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The immigration report is officially finished and at the printer! In fact, Vimala received the proof and said it looks good. I can’t wait to flip through a copy of it. Feeling really proud of the teamwork that made this report. 

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The long and winding road

My fellowship with NAPAWF is coming to a close and what a trip it’s been.

With Congressional briefings scheduled for the end of this month, I’m prepping the final layout for NAPAWF’s immigration report. Pictured here is a mock-up that I made to check colors, font size, alignment, etc. I’m excited to see this report properly printed with its saddle stitch staples all in a row.

This project marks a special milestone for me as a designer. Prior to attending Parsons, I worked in a print shop, performing minor magic tricks: turning digital design into tangible collateral; cranking out booklets, just like this one. Aside from the zines and materials I’d produce for my band, I was never the ‘official’ creative behind print design. NAPAWF’s congressional report marks my first professional job as a designer in this way, so that’s a real accomplishment in which I take great pride and for which I am thoroughly grateful.

The transition into my new role was thrilling, albeit a little scary. For the first time, I was the one setting the bleed, kerning the type, tilting my head from left to right to left while pushing pixels around my screen. This was a real, hands-on learning experience with a truly admirable partner in NAPAWF, and a bright, shining mentor in Colleen. I’m so glad Parsons and Ms. Foundation granted me this opportunity.

In addition to the Congressional report, I edited 10 hours worth of interviews to produce seven thematic audio tracks, each about one minute long. These tracks mirror the themes of the report: motherhood struggle, financial hardship, health & trauma, childhood impact, denial of humanity, hope & advocacy.

There’s one track per theme, plus a montage of themes to introduce the report. These audio tracks became the bases for kinetic text animations, which will play at the Congressional briefings as a means of introducing each topic. These multimedia deliverables are an answer to NAPAWF’s desire to bring innovation to the formulaic briefings and to make the content digestible.

Bonus: these assets can be used in a social media campaign, as well. We wanted to be sure we could cover both Congress and the general public as audience for this report.

Below is a screenshot from one of the animations.

The positives to come out of this experience:

- Production of an impactful congressional report advocating for a just cause: immigration reform

- Personal education on an important issue affecting our country and its people

- True respect for and pleasure in working with the folks at NAPAWF

- Mentorship from Colleen on everything from design to client relations

- Technical development as a designer

- Lessons in soft skills

The negatives:

- Typical scheduling conflicts and communication hardships that come from any project with lots of moving pieces and long distance relationships

- NAPAWF’s project and priorities schedule was slightly off from my own summer schedule, so instead of wrapping prior to semester start, we’ll be wrapping in mid September.

- The reality of detention and deportation. This was difficult content to work with for its tragedy. Listening to all those hours of interviews required frequent breaks or else I’d slip into a deep sadness.

As the project wraps in the next week or so, I’ll post finished products here. Thank you and stay tuned!

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Here’s a rough cut of the Katrina footage. The purpose of this interview was to give voice to the advocacy groups behind the immigration report: SEARAC and NAPAWF. 

Unfortunately, NAPAWF’s executive director had a tough schedule to align with, so I wasn’t able to interview her, but NAPAWF found someone who is available and can match this style. 

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Visited NAPAWF for a second time and had a productive two days with the team. I shot an interview with SEARAC’s Director of National Policy, Katrina. This footage is part of a collection of creative assets that I will leave with NAPAWF to use for their immigration social media campaign following the Congressional briefings. 

We have a completed first draft of the report, which I laid out here. After review, the themes of the report had to be tweaked a bit, so I’m awaiting revisions before the next report layout.

I also updated the audio files to match the new themes and sent those for review. Once they’re signed off, I will animate them with the kinetic text aesthetic. These animations will be played during the briefing as an introduction to each theme. 

Entering the last few weeks of the project. Though the schedule had shifted back due to report revisions, I’m confident we’ll see our deliverables through to the end. 

NAPAWF has been busy with reproductive justice work surrounding the SCOTUS, but we’re all getting excited to see this report come together in its many pieces.

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Working on layouts for the congressional report. Sent these two options for review today. 

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Trimming interviews by theme

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Taking Shape

Had a call with NAPAWF today to discuss feedback and make decisions on the direction of the multimedia component. This was productive. I went in with the following overarching objectives and was able to properly address them all in our conversation.  

1. Identify the purpose of the multimedia — identify the audience

2. Identify the shape (look/feel/format)

3. Identify capabilities and limitations

4. Decide

My takeaways:

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Multimedia Exploration

Exploring different takes on the recorded phone interviews. Trimming the 45 minute conversations down to a digestible three and a half minutes. I presented two options: single-person vignette (one person tells their story from start to finish) vs montage of interviews intercut based on themes from the report. In terms of visuals, I experimented with kinetic text, photos, and video interviews. We’ll need to decide what option seems the most appropriate given the context.

Version 1

Single-person vignette, full story

Kinetic text and line animations

Handmade style

Hear mp3 of full story (3:30 trim of phone interview), incl. in the Version 1 folder

Version 2

Intercut interviews, thematic

Static photos with identifying captions

Podcast-on-Youtube style

Version 3

Intercut interviews, thematic + rep interview

Combines elements of the first 2 versions + video

Kinetic text, photo zoom, video interview with rep

A sense of how the rep lends that fired up voice for advocacy.

Guiding values we identified together for the report:

Advocating for and humanizing AAPI detainees/deportees

Groundbreaking

Digestible

Hopeful

Authentic

Themes for the report identified by Jaclyn:

1. Childhood trauma and the impact of growing up without a parent

2. Financial impact

3. Immigration story and tough resettlement to the US, then being punished again by a harsh immigration/detention system

4. The need to be humanized - the people who got detained are good people and were not treated as such, the situation was never black and white; enforcement needs to take into consideration individual circumstances of who they're detaining and the impact it has on the family.

