The Brief

Annual Report, Reimagined

The George Washington University College of Professional Studies needed their 2024 Annual Report elevated — moving away from a standard institutional document toward something with the visual intelligence of a magazine. The scope expanded beyond the report itself to include social media, email marketing, and print collateral. All of it under one cohesive design system. All of it in 2–3 days.

My Role

Lead Designer

As lead designer at Humble & Wallop, I owned the visual direction from concept through delivery. This was the highest level of design environment I had worked in — collaborating with senior designers and creative directors who pushed the work harder than anything before. The result was a five-chapter digital report that earned personal praise from the university president to the agency owner.

Lead Designer Art Direction Typography Systems Color Direction Digital Layout Multi-channel

The Process

01
Direction
Received brief to push the existing style toward a magazine layout — more editorial, more visual energy, more confident typography.
02
First Round
Multiple concepts explored — warmer palettes, looser editorial layouts, varying levels of graphic ambition. Options 3, 4, and 6 developed simultaneously.
03
Refinement
Consolidated into a single direction — deep navy, colonial cream, buff gold. Each of the five chapters got its own color world within the system.
04
Delivery
Five long-form pages delivered. Social, email, and print collateral followed. The university president personally praised the work to the agency owner.

Design Evolution · First Round Options

Option 3 Early Round
GW Annual Report Option 3 — editorial warm layout
Option 4 Early Round
GW Annual Report Option 4 — structured navy layout
Option 6 In Progress → Chosen
GW Annual Report Option 6 — refined navy cream final direction

Final Approved Design · All Five Chapters

GW Annual Report Homepage

Homepage

Goal One — People

Goal One — People

Goal Two — Learning

Goal Two — Learning

Goal Three — Progress

Goal Three — Progress

Looking Into the Future

Looking Into the Future

The Challenges

01
2–3 Day Deadline Five fully realized long-form pages, each with its own visual identity, delivered in under three days. Every decision had to be fast and right.
02
Highest Creative Bar Working alongside the most senior designers of my career to that point — the standard was unambiguous and the work had to meet it.
03
Magazine vs. Institution GW is a prestigious university with an established identity. Pushing it toward editorial without losing institutional authority required a precise hand.
04
Multi-channel Consistency The design system had to hold across the annual report, social media, email marketing, and print — five very different formats from one visual foundation.

The Response

"The president of George Washington University personally told the agency owner how much she loved and valued the design."

— Direct client feedback · GW Annual Report 2024

GW Annual Report Homepage detail
Final homepage — GW Annual Report 2024

What It Built

"This project was a turning point. Working at the highest creative level I had encountered, under the most compressed deadline, for one of the country's most prominent universities — and delivering something the president personally praised. That's the standard I now hold every project to."