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. They take great pride in being a non-profit dot org, not a cut-throat dot com, and wanted to highlight their Socially Responsible Investing strategies to both staff and investors. Alongside financial return, many investors care about the social and environmental impacts of the companies in their investment portfolios. They came to MSDS to put together a brochure that could serve as an appropriate and comprehensive guide to them.

The brochure design was evolved from the TIAA-CREF brand styling, using key devices, imagery and color palettes to keep the piece on-brand. However, because the brochure was intended for use as a top-level, global communications piece, more usual imagery and styling were employed. A softer color palette and more natural imagery served to highlight the social and environmental aspect of the content, and to reinforce the message throughout. Bolder layouts which brought the imagery and white space to the fore distinguished the piece from the standard TIAA-CREF financial communications. The brochure was 20 pages in total, and printed CMYK on Mohawk PC100 (30% post-consumer waste).