CLIENT:
Common Justice
SERVICES:
Restorative justice nonprofit launches its first-ever dynamic impact report, laying the visual foundation for a full brand evolution, followed by two more.
Common Justice (CJ) is a criminal legal reform organization that develops and advances solutions to violence that transform the lives of those harmed and fosters racial equity without relying on incarceration. Based in New York City, CJ operates the first alternative-to-incarceration and victim-service program in the United States that focuses on violent felonies in the adult courts.
THE CHALLENGE:
After a record of growth and impact, CJ came to us to design their first-ever impact report. But they didn’t want a traditional, buttoned-up nonprofit report — they wanted something that felt dynamic and alive.
OUR APPROACH:
Ayouni extended CJ’s minimal brand guidelines into a custom design, graphic, and illustration system — one built to carry the emotional weight of their work in a way photos alone couldn’t, and to tell a fuller story of how they operate and what role they play in criminal legal reform. The result stayed true to their existing brand, but with more depth, play, and soul.
The report was so well-received that it became the seed for a broader rebrand — shaping the new website and setting the visual direction for CJ’s communications going forward..
The report was so well-received that it became the seed for a broader rebrand — shaping the new website and setting the visual direction for CJ’s communications going forward..
Common Justice has since returned to Ayouni every year for what’s now an annual report, with each issue reintroducing CJ’s model, highlighting the past year’s achievements, and setting the stage for the year ahead. While the first impact report established a visual direction for the brand at large, each subsequent report has had its own distinct visual identity — designed to stand out from CJ’s regular outputs and stretch creative possibilities, while staying aligned with the brand.
