Created for the 50th anniversary of the Federal Highway Administration Office of Policy, Contributions and Crossroads was a milestone communications project designed to tell the story of the U.S. Highway System and its impact over time. The project included a 40-page publication, 14 supporting fact sheets, and a web-based interactive timeline—all designed for broad public access and full 508 compliance.
The Challenge
This project had all the complexity you’d expect from a large historical initiative and the realities of working within a government environment. We were consolidating decades of policy, infrastructure, and public impact into a cohesive story, often working with limited or damaged source imagery, compressed timelines, and rigorous accessibility and review requirements.
The Approach
The work centered around making a dense subject feel clear, navigable, and engaging:
- Turn a large body of historical material into an organized narrative
- Create consistency across print and digital deliverables
- Design with accessibility built in from the start, not added later
Close collaboration with FHWA’s public affairs team was essential to balancing visual clarity, stakeholder input, and compliance requirements.
Content & Collaboration
I worked closely with the client team to shape the structure and presentation of the content, translating highly technical and historical information into layouts that supported readability and storytelling.
The interactive timeline extended that work online, giving users a more exploratory way to engage with the material while reinforcing the broader narrative established in print.
Accessibility & Implementation
Because every deliverable required 508 compliance, accessibility shaped the work from the beginning—from document structure and hierarchy to color contrast, tagging, and digital usability.
That same thinking carried into the timeline design and implementation, where interaction needed to feel intuitive without sacrificing compliance.
Outcome
The final project delivered a cohesive anniversary campaign that translated a complex institutional history into a set of accessible, engaging public-facing tools. It balanced storytelling, compliance, and multi-format execution while supporting a major milestone for the agency.