CASE STUDY / RESEARCH REPORT DESIGN
Making the Evidence Impossible to Miss
EDTRUST • SEGREGATION FOREVER? • PRINT + DIGITAL
The cover. Intertwined lines: the report's central metaphor visible before a word is read.
THE PROBLEM
This report examines the barriers facing people of color aiming to attend selective public universities, and proposes solutions at the collegiate and government levels. It arrived as a dense Word draft heavy with data tables, on a deadline set by funders, which means fixed and firm. The design had to serve readers who scan before they commit, without softening a serious subject.
THE APPROACH
I worked with the lead writer and editor to identify what had to stand out, then gave readers multiple ways in: pull quotes that lift key facts into larger type, and every Word table rebuilt as an on-brand pie chart, table, or graph styled with the familiarity of social media infographics, so complex comparisons read at a glance. I researched historical and contemporary photography to show this is a long-standing issue, not a recent one, and held the palette to muted versions of the brand colors. A motif of intertwined lines runs through the report, a quiet symbol of disparities woven through the fabric of society.
THE OUTCOME
A report that respects both the data and the reader, delivered on the funders' deadline. Since publication it has been cited more than 70 times, drew national and policy-sector coverage including a dedicated Forbes article, and became the foundation for EdTrust's later research on access to selective colleges and universities. It remains in circulation as a downloadable report and data file.
Tables to Charts
EVERY DATA TABLE IN THE WORD DRAFT REBUILT AS AN ON-BRAND GRAPHIC
Cited 70+ Times
IN ACADEMIC AND POLICY RESEARCH SINCE PUBLICATION
Past + Present
HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY RESEARCHED AND PAIRED
1 Motif
INTERTWINED LINES CARRYING THE REPORT'S ARGUMENT THROUGH EVERY PAGE
Scope also included: cover design, interior layout, concept development, creative direction, data visualization, and photo editing.
The figures. Institutions graded A through F, rebuilt from Word tables into charts a reader can take in at a glance.
Interior spreads. Pull quotes lift the facts that deserve a second look; scanning readers get the argument, deep readers get the evidence.
The data pages. Every Word table became a chart that reads at a glance, and the photography stays black and white so a single band of transparent color can cross each image, carrying the weave through the people as well as the pages.
Process note: The draft arrived as a Word file thick with data tables, and tables are where readers quit. Rebuilding every one as a chart styled like a social infographic meant the hardest evidence in the report became the easiest thing on the page to absorb. The muted palette and the black-and-white photography were the counterweight, so nothing about the presentation read as light-hearted.
How We Work With Research Teams
Most engagements begin with a manuscript: Word files, Excel charts, reviewer comments, and all. We build the page architecture around your content's structure, redraw figures from your data or from exported charts as publication-quality graphics in your brand, and manage edits with rounds against a tracked-changes PDF so feedback from multiple reviewers lands cleanly. Twenty years in the print industry and thousands of pieces sent to press stand behind every job. We speak your printer's language, spec the job so it prints the way it was designed, and manage estimates, proofs, and press checks through delivery, holding costs on budgets large and small. Fixed launch dates are treated as fixed.
Planning a report like this?
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