The key to making a successful Annual Report and Welcome Kit is to keep in mind the audience of these documents, which my group considered to be the donors and volunteers who wish to work with the Nashville International Center for Empowerment (NICE). In these documents, the key was not to teach its readers about life as a refugee, but more to focus on the inner workings of the organization and how it helps these refugees be successful in their transition into American life.
To stay current with both the design synthesis among each group’s work as well as current trends, our group chose to maintain a minimalist design in order for readers to get straight to the point NICE is trying to make. With flashy colors and busy pages, the message NICE wishes to convey to possible donors could get lost, but by maintaining a minimal design which stays true to the NICE logo and color scheme, the messages are effectively seen and designed. By adding a table of contents to the Annual Report and extending its content to multiple pages, there is more opportunity to write in more detail what each service provides, include client stories that use pathos to encourage donors to become involved with NICE. Similarly, by taking out the extraneous details that were included in the original Welcome Kit flier, our group was able to effectively communicate to donors what items are involved in creating a Welcome Kit by maintaining a minimal design which emphasizes the words on the page and not the header or footer alone. Overall, by focusing on the message which our donor audience wishes to receive, our design was able to provide a clear focus on the goal these marketing materials wished to achieve and still maintain a uniform look for all NICE materials.
When writing the Welcome Kit, our group chose to create an introductory paragraph that reflected more on the process of creating a welcome kit and less on the refugee’s story. By using the limited area of text for how-to’s concerning creating the kit, alternatives for those who cannot afford to make a kit, and suggested items, the Welcome Kit became very streamlined and stayed focused on the task at hand—providing donors with information of what NICE needs to help refugees make their new home.
Sincerely, Abbey Hull