Project:
Print and digital multi-page report and associated marketing
Client:
It’s Time Network is a non-profit dedicated to the advancement and empowerment of women and girls to achieve gender equity, evolve democracy, build fair economies & regenerate the Earth.
Project Expertise:
Creative Direction
Publication Design
Marketing Design
A “toolkit” for mayors
I worked with It’s Time Network to produce a printed and digital report that captured findings from a roundtable event at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in June of 2015. The 140-page publication became It’s Time Network’s Mayors Guide: Accelerating Gender Equality. Post-launch, I also produced marketing design that included collateral material and social media assets.
Publishing a first-of-its-kind guide
The Mayors Guide emerged from a roundtable of mayors, activists and women leaders that took place on the eve of the annual U.S. Conference of Mayors in June 2015. The results of this work was the development of “how-to” manual targeted to mayors that they could use to implement models and best practices for achieving women and girls empowerment goals. The Mayors Guide: Accelerating Gender Equality, is the first guide of its kind. [Huffington Post]
The process
My design objective was to create both a print and digital-friendly guide translated from the roundtable outputs. I had to defer the material expertise to the team of editors, and ensured that the design process was a collaborative effort from start to finish to accurately interpret the material. During that heavy front-loaded editorial push, I worked cross-departmentally to synthesize all the material into 11 issue areas and recommendations for implementation of policies.
The overall design process included several design iterations to determine the most user-friendly and visually compelling format. The process of molding the information gathered during the roundtable into an actionable guide was ultimately a partnership between copy and design.
Promoting the Guide across channels
The development of multi-use infographics for the manual could also be easily converted into social media assets promoting the guide across It’s Time Network’s channels.
The takeaways
The challenge of designing for what could have been a dense and dry presentation was something that was arduous but ultimately fulfilling. At the end of the project, the entire team (every level from executive to PR to production) held a debrief – something that to this day I think is an essential part of the design process. Among my responsibilities:
• Creative direction
• Collaboration with content team to determine final product
• Product management ensuring on time reviews and delivery
• Social media marketing to targeted audiences
• Full print and digital production and delivery management
