CGR has been hosting public talks by health equity thought leaders and organizing community-based conversations on the relationship between systemic racism and population health. They asked us to create a website to showcase all of their work and convey their journey as a visually engaging narrative.

We interviewed the CGR team and reviewed all of their content. Based on this research, we created copy and illustrations for a timeline recounting CGR’s origins, mission, and achievements, emphasizing their relevance against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and the BLM movement.

CGR’s mission is deeply rooted in its local context, so we decided to use the St. Joseph River as a core element of their website’s design. The river flows through western Michigan, between the towns of Benton Harbor and St. Joseph. Health disparities between these two communities are emblematic of the impact of systemic racism on the health of populations of color across the country.

The CGR story was broken down into a timeline of fifty slides containing a rich collection of photos, videos, and illustrations. To make the slides visually compelling we created a series of customizable templates offering a wide variety of layout options.

The timeline’s unique navigation was inspired by the St. Joseph River. Its westward flow gave us the idea to switch from traditional vertical scrolling to horizontal scrolling along a curve. Each slide appears to grow as it emerges from the margins, then shrinks as it recedes into the ‘horizon.’