Healthcare branding has a sameness problem. Soft blues, stock photos of smiling doctors, sans-serif fonts that whisper "we're trustworthy" without actually earning it.
Meridian wanted to break that pattern — not with rebellion, but with _honesty_.
Finding the voice
The Meridian team had spent years building a practice around one principle: treat people like people. Their branding needed to reflect that without descending into the clichés of "patient-centered care" marketing.
We developed a visual identity rooted in warmth and directness. A serif wordmark that feels personal rather than institutional. A color palette built on deep ambers and cream tones — warm enough to feel human, sophisticated enough to command trust.
> "Every healthcare brand we'd seen felt like it was designed by committee. We wanted ours to feel like it was designed by someone who actually goes to the doctor." > — Dr. James Okafor, Co-founder
The patient portal
The portal was the harder problem. Patient portals are universally terrible — dense, confusing, and designed around billing workflows rather than patient needs.
We flipped the hierarchy. Your next appointment is front and center. Messages from your care team read like texts, not formal correspondence. Lab results are presented with context, not just numbers. The entire experience is designed around one question: _what does this person need to know right now?_
Connecting the dots
The brand and the portal aren't separate projects — they're the same idea expressed in two mediums. The warmth of the visual identity carries into every UI element. The directness of the voice carries into every notification, every label, every empty state.
> "Patients started complimenting our website. That had never happened before." > — Dr. Amara Osei, Co-founder
Six months in, patient portal adoption is up 60%. Support tickets are down. And for the first time, Meridian's digital presence feels like an extension of the care they provide in person.