About

Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen

Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen

Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen

Turning a Day of Data into a Story of Dignity

Turning a Day of Data into a Story of Dignity

Turning a Day of Data into a Story of Dignity

Infographic V2

Infographic V1

Infographic V2

Infographic V1

Infographic V2

Infographic V1

DESK (Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen) has served people experiencing homelessness and poverty in New Haven for 38 years, with a low-barrier, walk-in model built on health, community, and equity. Every year, their Thanksgiving effort, including meals delivered, a Thanksgiving-style pantry, and a sit-down dinner in their Drop-In & Resource Center, is one of the largest donation fundraisers DESK runs. After volunteering at the turkey drop in 2025, I partnered with DESK as a pro bono graphic designer to turn that day's data into an annual, repeatable infographic: T.U.R.K.E.Y at DESK (Technology Uniting Really Key and Essentials Yields). This will be used in their annual report for future funding.


DESK's Data Administrator, Wendy McLeod, put it simply during discovery: "I am always impressed with good infographics, but what we track, measure, and report doesn't have easy or familiar graphics." Volunteer hours, pounds of food, pantry households, meals delivered - none of it has an obvious visual language the way a typical KPI chart does. Past attempts had also run into visual clutter, which made stakeholders more confused rather than less. The brief was clear: staff and board members were genuinely interested in this data, but the way it was shown was the point of friction.

About

About

Timeline:

Timeline:

November 2025 - June 2026

Tools:

Tools:

Google Suite - Word / Google Meet, Adobe Illustrator, Canva

Role:

Role:

Graphic Designer

November 2025 - June 2026

Graphic Designer

Goal

Goal

The brief and stakeholder questionnaire converged on a few concrete objectives:

  • Make hard-to-visualize operational data legible at a glance

  • Land a tone that's "serious but simple." Showcase the meaningful work, and not a marketing gimmick

  • Build something clean and modern enough to feel intentional, not cluttered

  • Design a template, not a one-off. This should be repeatable every year that stakeholders look forward to

  • Land the brand's Hero/Magician archetype - strength paired with a touch of wonder - so the audience walks away feeling informed and reassured

Goal

The brief and stakeholder questionnaire converged on a few concrete objectives:

  • Make hard-to-visualize operational data legible at a glance

  • Land a tone that's "serious but simple." Showcase the meaningful work, and not a marketing gimmick

  • Build something clean and modern enough to feel intentional, not cluttered

  • Design a template, not a one-off. This should be repeatable every year that stakeholders look forward to

  • Land the brand's Hero/Magician archetype - strength paired with a touch of wonder - so the audience walks away feeling informed and reassured

Google Suite - Word / Google Meet, Adobe Illustrator, Canva

Research & Discovery

Timeline:

November 2025 - June 2026

Graphic Designer

Google Suite - Word / Google Meet, Adobe Illustrator, Canva

Tools:

Role:

DESK - Volunteer Day

DESK - Pantry Volunteer Day


Iteration Testing

Research & Discovery

Research & Discovery

Persona:

Persona:

I mapped four real stakeholder roles for this project. Each pulled the design in a slightly different direction - clarity, shareability, nuance, speed - and the final layout had to satisfy all four at once.

  • Executive Director (needs the whole story in 30 seconds before a board meeting)

  • Director of Development (needs shareable, donor-ready content)

  • Director of Client Engagement (needs the operational detail to feel true to the day's actual complexity)

  • Partner Organization Manager (needs the headline in under a minute, scrolling on their phone).

Ideation:

I was intentional through this project to practice a project flow including: (click on blue links to read more)


Persona:

Ideation:

Ideation:

Iteration Testing

Original Design Provided by DESK:

Original Design Provided by DESK:

Iterations:

Iterations:

Iteration Review:

Iteration Review:

The DESK team reviewed the iterations together, and an additional constraint made the decision quick and straightforward: their design guidelines don't allow plates to be featured in design work. Since two of the three iterations centered on a plate, we moved forward with the third. DESK also asked to swap in specific photos where placeholder monthly copy had originally been planned.

