won’t let anything get in the way of that shared mission.

In a moment of stillness, we wanted to look inward and better understand our impact — journey with us through the work, the people, the organizations, and the team members that make this work so special.

Tarik Nally / Founder & Creative Principal

Miyuki Kasahara / COO & Head of Strategy

Growth Happens When You Trust the Process.

We’re not running for the roses, but we are growing from the concrete.

From a global pandemic to being the first company to implement a 4-day work week model, our diverse and battle-tested team isn’t afraid of any challenge thrown our way. We aim to set the standard and make unforgettable impact alongside incredible people and organizations who are hell bent on making a difference.

Next door to our office is the boxing academy where Muhammad Ali sharpened his skills, so we’re not surprised that we have the fight within us — it’s in the air we breathe. We believe when you work hard, embrace the unknown and lead with good intentions — growth is inevitable.

8.33% Education

8.33% Arts & Media

2% Innovation

2022 Project Focus Areas

16.67% Business Growth

16.67% Health & Wellness

4.17% Culinary

4.17% Youth Engagement

33.33% Services

It’s personal for us.

290% 3 94% 200+

Growth Since 2019 Cities We Call Home Team Retention

50+ 230+ 98% 500+

Industries Served Projects Launched to Date Proposal Success Rate

Inclusion By Numbers.

Founded in Louisville and expanding into Chicago and Santo Domingo — we’re an unrelenting group of people working wherever we can make the most impact. As a human-centered design company, Kale & Flax’s philosophy is rooted in a global mindset of “improving the world around us.”

But we also hold tight to romantic ideals, that sometimes punching above your weight or embracing reckless abandon can lead to powerful change. Through empathy, design and thoughtful code sprints we can create solutions or experiment with new ones to help your brand engage, activate and even change lives.

Everything we do is centered around one simple, clear end goal — amplifying our clients’ impact for the people who matter most.

— Parker Bolin, Senior Designer

Four-Day Work Week

In 2018 we adopted Fridays Off with no loss in pay, leading to extraordinary growth.

Louisville.Coffee

Headquartered in a top tier coffee city, we built a local’s guide to the best espressos and vibes.

Three Cities

Throughout the pandemic we expanded beyond Louisville with satellite offices in Chicago and Santo Domingo, D.R.

The Documentary

D.C.-based Lens End Media produced a short documentary about our journey in adopting a 4-Day Work Week in 2022.

Wild Accelerator

In 2017, founded the 12th women’s startup accelerator in the U.S. with support by Google, now led by Natalia Bishop at Story Louisville.

Journey to Investment Ready

Our team, alongside Velo Ventures, trained entrepreneurs in the Dominican Republic through a U.S. Embassy initiative in 2019/2023.

Pioneering the 4-Day Work Week One Friday at a Time.

We know that diamonds form under pressure, and we know flailing about throughout an unnecessarily longer work week is not only damaging our economy and health, but our ability to do fantastic, unforgettable work. Since adopting the 4-Day Work Week in 2018, our company and team has grown year over year, and we’re bringing partners into the future one Friday off at a time.

“For now, it’s pioneers such as Kale & Flax that are cutting workers’ hours without reducing their pay. The design company that helps clients launch new brands started working 32-hour weeks in 2018, when Creative Principal Tarik Nally was looking for ways to make his Louisville, Ky., business more competitive at attracting and retaining talent, he said.”

Roger Vinvent, Staff Writer Los Angeles Times

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December 16, 2022

Everything starts with an idea. Good ideas can come from anywhere, but great ones appear when we really listen to the people we aim to make an impact next to.

— Maira Danyal, Planning & Strategy

Give For Good 2022

Community Foundation of Louisville is a non-profit based in Louisville, Kentucky that mobilizes people, network and capital to spark meaningful change in and beyond Louisville. Kale & Flax has been a creative partner of CFL since early 2019 and has collaborated with the organization on several initiatives since then.