5. Hope - Advocacy* This is my own unofficial addition, as the hope/advocacy component is time and again expressed as vital to this report. I want to be sure my output reflects this. 

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Research

During the research phase of this project, I’ve immersed myself in NAPAWF’s immigration report resources, as well as audited their previous reports and printed materials. I want to ensure their immigration report feels fresh and impactful without departing completely from what they’ve been doing. A study of their printed materials prompted a list of questions that we reviewed together to help focus my design. 

In terms of the multimedia component, I’ve been listening to the recorded phone interviews and thinking about how we can use these powerful stories. I’m exploring ways to work with the recordings as assets since our production capabilities are limited. This process begins by analyzing existing precedents and sharing them with the NAPAWF team to see what inspires, what speaks to their vision, etc. 

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Site Visit #1: Washington, DC

I’m thrilled to join the 2018 Ms. Foundation for Women - Parsons fellowship program! This is a crucial time to be involved in the national conversation revolving around women, immigration, race, and the socioeconomic differences within America. I feel really lucky to be partnering with NAPAWF — an organization uniquely positioned to address these intersecting issues as they relate to the diverse AAPI community.

Kicking off the partnership with NAPAWF last week was a great experience!

It was my first site visit to their office in Washington, DC. I learned, I laughed, I cried. Ultimately, I walked away feeling deeply moved by the immigration stories, enlightened on the complex issue of detention and deportation in the AAPI community, better equipped with an understanding of NAPAWF’s mission, and driven to aid their work as best as I can.

Colleen and I spent two days working primarily with Vimala, NAPAWF’s Public Policy Director. We also collaborated with Jaclyn, their Public Policy Associate, and received valuable input from Ashley, their National Field Director visiting from Chicago. Unfortunately, snow prevented us from meeting Deputy Director of Systems and Sustainability, Laura.  

Day one, Vimala took us through an in-depth review of what NAPAWF is and does: the history, accomplishments, goals, and challenges of the organization. We discussed the scope of our partnership, which revolves around an important immigration report they’re authoring with SEARAC. This fall, NAPAWF will deliver the report to the Hill with the purpose of providing a comprehensive view of what deportation and detentions look like in the AAPI community and their effects on women and families. The heart of the report is comprised of personal stories told directly by those affected. These unheard stories will shed light on the far-reaching negative effects of a 1996 bill called Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA). Strongly opposed by NAPAWF, this bill greatly expanded the definition of “aggravated felony” under immigration laws, leading to unjust detention and deportation of many AAPIs. With this report, NAPAWF plans to bolster their call for immigration policy reform, and ultimately overturn IIRIRA.

In addition to policy reform, NAPAWF’s goal for the immigration report is to bring their reproductive justice framework to the intersection of economic justice, reproductive health, and immigration reform. This report also serves as a platform with which to create a participatory process informed and led by folks directly affected by immigration policy. Working with community leaders to gather data and interviews means developing relationships between NAPAWF leadership and non-affiliated local leadership on the issue. All of these efforts will help NAPAWF surface potential campaign and legislative work for the future.

NAPAWF considers this a groundbreaking report and is interested in an equally innovative Hill briefing. While the traditional deliverables are top priority (report, fact sheet, talking points, folder), NAPAWF is open to exploring creative presentation and campaign content, such as video, audio, printables, events, etc. This is an opportunity for NAPAWF to create a unique voice in authorship. 

Day two, we identified the design values of the project. Colleen guided us through a brainstorming exercise in which we rapidly generated nouns, verbs, and adjectives to describe the impact of the immigration report. We then compiled the most popular themes that emerged. The project boils down to:

Advocating for and humanizing AAPI deportees through stories as they relate to policy in a way that is groundbreaking, digestible, hopeful, and authentic. The audience has different branches: Congress, AAPI community, local chapters, general public.

Strategy for the final deliverable should consider content that can translate across these different audiences, albeit not simultaneously. They’re looking for the report published for the Hill by August, with a general public campaign rollout in 2019. For its local chapters, NAPAWF would like to invigorate their toolkits with more ‘pop ed’ content and interactive elements. Exploring rich media for the immigration report will help carve that toolkit content improvement. 

As much as I loved the stimulating project conversations, my favorite part of the visit was when we all stopped talking and just listened to the immigration stories recorded thus far. These are the heart of the report and they are deeply moving. They’re simple, lo-fi audio recordings of phone interviews, but their impact is instant and lasting. One can immediately feel the weight of voicing and hearing these personal accounts. Listening to these interviews inspires me to make sure the caliber of my design meets the power in these stories. 

Key takeaways from our conversation with Katrina at SEARAC, who’s conducting the interviews for the immigration report:

- Being directly connected to affected families is key.

- Those directly affected are sought after but timid to exposure; this process is helping to support and protect their voices.

- This report is helping to identify community leaders who are articulate.

- This report will help educate the community and destigmatize criminal convictions and deportations, which leads to more open advocacy and empowers the community to be spokespeople.

- It’s important this report represent the entire AAPI community, not just Southeast Asians, as the undocumented experience varies greatly across communities.

Overall, I’m really excited to dig into this project with NAPAWF. I genuinely enjoyed spending time with their team and I value the work to which they’re dedicated. It’s energizing to know I’m helping to empower an ‘invisibilized’ community and make changes at the policy level.

Next steps: inspiration and precedents research while NAPAWF & SEARAC continue to gather interviews. During my exploration, I’ll create various prototypes to test different aspects of the project, all the while, slowly but surely giving it shape with feedback from NAPAWF. 

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