The Why

The PA Housing Finance Agency (PHFA) exists to expand access to affordable housing for senior adults, low- to moderate-income families, and individuals with special housing needs across Pennsylvania. The annual report serves as one of the agency’s most important storytelling tools, communicating impact, accountability, and progress to a wide audience that includes employees, stakeholders, partners, and government officials.

The work needed to clearly convey who PHFA serves, why its mission matters, and how its efforts translate into real outcomes for communities across the state.

**The Challenge**

Each year, the annual report had to deliver detailed financial information while also feeling inclusive, uplifting, and celebratory of the agency’s work. As PHFA’s foremost publication, the report needed to stand apart from previous years while remaining on brand and accessible to a broad audience with varying levels of familiarity.
Balancing storytelling, data, and design consistency year after year required both creative restraint and thoughtful evolution.

The Approach

As lead designer from 2015 through 2019, I partnered closely with PHFA’s Director of Communications to concept, design, and steward the annual report from start to finish. Each year began with extensive research and theme development, followed by the presentation of multiple design-forward concepts before moving into full layout.

The reports were built as highly visual, editorial-style pieces that elevated success stories alongside key data. Attention to typography, pacing, imagery, and print details helped transform a traditionally dense publication into an engaging, cohesive narrative that felt intentional and human.

The Outcome

Over five years, I delivered five distinct annual reports, each aligned to its year’s theme while remaining clearly part of a larger visual system. Each report was custom designed and produced with thoughtful printing details, and distributed to more than 2,500 recipients, shared digitally, and displayed as a lobby book at PHFA offices.

The series earned multiple national awards, including American Advertising Awards, Hermes, MarCom, and Davey Awards. More importantly, the reports helped PHFA clearly communicate its impact and tell its story with pride and clarity year after year.