The DESK team reviewed the iterations together, and an additional constraint made the decision quick and straightforward: their design guidelines don't allow plates to be featured in design work. Since two of the three iterations centered on a plate, we moved forward with the third. DESK also asked to swap in specific photos where placeholder monthly copy had originally been planned.

Iteration Review:

Results:

Results:

Throughout the design process, DESK brought additional requests, and I accommodated them while offering my own design notes along the way. Early on, I suggested trimming some redundant copy for clarity; they opted to keep it as-is for the time being. Later, they realized they'd need to credit their sponsors in the annual report and asked me to make room for a sponsor lockup. You can see that added in the second final design. That update also came with a request to keep the wreath illustration and stylized script title. I suggested dropping it in favor of a cleaner treatment, but they chose to keep it and simply update the title text instead.

Results:

Throughout the design process, DESK brought additional requests, and I accommodated them while offering my own design notes along the way. Early on, I suggested trimming some redundant copy for clarity; they opted to keep it as-is for the time being. Later, they realized they'd need to credit their sponsors in the annual report and asked me to make room for a sponsor lockup. You can see that added in the second final design. That update also came with a request to keep the wreath illustration and stylized script title. I suggested dropping it in favor of a cleaner treatment, but they chose to keep it and simply update the title text instead.

Throughout the design process, DESK brought additional requests, and I accommodated them while offering my own design notes along the way. Early on, I suggested trimming some redundant copy for clarity; they opted to keep it as-is for the time being. Later, they realized they'd need to credit their sponsors in the annual report and asked me to make room for a sponsor lockup. You can see that added in the second final design. That update also came with a request to keep the wreath illustration and stylized script title. I suggested dropping it in favor of a cleaner treatment, but they chose to keep it and simply update the title text instead.

Evaluation:

Future iterations and updates would include:


  • Template & Hand-off: Update the design for future use by creating placeholders for sponsors. This will create a cleaner handoff for the future designer. 

  • Revisit the shelved partner map. The "community reach" concept - a map or spider diagram showing where drives and partners touched the city - never made it past the concept board. It could become a strong companion piece for showing DESK's collaborative, no-competitors model. This would tie into another opportunity to revisit the drive-hosting call-to-action. One of the original goals was to encourage people to host their own item-specific donation drive, a future iteration could build that in directly.

  • Accessibility pass. The brief flagged accessibility for ease of sharing, a follow-up round should formally check color contrast and add alt text before this goes into broader public distribution.

  • Test the unrealized "cost of Thanksgiving" comparison. Early brainstorming surfaced a compelling angle — comparing the cost of a Thanksgiving meal five years ago versus today — that never made it into the final design. It could be a strong future data point for framing DESK's impact against rising costs.

  • Extend the template beyond Thanksgiving. We discussed in discovery the idea of using this same visual system for other major DESK fundraisers. Future testing with this design framework against a second annual event would validate its "repeatable, timeless" goal.

Evaluation:

Evaluation:

Future iterations and updates would include:


  • Template & Hand-off: Update the design for future use by creating placeholders for sponsors. This will create a cleaner handoff for the future designer. 

  • Revisit the shelved partner map. The "community reach" concept - a map or spider diagram showing where drives and partners touched the city - never made it past the concept board. It could become a strong companion piece for showing DESK's collaborative, no-competitors model. This would tie into another opportunity to revisit the drive-hosting call-to-action. One of the original goals was to encourage people to host their own item-specific donation drive, a future iteration could build that in directly.

  • Accessibility pass. The brief flagged accessibility for ease of sharing, a follow-up round should formally check color contrast and add alt text before this goes into broader public distribution.

  • Test the unrealized "cost of Thanksgiving" comparison. Early brainstorming surfaced a compelling angle — comparing the cost of a Thanksgiving meal five years ago versus today — that never made it into the final design. It could be a strong future data point for framing DESK's impact against rising costs.

  • Extend the template beyond Thanksgiving. We discussed in discovery the idea of using this same visual system for other major DESK fundraisers. Future testing with this design framework against a second annual event would validate its "repeatable, timeless" goal.

My partner and I volunteering for the annual Turkey Drop at DESK - 2025

My partner and I volunteering for the annual Turkey Drop at DESK - 2025

My partner and I volunteering for the annual Turkey Drop at DESK - 2025

About