Ava Dryden | Graphic Design

Project Statement | Keep Waco Beautiful

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For this project, I was personally in communication with a local nonprofit organization called Keep Waco Beautiful to create an annual report of their accomplishments and financial status throughout the year. Keep Waco Beautiful is a local nonprofit organization dedicated to bettering the Waco community through volunteer labor and support. 

To conduct research for this project, I met with Carole Fergusson, the Director of Keep Waco Beautiful. We discussed the accomplishments and projects completed in the past year. It was inspiring to hear about the dedication and hard work that they have put into making Waco a better place to live. During my research, I discovered some crucial aspects that I wanted to include in the project, such as the economic value of volunteer work, waterway cleanup efforts, and other events related to local environmental conservation. All of these efforts are vital to the heart of Waco and ensure a bright, clean future for the city and community.

When executing the project, I planned the layout by sketching each spread by hand. I then began to incorporate my own illustration and photography that was provided by Keep Waco Beautiful to create a concept for the project. The specific focus of the imagery selection and illustrative work is about the volunteers that make this organization possible. Volunteers play a vital role in the work of Keep Waco Beautiful, surpassing over 1,500 people this past year. The amazing work done by Keep Waco Beautiful is only possible because of its amazing volunteer base of Waco community members, so I wanted their value and impact to be the focus of the annual report. While designing, I decided that the most fitting color palette was a warmer green palette with subtle uses of lavender to portray the green and natural restoration that Keep Waco Beautiful aims to foster. The aim of the typography in the project is readability and organizational hierarchy; I used a rougher, natural-feeling display typeface for the titling and used Captina, a sans-serif, simple font for the running body copy for easy readability. Through thoughtful imagery selection, harmonious color palettes, and strategic typography choices, the annual report serves as a reflection to the unwavering dedication and remarkable achievements of all those who contribute to the organization's noble cause.