Annual Report - Northwest School for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children
Using Signing Exact English (S.E.E.) and oral communication, the Northwest School for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children (NWSDHHC) prepares deaf and hard-of-hearing children to be self-confident, articulate and academically competitive learners, and engaged community members.
NWSDHHC worked with me on producing their 2019-2020 annual report and donor list. While I don’t work often in print, I really enjoy the process of designing for print: thinking about printing limitations and costs, use cases and distribution by the producing organization, and anticipating how readers might engage with the printed piece.
Clients
Create an annual report that feels fresh and new, while rooted in the brand look and feel of previous years. Design a full-bleed piece, but one that can be sized down to 8.5”x11” to be included with an office-printed donor list and folded into a standard 9”x12” envelope. Create a visually-compelling report with a limited photography selection at the resolution needed for a printed piece.
Main communication challenges
Final Product
The final product was a bi-fold annual report that could be printed on a larger document and trimmed down to full bleed at 8.5x11” or printed on a 8.5x11” directly on a home or office printer. I used color blocking to create a border around the document, so the margin that would be created printing at 8.5x11” wouldn’t interfere with any report elements, and instead leave a white “frame” around the colored border. Additionally the color blocking allowed me to keep lower resolution photos at existing scale instead of needing to scale up (with a quality loss) in the attempt to use larger size imagery. This design allows for an update on previous years, while providing some cost-effective options for printing and mailing via the School’s standard 9x12” mailing envelope.
Alumni from Northwest School for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children are prepared to achieve on a level playing field with their hearing peers. In many cases, their alumni go on to surpass state and national outcomes for D/HH individuals.
Personal donations make up about 30% of the NWSDHHC’s budget, so consider making a donation to support their high-quality education programs!