Just as the name says, community comes first and is the driving force behind the impactful work they do. In 2022, Kale & Flax produced the campaign design and digital strategy for Give4Good, a fundraising initiative which raised $7.9 million dollars which went towards 550+ different organizations.

K&F also worked with CFL to execute the Vogt Invention & Innovation Awards graphics, which offer entrepreneurs in the Louisville area a unique and exciting opportunity to take their startups to

the next level. This year six, early-stage industry disruptors were the recipients of $25,000 in nondilutive grant funding, participating in a 10-week accelerator program with startup coaching and mentorship from industry veterans, strategic introductions and recognition, all designed to boost their growth.

This year’s recipients also represent the program’s first majority minority cohort — 83% are minority/ founders of color and 50% are women-founded.

“For many of our main initiatives you have been a trusted partner because you know our brand and have worked with us to bring our new strategic plan to life — you have a very good knowledge of the foundation which gives us a level of comfort when we’re asking for help.”

Christina Miller, Director, Marketing & Communications Community Foundation of Louisville

$7.9 Million Raised 550+ Organizations 22k+ Donors

Zoom Cares

Zoom Cares is the philanthropic pillar of Zoom, working to create a brighter future for the communities that they serve. They deploy funding, technology, and technical expertise to help solve educational and social inequities and climate change.

Our goals in working with Zoom Cares is to work with the team to do a complete overhaul of the website in order to differentiate it from the main brand and highlight the many wonderful organizations that they work with. We are collaborating with the brand team to ensure that brand standards are being met while letting the mission of Zoom Cares shine.

Zoom Backgrounds were created for the Zoom Cares team member access to celebrate their impact report.

The curated illustrations we worked on added a touch of color and helped carry the mission of the nonprofit program into reality.

The creation of the website brought the mission of the nonprofit program into a quickly digestible set of pages.

Working in the Zoom Impact Report allowed K&F to ensure that the website, impact report, and backgrounds all coincided with one another.

“I was very impressed with the final impact report and website — you are a small and mighty team just as we are, who is flexible who can also work fast and swiftly to figure things out creatively.”

Georgette

Bhathena, Global Philanthropy Pillar Lead Zoom Cares

Zoom Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Zoom DEI began in the summer of 2020 to highlight the company’s dedication to growth in the midst of the social injustices happening all around the world. This sector of Zoom focuses on empowering its employees to be their authentic selves, further building accessibility and inclusivity into our products, and restructuring internal systems, processes, and policies to be more equitable.

Zoom was founded on the core value of Care. When establishing a DEI program, their goal was simple: more intentionally apply care to deepen their commitment to employees, customers and communities.

Zoom’s products bring people together, enabling collaboration in every aspect of their products, and this connectivity is core to who they are — driving innovation in the form of Care.

Making products more inclusive and using them to help create moments and messages of inclusion is a primary focus of Zoom DEI. They identified ways to further enhance the inclusivity features and functionality that were already built into the Zoom experience. In addition to providing inclusive emojis and accessibility features, they encourage leveraging Zoom’s platform as a channel for promoting equity, both internally and externally.

“We wanted it to be unique and work with an organization where DEI was at the center and core of their mission, values and their work. K&F really fit that mold.”

Jamonique Fletcher, DEI Specialist Zoom | Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

BizLove

BizLove is a human-centered consulting agency based in New York City and works with clients to establish identity within their brand. In 2022, they decided their own brand needed a refresh that aligned with their vision and creatively depicts who they are.

Their storytellers and strategists work with a broad range of organizations across industries to discover and express their identities, and in 2022, took on a new digital strategy of their own.

Kale & Flax partnered with BizLove to launch a full redesigned digital experience, with their newly created brand language that embodies the BizLove ideology while representing their methodical approach to establishing Identity.

Founded in 2018 and headquartered in New York City, BizLove is a team of ambitious problem solvers driven to change the landscape of the business world today.

BizLove helps companies find unity and clarity while delivering transformative results. They provide integrated solutions and holistic support for every step of their client’s transformative journey.

