The NLIHC Advocates' Guide is one of the Coalition's major publications that is produced yearly. It is distributed at every Annual Housing Forum to Attendees, and every new member receives a complimentary copy when they join the organization. The guide contains information about different federal housing programs, how to work with State and Federal officials on lobbying for more affordable housing programs, as well as information on the Federal Budget, HUD, and Congressional committees. (Click on each image to view a full-size PDF or Image)
2014 Advocates' Guide
The 2014 guide was produced prior to my arrival at NLIHC. The cover design consisted of stylized text with some typographic elements. The page layouts above use low-resolution images that did not render correctly when printed in black and white, and there is very little use of white space around the margins of the page. The fonts used are Chaparral Pro and Franklin Gothic, which are not part of the NLIHC branding guidelines. In addition, the page numbering was centered at the bottom of the page, and it was very hard for the reader to decipher which page in the book they were reading. You can view the entire 2014 Advocates' Guide here: https://adobe.ly/2QcrZ2i
2015 Advocates' Guide
The 2015 Edition was my first experience producing the guide, and I implemented several changes to make it more streamlined, easier to read, and less expensive to produce. My first change was to redesign a cover that ties into the NLIHC brand with a graphic element. The gear symbol signifies people working in sync together and the outward impact. The cover also features the NLIHC logo prominently placed as well as featuring the logo for PNC, the organization who sponsors the Guide.
Another change I implemented was the page layout by increasing the white space throughout, and instead of a 1-column layout, I used a 2-column layout to make it easier to read as well as cut down on the amount of pages in the Guide. The fonts used were in alignment of the NLIHC brand using Berkeley Old Style for the body text and Avenir for the page headers and subheaders. The page numbers are displayed much more prominently at the bottom of the page, and the numbering was broken up by chapter so it was much easier for the reader to find specific pages within the book. All the graphics were recreated in Vector format so that they rendered much more cleanly when printed. The budget chart was also redesigned to make it easier to read. Finally, PDF version included bookmarked links to make it easier for the user to navigate certain sections within the guide.
You can view the 2015 Guide here: https://adobe.ly/2Pc4QYF
Other Changes in Future Issues
The 2016 cover design was inspired by a ship's wheel and other imagery that signifies the different tools in the Guide that the reader can use to advocate for more affordable housing in their community. After discussing the 2016 issue with leadership, it was decided that the Advocate's Guide became it's own "brand" in order to make it more of a flagship piece within the NLIHC catalog of publications.
In 2017, the Advocates' Guide design switched from using Illustration for the cover design photography to focus on the immediate need of affordable, safe, and accessible housing. The cover photo features San Francisco, a city with the highest rents and cost of living in the U.S. with the lowest amount of affordable housing. In addition, I changed the binding of the guide from coil-bound book to perfect-bound, which saved at least a week of production time and also decreased the cost of printing the book by several hundred dollars.