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Location: Arlington, Virginia
For seven years, RILA has worked tirelessly to support their clients through each and every immigration case. With over 128 active volunteers providing pro bono services, they make legal support accessible for vulnerable and under-resourced community members. The beauty of RILA isn’t just the work they do, but how their staff approaches each case with compassion, patience, and love. They want clients to become legal citizens, yes—but they also want them to thrive in their new home for years to come.
It was critical to RILA that their annual report celebrate their clients’ actions rather than frame the agency as paternalistic saviors. They wanted the statistics and data to fit comfortably within the real-world context of client stories, not overshadow them. As we read client stories, we were deeply moved by their themes of victory. They contained painful memories and experiences, but all pointed ot how clients worked alongside RILA toward legal residency. These stories became our guiding imperative.
Working within RILA’s established brand guidelines, we honored their strong visual identity while adding creative typography to convey the strength and resilience of both clients and staff. We provided direction on framing client stories and honoring language choices in quoted material.
Client stories became the centerpiece, representing real people from many difference places who chose to share their experiences. Their circumstances vary—mothers, daughters, husbands, fathers, sons—but ultiamtely they’re people who have faced deep trials with strength and victory. Most importantly, they’re RILA’s neighbors, friends, and fellow community members, which is exactly how we framed every story.
Even our typeface choice reflected this approach: approachable and warm, feeling more like a newsletter than a clinical data update.
That first annual report sparked a wonderful ongoing partnership with RILA. We’ve helped with each subsequent publication and recently rebuilt their website with a more intuitive site map, recognizing that access to advocacy is more critical than ever. In light of current legal discourse about immigration, the website project required substantial participation from RILA’s team to preserve the precise, legal language that makes their work possible. The collaboration was intensive, but the result was worth it.
