The Skillman Foundation
Annual Report
A Detroit for All Youth
The Skillman Foundation has a long legacy of advocacy for students, teachers, and the education system in the city of Detroit. If there is a child in need, Skillman is there, looking for a way to support them. Nearing its 60th year, the Skillman Foundation found itself coming upon yet another annual report, but this time they wanted to do something different. They wanted to use the report itself to further its mission of uplifting student stories, celebrating child advocates, and being uniquely Detroit.
Challenge
Annual Reports are normally straight to the point. “This is who we are, this is what we did, this is how much is cost.” In partnership with Skillman, we were allowed to go in a fundamentally new direction.
Solution
We made a magazine. We stepped back from the Annual Report idea all together and highlighted the stories, poems, articles, photography, and simply made a magazine. We focused on design and creating space for moments. We also worked with the foundation to produce 5 video vignettes on the “50 Detroiters” and a video about how the custom painted cover came to be.