Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that advises on and manages large charitable giving initiatives. With headquarters in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, RPA develops philanthropic programs and offers complete program, administrative and management services for foundations and trusts. Several of the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors’ most visible projects involve a partnership with a national or international organization to do research on a specialized topic.

For one of their latest projects, RPA partnered with TIAA, formerly TIAA—CREF (Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association—College Retirement Equities Fund), to produce Achieving Success in Postsecondary Education, a report presenting valuable data and research on the impact of college education on graduates’ finances, projected incomes and life planning. When it came time to design the report, RPA and TIAA approached In-House to devise and produce an editorial system for Achieving Success in Postsecondary Education‘s findings.

Merging the identities of two different brands to produce a stand-alone project is a challenge (and a fun one, at that). Under a two-month timeline, we had two goals for the Achieving Success in Postsecondary Education project:

1.) Create a visual identity that successfully represents both Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and TIAA.
2.) Editorially design three reports and one mailer for the studies associated with the project.

Using a system of illustration styles rooted in colorful abstract geometric patterns, we delivered three editorially designed reports and one mailer (to contain the three reports). Each report featured a different, yet interconnected style: isometric projections of solid volumes, mezzotint textures applied to shapes found in nature, joined tridimensional objects as flat blueprints. They all shared a common aesthetic based on the abstraction of architectural/ornament motifs, which aimed to illustrate the bridge between research based on current facts and future-thinking trend forecasting.