“We appreciated the moments of the technical expertise that K&F brought into translating the vision we had, helping our brand to manifest itself throughout the website.”

Diane Hare, CEO & Founder BizLove

Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates

Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates, or KODA, is dedicated to saving lives through organ and tissue donation and transplantation. KODA is an independent, non-profit organ and tissue procurement agency and was recognized by Louisville Business First as the Nonprofit of the Year in 2011.

KODA was formed in 1987 to establish a statewide educational and procurement network, serving 114 counties in Kentucky, four counties in Southern Indiana and two counties in West Virginia.

After rebranding, a new website and advertising campaigns were developed, and post-construction of their new headquarters in 2021, the team was eager to bring the space to life through their brand identity, vibrant wayfinding and messaging that reflect the spirit of KODA’s vision and mission.

Our team lead the creative direction of visual installations throughout the building that help tell their story as well as honoring the donors and their families.

We worked closely with the team through a design thinking cycle to help develop their brand identity and voice, while implementing a digital experience that not only received an incredible response from the community, but led to a major increase in new donors and statewide donor registrants.

“It’s been very enlightening — the creativity and the boldness. And really getting us outside of our box. I just could never thank you all enough for bringing that unity to our organizations.”

Shelley Snyder, Executive Director Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates

23% Increase in Annual Organ Donation

112 Partnerships

90k+ New Donor Registrants

Lens End Media

Lens End Media is a global, minority-owned video production company based in Washington, DC. Kale & Flax worked with LEM on a brand and digital presence refresh that enhanced the visual and user experience while highlighting their team’s exciting and diverse range of projects.

Our team was brought in to design, develop and reimagine an upgraded brand and website experience that reflects their focus on heart, storytelling, and narrative approach, all backed by their experienced technical team’s production, direction, and cinematography capabilities.

Their process allows brands to discover new ways to inspire through compelling cinema, social content and digital strategies.

LEM focuses on impactful brands, foundations, and products aiming to make an impact around the world, so it only makes sense that we’d build a forever-bond with collaboratives we share so many values and beliefs with.

We redeveloped their brand and site to better align them with their mission, while bringing an energy to their brand and messaging that aligns with their innovative, imaginative, human-centered approach.

“...the language that K&F uses for your own brand and how you all represent yourself — you’re very honest about it. I thought, ‘they’re really good about their own brand and culture, and I’m confident that they will help lift up ours.’ We wanted to work with a partner that understood themselves more than anything.”

Ibrahim Zafar, Founder Lens End Media

$22k Increase in Revenue Within First Month

Melanoma Research Foundation

Melanoma Research Foundation educates and supports patients, doctors, and families from diagnosis to treatment and beyond. K&F was brought in to assist on projects ranging from event marketing and design, to making changes to improving the website across the board. Moving forward into 2023, MRF is continuing our relationship and diving deeper into an overhaul of their online presence.

From week to week, we support MRF on a wide range of projects. Our relationship started holistically with a focus on their current site’s UX challenges, and a strategic cleanup was initiated to improve the user experience and make finding resourceful content easier to navigate.

Their donor strategy was improved upon to allow inspired donors to invest in the future success of MRF’s initiatives. Miles for Melanoma is a nationwide 5k run/ walk created to fundraise for the MRF.

Miles for Melanoma geo-targeted pop-ups were created to help inform people of Miles for Melanoma events in their area.

Their Patient Forum webapp was cleaned up to allow each user to have a more seamless experience, followed by a donation form cleanup to make the user experience more concise and easy to navigate. Event archives were created to bookmark previous events that members could revisit if needed and keep content populated on event pages during off-seasons.

“Having the K&F team looking at opportunities for us to work together in new and different ways is really encouraging and it’s something that we want to explore moving forward.”

Adam Smartt, Communications Officer Melanoma Research Foundation

Booker for U.S. Senate

Charles Booker, a Kentucky State Representative born and raised in the west end of Louisville, KY’s poorest zip code, sat down with our founder in the summer of 2019. It was their first time meeting, and neither knew exactly what the other wanted to meet about. “I think you should run for U.S. Senate, and you have our team behind you.” Within days, they were marching in step to build what would be the one of the most recognized and supported campaigns nationally, potentially, in Kentucky history.

