Jill Chaosheng McLean

I help businesses tell the authentic story of who they are.

For many years, I’ve built visual identities for brands across industries — consumer goods, tech, creative agencies, nonprofits. I noticed that businesses always thought their design was the reason for their stunt growth.

I worked with a client which had been struggling with revenue growth for many years. They redesigned their website. They picked new colours, and a new font. They started posting reels on instagram. They found influencers to collaborate. They spent thousand each month running ads… and other million things. Of course nothing worked, because they didn’t realize that their problem was that they were telling the wrong story!

No amount of beautiful design or witty marketing campaigns can fix a brand that doesn't know who it is and what it's trying to say.

This realization led me to study what makes people believe things. Carl Rogers wrote about human’s universal desires and tendencies; Ernest Hemingway’s iceberg theory showed human’s existential struggles, thus the search for identity in a bigger story. I realized that a brand isn't just a visual system, but also a belief system, and the latter should always come first.

I help businesses find the words for who they already are.

If something about your brand feels off — if your instinct says the copy aren't quite right, the positioning isn't quite landing, the design feels misaligned, the clients you're attracting aren't the ones you want, and you’ve tried everything to fix but nothing works — that's usually a story problem. And that's exactly what I'm here for.


Selected Clients

TELUS
Yeti Software logo with a stylized Yeti face in blue and green shades and black text reading 'Yeti software'.
Logo of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada with stylized red and orange berries and green leaves.
Logo with the word 'Collectively' in black font, featuring a stylized 'C' and 'V' design.
Silhouette of a child climbing a ladder with the text 'Because ALL Children Matter'
A watermark of the text '500px' in black and gray.
Logo for Davis Hicks featuring a red letter 'D' with
Green background with white text that reads 'SAGE FOUNDATION'
LOGO for Intrinsik, featuring a circular symbol with green and blue sections, and the words 'intrinsik' with 'SCIENCE. INTEGRITY. KNOWLEDGE.' underneath.
Logo with purple abstract shapes and the word 'keela' in purple lowercase letters.
The image contains the text 'Information' in large font, with a red dot above the 'I'.
Yellow circle with black text that says UX RESCUE

Judge and panelist

Guest Judge for Graduation Identity Design Competition
InFocus Film School · Mar 2024

Guest Panellist for Graduation Identity Design Competition
InFocus Film School · Aug 2023

Guest Panellist for Graphic + Digital Design Panel Discussion
InFocus Film School · Apr 2022


Awards

New Talent Annual 2022 - Honorable Mention
Issued by Graphis · 2022

Indigo Design Award - 2021 Bronze Winner
Issued by Indigo Design Award · Apr 2021

Student Award of Distinction
Issued by InFocus Film School · Apr 2021