TIAA-CREF is a giant in the American Financial world, with over $400 Billion under investment at any given time. They are focussed on handling pensions and investments for those who work in public service, such as teachers, nurses, cultural and research workers. Having been in operation for 90 years they have amassed a myriad of investment options, and so they came to MSDS to put together a brochure that could serve as an appropriate guide to them, for both their sales staff and for potential investors.

I was tasked with designing the piece, and decided early on that a more unusual landscape format would be more appropriate, both for the type of information being conveyed as well as to set it apart from the more standard pieces produced for TIAA-CREF. Working within the brand guidelines I designed each layout to make the most of the brand color palettes, devices (such as the white box) and photography. Rather than keeping the piece dry and merely full of investment names and figures I chose to separate out each asset class, with a divider and introduction to each to make the information more accessible. This was reinforced by using the asset color palettes specifically for each section, helping the reader to easily differentiate each section and tie complex information together.

The tables and typography were careful typeset to allow maximum white space and room for the eye to grasp the hierarchy within each, so that one could find a particular investment option and its associated information relatively quickly. The piece was a global TIAA-CREF piece, meaning that it was designed for distribution across all of its offices and for use in all areas of its business (a opposed to the many pieces it creates for specific niche usage).

This piece was recently recognised with an American Graphic Design Award in the Print Design category