Keeyan Joseph Portfolio
Experiential Graphic Designer
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04    SSHRC Storytellers Competition Infographic

N. R. Serrao

2025
Freelance
This infographic was created for a PhD Candidate competing in the SSHRC Storytellers competition, a national challenge for graduate students to communicate the value of their social sciences and humanities research to a broad public audience. The deliverable is a single infographic conveying the premise, methodology, and findings of the client’s research.



IdeationOne of the biggest challenges of this project began before a single design decision was made. The source material was a several hundred page academic thesis, and the task was to distill it into a visually driven narrative suitable for a general audience, without compromising the research.

Through a series of conversations with the client, I sought an “elevator pitch” version of her work. This was a framing she had never previously had cause to develop, but perfect for creating a structure for the infograph. These discussions, combined with flowchart-style storyboard sketches, established the bones of the narrative structure before any visual development began.





Approach I treated this as both an editorial and a data visualization project. The research subject, a lagoon ecosystem and its fishing communities, provided an aesthetic direction: a marine-inspired colour palette with a strong contrast accent to draw attention to key data points and callouts.

The intended audience ranged from academic reviewers to the general public, which shaped every design decision. Information had to be immediately understandable without being reductive. Visual hierarchy, applied through scale, colour, and spacing, was used deliberately to guide the reader through the narrative and distinguish between primary findings and supporting context. A heavily constrasting handwritten typeface, paired with a strong, bold display text helped to create a wide hierarchal range as well. This separated “flavour” text, used mostly for design purposes or context, from heavier information and data.





I discussed these decisions with the client thoroughly in these early phases. I found that rationalizing my decisions to her also allowed me to hear these rationalizations out loud, and decide whether we both agreed with each major design direction.





Early DevelopmentWith the narrative structure mapped, I moved into visual development: establishing the colour palette, selecting typography, and building a library of custom icons and illustrations to support the research content. The marine motif ‘anchored’ the overall aesthetic :)

The storyboard direction evolved considerably once visuals were attached to the narrative, as anticipated, with adjustments made throughout to balance storytelling flow with the constraints of the visualizations that occured to me. I viewed each storyboard piece as ‘modules’ that now needed more than just a title. I condensed and summarized content to succintly carry the narrative, and be design friendly. Within each module, I began to plan how I would balance the legibility and function of the information while still creating something visually compelling.



Project EvolutionThe project remained focused on a single deliverable: a PDF infographic for competition submission. However, the scope of work grew as the narrative developed. All icons, data graphics, and illustrations were gathered and produced, requiring the visual language to remain consistent across a wide variety of asset types. At times, consultations with the client were needed to fill in gaps that helped move the narrative along.

Frequent revisions were required, shuffling words around to stay within the competition’s word count limit and accommodating the designs. Content was carefully edited to carry the narative and be in line with the “storytellers” aspect of the assignment. Some concepts came during the design, such as the fishing line quite literally “stringing” the segments together.



ConsiderationsAccessibility

Maintaining strong contrast ratios for readability — particularly challenging when designing icons and data graphics requiring many shades within a single element

Data Accuracy

Prioritizing visual hierarchy (through size, colour, and spacing) without distorting or oversimplifying the underlying research data. Graphs and datasets with multiple levels of hierarchy required extra care.

Word Count

The competition imposed a strict word count limit. The final draft exceeded this limit and required a content revision pass to bring the infographic into compliance while preserving meaning.

Visual Consistency

Keeping a cohesive visual language across custom-built icons, illustrations, maps, and data graphics. 

OutcomeThe client was highly satisfied with the final design, both as a competition submission and as a tool for communicating her research to non-specialist audiences. The infographic gave her thesis a visual identity and a shareable format that the written document alone could not provide. She also went on to use the colour palette and many icons for future presentations related to her work. I helped her in this, to understand how to use these elements as a “brand” for her thesis.

The submission, and a about a dozen others were selected as a winner, among several hundred entries in the national competition. Another deliverable format option was a video, and of the winners, only one other submission was an infographic.











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