UVA Arts & Sciences Research Report: New Creative Direction for a College-Wide Story
Diverse disciplines. Countless discoveries. One story of research across Arts & Sciences. | UVA Arts & Sciences, 2026
How do you tell the story of research across an entire college without losing the people, ideas, and connections that make each discovery meaningful?
Annual reports often prioritize measurable outcomes: grants awarded, discoveries made, and publications produced. But experiencing the dynamic energy of the Arts & Sciences research community firsthand, I saw an opportunity to tell a broader story about the people, ideas, and connections that make discovery possible.
After designing the inaugural report in 2025, I returned for its second edition with an ambitious vision to rethink its editorial approach and visual identity.
Working closely with Research leadership, I advocated for a direction that moved beyond documenting accomplishments to tell a more connected, human story. I developed a creative concept framing research as an ongoing process of discovery shaped by curiosity, collaboration, and connections across disciplines.
The result was a 55-page publication combining editorial storytelling, original photography, digital illustration, and a flexible visual system to bring the breadth of Arts & Sciences research to life.
Creative Direction: Discovery through connection
I wanted the report's design to reflect the creative, interconnected nature of research itself. My concept explored the relationships that drive discovery: curiosity and experimentation, theory and practice, and the people and disciplines that move knowledge forward together.
I developed and pitched a creative vision that built on the previous year's foundation while expanding the report's narrative and visual possibilities. Working closely with Research leadership and the College's associate deans, I refined the concept through collaborative reviews, presented design directions, and championed a more editorial approach.
The resulting visual language balanced academic credibility with the energy of a magazine. Expressive typography, layered imagery, and original illustrations gave individual stories room to breathe within a cohesive design system.
Editorial Strategy: One system, many kinds of research
Bringing together research from across the incredibly diverse landscape of Arts & Sciences meant balancing a cohesive narrative with the distinct character of each discipline. Working with senior research writer Russ Bahorsky, we developed an editorial structure that connected individual stories to larger themes, academic strengths, and emerging research priorities.
At the heart of the report, five Research in Action sections explore the breadth and intersections of research. Three reflect the College’s academic divisions: Arts and Humanities, Sciences, and Social and Behavioral Sciences. Two highlight cross-disciplinary work in astronomy and artificial intelligence, showing how collaboration across traditional boundaries opens new possibilities for discovery.
Distinct visual treatments and narrative framing give each section its own identity, while a shared editorial system connects the stories. From creative exploration to scientific discovery with global impact, the structure accommodates diverse research without making the stories feel interchangeable.
The report's second half broadens the story to explore the research ecosystem that makes discovery possible, from undergraduate and graduate education to faculty achievement, strategic investments, and institutional resources. Data visualizations, charts, and key metrics bring the scale and impact of the College's research enterprise into focus, while thoughtful layouts and visual treatments keep this more information-dense content engaging and accessible.
A key creative decision was to integrate dedicated sections on undergraduate and graduate education, highlighting how research is woven into the academic experience and how student learning, mentorship, and faculty scholarship contribute to the development of future researchers. The report also connects these achievements and investments to the broader priorities of the College and Graduate School, illustrating the impact of research and the opportunities for future fundraising and investment. Together, the report balances compelling individual stories with the numbers, infrastructure, and strategic priorities that demonstrate the breadth and momentum of research at Arts & Sciences, creating a flexible editorial framework that can evolve with future initiatives while preserving each edition's character.
Art Direction & Visual Storytelling: Making discovery visible
I wanted the visual experience to reflect research as a creative, human endeavor. That meant looking beyond conventional academic photography to find images, details, and artifacts that could draw readers into the work itself.
Working with photographer Evan Kutsko, I art-directed photography across a wide range of disciplines, looking for moments that revealed the people, experimentation, and collaboration behind discovery. I also contributed original photography and created digital illustrations and collages, incorporating archival imagery and visual materials from researchers and departments to make complex ideas more tangible.
Across the publication, expressive typography, layered imagery, and varied page compositions create a cohesive visual language without making every story look the same. Immersive photographic spreads, illustrated features, concise highlights, and data-driven layouts each offer a different way into the research.
Photography: Finding the human story
For feature images, including the full-width backgrounds of Next Generation of Discovery, Evan captured the hands-on collaboration, learning, and problem-solving that connect undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty across generations of research.
Art direction for photography focused on finding unexpected angles and details that draw the viewer into the imagination and energy of research. In the above spread, Evan’s masterful photos capture the human interaction, learning, and creativity that fuel the next generation of discoveries.
Artifacts: Letting the research supply the imagery
Alongside the report’s photography, I looked for ways to let the research itself supply the visuals. That meant using scans and maps submitted by researchers, building photo illustrations and collages from research and archival materials, and photographing researchers with objects from their own work.
Whenever possible, I let the research itself inform the visual storytelling. On page 28, I created a photo illustration for the AI section opener, combining photography, illustration, and researcher-supplied graphics. The facing page features heritability maps and tractography images contributed by UVA researchers, bringing the scientific data directly into the visual narrative.
In some spreads, my visual language was built from the artifacts of discovery itself, as I invited researchers and departments to contribute visual elements from their own work for the final product. Included on page 10 is a collage I created from digitized documents and images sourced from the Center for Digital Editing’s projects, spanning the founding era through the civil rights movement.
In other spreads, I photographed researchers alongside objects from their work, using the tools and items they study to bring their stories to life. On page 13, I captured historian David Singerman demonstrating use of a polariscope, an instrument once used to assess sugar purity. The historical device is featured in his book Unrefined: How Capitalism Reinvented Sugar.
Collaboration & Delivery: Moving fast without losing the vision
A strong creative vision is only as effective as its execution. Delivering a 55-page publication in about two months, alongside high-impact projects like Major Maps, required early decisions and efficient stakeholder alignment.
With support from Research leadership, I presented the concept and design directions to the associate deans and secured alignment at three stages: buy-in on the initial creative pitch, feedback on spread designs for the first Research in Action section, and final sign-off on the completed report. I worked with Russ Bahorsky to shape and refine written content, with Evan Kutsko to align photography with the project’s creative direction, and with Len Perez who provided additional editorial contributions and copyediting. I also designed all spreads, edited photos, created graphs and charts, sourced printers, secured quotes, and completed final quality control checks.
Consolidated feedback at each checkpoint kept writing, photography, illustration, and print production aligned, carrying the original vision through to delivery.
Impact: A new framework for research storytelling
The 2026 Research Report brought a new editorial vision to life in 55 pages, combining research storytelling, original photography, digital illustration, and a cohesive visual system. The initial print run of 1,000 copies reached audiences across Arts & Sciences, the University, and 200 deans nationwide.
Building on the inaugural 2025 edition, the 2026 report established a more flexible approach to communicating the breadth of Arts & Sciences research, connecting individual achievements to broader academic strengths and emerging investment priorities.
The result is a framework for future editions that can evolve with the College’s priorities while preserving the people, ideas, and discoveries that make its research distinctive.