NASFAA NOW was conceived as a hybrid between an annual report and a member magazine, bringing together NASFAA’s yearly reporting with articles, features and stories from across the financial aid community.
The idea came from the decision to discontinue Student Aid Transcript, NASFAA’s much-loved member magazine, as a cost-saving measure. Knowing how much members valued the publication, I proposed turning our annual report into a kind of “bumper edition” — inspired by the annuals I enjoyed as a kid — combining the information the organisation needed to report with editorial content that members would actually want to read.
The result was a substantial, member-facing publication that moved between departmental reporting, profiles, opinion, photography and feature articles while maintaining a cohesive visual identity. The challenge was creating a flexible design system that could accommodate such varied content without losing its sense of unity.
More than just an annual report, it was a chance to rethink what an annual report could be.
