Nicor Gas Community Impact Report

The community impact team at Nicor Gas reached out to Jak Creative Design to develop their impact report for the year. While a report may not typically be the most exciting project, the challenge was to push the creative boundaries of the brand guideline to create something that was fun and bright, while still maintaining the Nicor Gas look. As Senior Designer, I was given the project and the permission to explore types of visual treatments and new elements. The client sent an example of a report done for one of the sister companies and I used that as a starting point when ideating. I created concepts that utilized Nicor’s shapes, patterns, and colors in new ways. The use of bold typographic treatments and icons was also explored. When I presented the first full draft of the report to the branding team, they felt the direction strayed too far off course from the guidelines, despite the example that we were given also pushing the guidelines to the limit. After working with the team, I was able to salvage most of the overall look and just made adjustments to how colors and patterns were used. As the date approached for the report to be sent to the printer, I had daily communication with the community impact team to receive final pieces of content and edits. Turnaround times for each iteration became very quick and staying organized was crucial to making sure nothing slipped through the cracks. Thanks to the highly effective communication and collaboration of the team, the report was delivered to the printer on time. After the printed brochures were delivered and distributed, the team passed on high praise from Nicor’s CEO and Vice President. They were extremely happy with how the report cleanly presented the content while presenting the brand in a new, yet familiar way. They started to show off the report to other teams as an example for pushing the creative boundaries. Due to the success of the project, the community impact team reached out to Jak the following year when it came time to create the 2025 report. The team was excited to work with me again and they called out how they appreciated my creative approach, organization, and attention to detail.