Educational and Advocacy Publications

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is a nonprofit that works to protect the First Amendment rights of the comics medium and literacy through legal aid, education, and advocacy. The organization decided to publish Raising a Reader!, a new tool that would show librarians, teachers, and parents how comics and graphic novels can help kids to read.

For this project, I set out to create a clean, easy-to-read document that would be eye-catching at conventions yet simple enough for teachers to download and print from classroom computers. I incorporated fun, highly legible fonts and great drawings by Matt Holm and Raina Telgemeier into an uncluttered layout that works well with the subject matter. A few months after Raising a Reader! was released at the San Diego Comic Con, CBLDF asked for the publication to be comic book–size for national distribution, a task completed quickly with my efficient redesign.

The New York League of Conservation Voters wanted a standout design as they moved ahead with a series of advocacy-focused evaluations to be made available in print and online. The task involved turning the organization's voluminous data into accessible documents easily understandable by elected officials, the press, and the public.

The results — a lengthy “report card” on the environmental progress by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and several shorter “scorecards” on the track records of all 51 City Councilmembers as well as the Suffolk County Legislature — featured easy-to-follow layouts through complex text, highly readable typography at required small sizes, and some impressive photography on my part to highlight and lead into various subjects. All of these publications were well received and cited often by the League and other government watchdog groups.

Skills: Design + Editorial Management + Photography