Website and communications design for a national research project
Reporting in Black Communities is a community-informed, research-driven guide and resource hub created to support journalists, journalism educators, and journalism students to report on Black communities in Canada with accuracy, dignity, and equity. I worked with the project team to develop a custom website and expanded visual identity system that brings together the project’s research, resources, events, and publications in a clear, engaging, and accessible way. The newly expanded website was a fantastic opportunity to collaborate with Eternity Martis and Nana aba Duncan again.
The project included a full redesign and expansion of the Reporting in Black Communities website, along with an updated visual identity and communications framework that introduced new colours, typography, and graphic elements. Coordinated communications materials were developed for the project, including social media templates, symposium materials, editorial publication design, presentation graphics, and branded print and digital assets supporting public engagement and research dissemination.
Evolving the Website and Visual Identity
The original version of the site (shown here) focused on presenting the project’s core research and guiding principles. For the expansion, the team needed a more flexible and expressive system to support new content, growing resources, and a major upcoming symposium. The updated website introduces:
- A bolder typographic system that strengthens hierarchy and impact
- A refreshed and expanded colour palette, optimized for accessibility
- A reworked homepage and sitewide structure that is easier to navigate and designed mobile first
- A unified visual language that carries across the website, social media, and symposium communications
This phase of the project built on our original work and gave the team a design system that can scale with the project.
Extending the Project Through Publications and Symposium Design
As Reporting in Black Communities continued to grow, the project expanded beyond the website into a broader communications system supporting public engagement, research dissemination, and a national symposium event.
Building on the visual language established through the website redesign, I designed a series of coordinated print and digital materials including:
- A Findings Report summarizing key research insights, developed in both English and French
- A symposium programme booklet
- Event signage, wayfinding materials, digital event graphics, speaker information sheets, and schedule materials
The goal was to create a cohesive system that could adapt across multiple formats while remaining clear, accessible, and visually engaging for both print and digital audiences.
Typography, colour, photography treatment, and graphic motifs established through the website were extended into editorial layouts and event materials to create continuity across the broader project ecosystem.
