Downtown Women's Needs Assessment

The Downtown Women’s Center (DWC) is focused exclusively on serving and empowering women who are experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles. The Needs Assessment is conducted every three years, surveying the needs, characteristics, and conditions facing homeless and extremely low-income women living in downtown. A report was created to showcase the stories of women and results of the surveys, compelling action and donation from our city’s most influential decision makers.

Five main color coded topics are represented: Demographics, Housing, Healthcare, Violence Against Women, and Community Resources. Hand painted watercolor patterns are used to tie in the old with the new, soften the bold text and convey movement, change, femininity and imperfection. There are no rules that say data can’t be hand painted. Utilizing this familiar visual language alongside the impact of bold stacked headlines fosters a more emotional, memorable reading experience.

I volunteered to take surveys of Skid Row’s female identifying homeless community. This unforgettable experience highlighted the importance of humanizing the data to tell the story of these women.

This collaboration lead to the design of another report in 2016. Now, this effort is sponsored by the city has reached an incredible audience with features from Los Angeles Times, La Opinión, KPCC Radio, LAist, and more.

Credits

I worked on art direction for the report and contributed to the production of the infographics and print layout with production assistance and creative guidance from the team at verynice. Content and photography from DWC.