WhaleMom · Founder & Creative Director · Sep 2021 — Aug 2023
Launching a Social-Impact Children’s Apparel Brand
I founded WhaleMom as a children’s apparel social venture connecting product development with support for single-mother families. I led the project from research and product design through manufacturing coordination, branding, photography, and crowdfunding—turning an initial concept into a real customer-facing brand.
01 — Identity
The idea
Research shaped a business model designed around support.
Research into single-parent families highlighted the challenge of balancing childcare responsibilities with access to stable employment. WhaleMom explored a business model that could support single mothers through flexible work opportunities while using children’s apparel sales to contribute to the broader community.
From idea to market — owning the full development cycle.
I managed the full development cycle—from researching the children’s apparel market and creating product concepts to coordinating samples, selecting materials, reviewing prototypes, producing launch photography, and preparing the crowdfunding campaign.
Research & Concept
Product Design
Sampling
Manufacturing Coordination
Testing & Refinement
Brand & Photography
Crowdfunding Launch
One model across product, demand, and community support.
01 → 02 → 03Children’s apparel · Crowdfunding revenue · Employment & community support
Creating a customer-facing experience.
I developed WhaleMom’s visual identity and translated it across the logo, apparel details, Instagram, campaign materials, product photography, and crowdfunding experience.
Logo → Apparel details → Instagram → Campaign materials → Crowdfunding
Taking the project beyond a design exercise.
Crowdfunding allowed me to test the concept with real customers while connecting the commercial launch to WhaleMom’s social mission.
$1K+
Crowdfunding sales generated
3
Product styles developed and brought to market
1
Part-time opportunity created for a single mother
100%
Of project profits donated to the Korean Single Mothers Association
Founder-level ownership.
The project required founder-level ownership across strategy, product, brand, and creative production.
Strategy
Social-impact model · Market research · Positioning · Crowdfunding planning
Product
Apparel design · Sampling · Material selection · Manufacturing coordination
Brand & Marketing
Identity · Social content · Campaign storytelling · PR · Crowdfunding page
Creative Production
Lookbook planning · Model/photographer coordination · Photography · Image editing
WhaleMom taught me how product, brand, operations, and marketing work together to bring an idea to market. More importantly, it was my first experience using real customer response—not just design completion—as a measure of whether an idea worked.