“We don’t have to build a brand, Charles’ vision for everyday Kentuckians is the brand — we’ve just got to wrap a flag around what the campaign will build to increase momentum,” were the words we lived (and cried) by. Starting with the rich visual history of Kentucky’s state flag, the rolling hills of Eastern Kentucky, and indigo tones of working men and women across the state, we began to build a brand style that will forever be remembered throughout the state’s political history.

From setting up donation pages to a fully fledged ‘Meet Charles’ website, to a brand kit that delivered covid masks, onesies, stickers and giant banners — our team delivered a progressive shield for the thousands of supporters and volunteers who aimed to make Kentucky a better place for all. Over four campaign launches and two runs for U.S. Senate, in 2022 Booker won the primary without a scratch and delivered his message from the hood to the holler for all to remember.

“...professional, innovative, and remarkably talented. They are exceptional at casting a vision and helping tell a story that resonates in any room. Whether it is a neighborhood project or a historic U.S. Senate race, Kale & Flax brings the design and strategy to deliver results.

Charles Booker, Democratic Candidate for U.S. Senate 2022 In Partnership From 2019-2022

Haymarket

Haymarket celebrates the finest of Kentucky as the state’s first farm-totable market, cafe and coffee shop combined. From Ashbourne Farms fresh produce to farm-raised meats, their goal is to provide distinctive, quality culinary experiences in their garden or on-the-go — satisfying your appetite for things that matter – through quality, variety and sustainability.

In 2020 we got our first walk through Ashbourne Farms, and as we walked in their unbelievable Showbarn, we started to get a sense of ‘home.’ A blueprint for the future, in the form of architectural drawings, moodboards, and materials were laid out across a giant reclaimed wood table. In our minds, we left that day envisioning Haymarket as a small extension, almost like a bodega, of the gorgeous farm. But rooster, where we ever wrong. It wouldn’t be long before we understood the greater mission.

As we got deeper into understanding their sustainable and ecological vision for the market, a gorgeous property by the river was purchased. From their brand identity, packaging, uniforms, cart corrals and wayfinding, to their digital presence, POS, rewards and loyalty systems, we worked in-step these past three years with their incredible team on nearly every part of the business (outside of the kitchen, itself). Haymarket is Kentucky, and we’re Kentucky-proud.

“It’s been tremendously helpful for me and our team who have a wide range of focuses, to have a dedicated partner who’s committed to the process... delivers on time, understanding of road blocks along the way, flexible to shift gears, and thoughtful in their approach to even the smallest projects and details.”

Annie Cobetto, Chief Experience Officer Ashbourne Farms & Haymarket

The Big Stomp, by Pete Foundation

The Pete Foundation is a non-profit organization founded to shed light on the importance of accessibility of mental health care for youth and young adults. They create programs to normalize the topic and stomp the stigma, promote education and provide tools for healthy emotional development.

Since 2018, we’re worked alongside the Pete Foundation on everything from global adoption of the Mental Health Flag to developing an impactful brand, creating a more cohesive story aligned with their greater mission. Mental Health Flag sales have doubled year over year since it’s creation in 2020, and is now flown in every state and more than a dozen foreign countries. In 2022, they made a decision to completely reimagine and rebrand the mental health music festival.

K&F led the ideation and development of the brand in collaboration with Dominican illustrator Rafa ‘Hueso’ Miguel. Since transitioning to The Big Stomp, we’ve seen an increase in attendance with ticket sales up 150%.

From raising awareness to educational kits for classrooms and clinics, we’ll continue to support the Pete Foundation in their pursuit of bringing darkness to light, while ending the stigma that comes with conversations around mental health.

“Without your partnership we wouldn’t be where we are with creating and raising awareness around our global Mental Health Flag — which has been really great. That’s the project with the biggest reach, selling those flags all over the world from Kentucky to Germany, Mexico and France. Your involvement with that was key.”

