UAB Honors College Annual Report 2025-2026
I have produced the annual report for the UAB Honors College for the past five years. It's a 28-page booklet that tells the story of the college's students and their service to the campus and community.
Project details
- Client: UAB Honors College
- Services: Annual report design, flame logo design, print and digital production
- Year: 2021–22 through 2025–26
The Challenge
The Honors College has a lot to say each year, and all of it has to fit in 28 pages. Student achievements, programs, service projects, and many photos compete for the same space. This is a report where content comes first.
The cover carries fixed requirements every year: the year, the logo, the flame mark, and "Set Your World on Fire," a theme the college used for several years before I began designing the report. Within those requirements, each report needs to feel new rather than a repeat of the year before.
The Approach
For my first report in 2021–22, I created a flame logo to give the theme a visual form. I delivered it to the Honors College as a separate file so they could use it beyond the report.
The communications lead at the Honors College plans each report in detail before design begins. She maps out the content, writes the final text, and organizes the photos by section. Because the sections stay consistent from year to year, she writes to fit. That lets me spend my time on the layout: fitting a large amount of content into the space while keeping each page readable.
The cover is where each year's report finds its own identity. Most years, the cover focuses on students. For 2023–24, I focused on the campus instead to change the approach, while the inside stayed centered on students. The 2024–25 cover used a custom digital collage illustration, the most illustrative direction in the series. For 2025–26, the cover returned to a more traditional UAB brand look. Each year, I carry the cover's visual theme into the inside pages wherever the content leaves room, so the whole report feels connected.
Most readers see the report online, so I produce a lower-resolution digital version that loads quickly. The college also receives a print-ready PDF for a small digitally printed run, and I work with their printer to make sure the color is right.
The Result
I have designed five consecutive editions of the report, each with its own cover within the same theme. The flame logo has moved well past the report and appears on many Honors College materials.