How it started
The head of the New York Development Team at the University of Oxford recommended Ruzow Graphics to GLI. We had a long history of working with the University of Oxford and our work had even resulted in a nine-figure endowment! Nancy met with GLI in the summer of 2024 and their relationship began. She was then hired to design their 2024 and 2025 annual reports.
Working with Nancy on our Annual Report was a pleasure from start to finish. She listened carefully, turned around revisions quickly, and brought patience to every round of feedback. A talented, easy, and reliable collaborator—I’d recommend them without hesitation.”
— Kate Brashares, Director of Development and External Affairs, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Project goal
GLI brought in Ruzow to modernize their annual report. They wanted to signal, both visually and structurally, that GLI was entering a new chapter while still honoring the scholarly tradition the Institute is known for. Beyond the refresh, the report needed to translate a sprawling year of programs — across students, teachers, scholars, and the general public — into a story that felt clear, student-centered, and worth a donor’s full read.
The Challenges
Previous reports had felt more like a yearbook. They wanted to shift from a list of accomplishments to focusing on impact. It was important to create a “flippable” document that someone could review quickly but still understand the impact of their work.
1. An institution-sized story, told page by page
GLI runs 20+ programs across four distinct audiences: students, teachers, scholars, and the general public. The report had to give each program its due, without becoming an overwhelming list. The opening section had to set a navigational tone for everything that followed and they wanted to reduce the number of pages significantly.
2. Refreshing tradition without breaking it
The Institute’s brand carries 30+ years of scholarly weight — and a donor base that expects it. The redesign needed to feel current and accessible (especially for younger, student-facing audiences) while still reading as authoritative. The goal of the cover was to signal “new” without alienating anyone who’d come to know the report’s previous look.
“It took a few rounds, but I think the cover really works great and accomplished our goal of signaling that this was a new, modernized version of our report.”
3. Where the mission lives
Annual reports often default to data and donor recognition. For GLI — an organization whose entire reason for being is K–12 education — the report needed to keep students and teachers visually and narratively front and center throughout, not just in the photo captions. And while they wanted to keep a more academic feel, they didn’t want the report to feel stuffy.
4. Translating data into narrative
The report carries serious data: 37,725 affiliate schools, 15 million students, 1.2 million guide users, 8,200 award nominations, a 50-state network, multi-year budgets, a forward-looking priorities list, and a “report card” against goals. Each of those needed a visual system — not just typesetting — to land as a story instead of a spreadsheet.
The Process
Iterative cover concepts
The initial covers for 2024 were strong single images with the team falling in love with one image in particular. But the President felt it had to be an image of one of their students. So I suggested we use two images since none of their single images fit the format. They loved it! In 2025 we needed to avoid any perception of politics, so I found a great image from their gallery of students and made it unique with a custom typography treatment.
Layout system and data visualization
Each year GLI allows me to create infographics and present them with my “wild” ideas. They always find something they like instantly. For the map it was important to make it match the graphic style of the infographics and include their branded colors. The budget pie charts and other graphics were riffs on taking ordinary statistics and making them look extraordinary.
Streamlined feedback
All edits were done in Google Docs, making versions trackable and notifications immediate. Towards the end of the report, we moved to a PDF markup tool to make things go even faster and get across the finish line.
Final polish
I approach reports as type-first for legibility and style. I color corrected the photos, and when needed searched on their site and stock sites to find the right images to tell each story. Once approved, the files are prepped for the printer and I check proofs along with the client to ensure everyone signs off.
Nothing surprised me — and that’s a good thing in my opinion. Everything came together as agreed.”
Outcomes and impact
The redesigned report achieved its central goal: signaling a new chapter for GLI while keeping the scholarly authority the Institute’s audience has come to expect.
The opening section drew specific praise for translating complex programmatic data into something readable, and the National History Teacher of the Year middle spread became a stand-out moment.
I know from feedback that people particularly liked the middle spread with the National History Teacher of the Year winner — a great pop of color and energy in the center of the report.”
While it’s still early to measure direct fundraising impact, GLI expressed confidence that the report will be a meaningful asset for the year ahead.
The client’s last words?
Thank you! I love it :)”