Molly Jones, Founder & Executive Director Pete Foundation & The Big Stomp

12+

Countries Waving the Flag

+150% Increase in Festival Sales

Chicagoland Vaccine Partnership

The Vaccine Partnership believes everyone in Chicagoland deserves to access the Covid-19 vaccine. With the support of Partners In Health, Michael Reese, and the Health First Collaborative, they connected and uplifted local leaders and neighborhood non-profits to solve the public health challenges of right now.

Our work began in an iterative, design thinking and exploratory process, hearing from over 50+ community members across diverse communities across all of Chicagoland, our second home.

Through this process, we collectively understood the on-the-ground needs of both everyday Chicagoans and the non-profits within neighborhoods that exist to serve them. We uncovered cultural and civic nuances to

building trust and transparency at a time where misinformation was spreading like wildfire, and developed a brand identity, communications strategy and online presence that would help elevate relatable, research-based information to empower communities to take action regarding public health. Our collective work was recognized nationally as a benchmark for communities to fight against the challenges of a global pandemic one Windy City neighborhood and family at a time.

“K&F led a thoughtful branding, design and messaging process that met the moment and helped us close the COVID-19 vaccine information gap. Our message came alive, was actionable and connected with the lived experiences of our diverse coalition.”

Max Clermont, Senior Advisor Partners In Health & Vaccine Partnership

Schools Insurance Group, JPA

Schools Insurance Group is a joint powers authority based in California that provides insurance programs and resources to their local educator community at an affordable cost. Their offerings range from employee benefits, wellness programs, workers compensation and property & liability.

The last time we shook hands with a potential client before the world shutdown was in their office in Auburn, CA. We were heading home to difficult news, but were invigorated by their spirit and passion for serving their members.

We started off with an iterative refresh to their brand identity paired with a new, intuitive online experience for their members. We provided a more friendly user experience that was easier to navigate for educators and superintendents alike.

Our team provided support on social media and email marketing campaigns to aid SIGWellness, a program for the members of SIG that generates programming and resources related to physical, mental and financial wellbeing, as well as, wellness in the workplace.

In 2023, we’ve continued our partnership with SIG and are currently working to improve upon our UX findings, taking department leads’ and members’ feedback to the drawing table.

“I personally think that this is a really good partnership and we wouldn’t have had the progress we had if we weren’t working together.”

Tuesday Taylor, Interim Risk/Safety Coordinator Schools Insurance Group

What’s Next For Kale & Flax.

Re-imagining who we can become, by listening more intently to the communities we serve each day.

Recently some of our team was in the Santo Domingo office working with the U.S. Embassy in support of the entrepreneurship ecosystem. We heard a lot about ‘thinking like an island’ from the local entrepreneurs. So often, our thinking gets limited by our geography and cultural ceilings, as well as, our fears and perspective.

“Bad Bunny became the biggest artist in the world because he no longer thought like an island, instead, he stood tall in the middle of the ocean like one.” That’s the note we left the entrepreneurs with after days of preparing them for investment readiness in tandem with our amazing friends at Velo Ventures.

As I flew back to regroup in Chicago, before arriving to our Louisville Headquarters, I thought about how dangerous limiting our mentality can be in progressing our shared futures.

Creating meaningful, thoughtful experiences through empathy, authenticity, equity, design and community is the heart of who we are — but we also consider ourselves agents of transformation, taking what’s available and pushing the boundaries of people and ideas.

In everything we do, we aim to make a tangible impact — which means we simply cannot afford to operate from a limited mindset, and must open our hearts to a bigger, better realm of possibility and strive to make a greater difference alongside the organizations, cities and entrepreneurs we’re so fortunate to partner with.

The time is now for Kale & Flax to stand tall like an island, and work more aggressively than ever to lift our partners and ideas up, and bring our communities into the light of a more equitable, resilient and beautiful sea of opportunity.

Con Altura!