EZ Ride Impact Report
EZ Ride engaged Craneco. Studio to design its annual Impact Report around the theme “Turning Challenges into Opportunities.” We built on each of EZ Ride’s four programs to create a human centered narrative that brings EZ Ride’s valuable services to life.
The Client
The Meadowlands Transportation Brokerage Corporation was New Jersey’s first Transportation Management Association. Today, doing business as EZ Ride, the organization develops transportation programs and services that improve quality of life, regional mobility and economic opportunity throughout New Jersey. Craneco. Studio has had a years-long relationship with EZ Ride, giving us a strong understanding of the organization and the communities it serves.
The Problem
Over the years Craneco. has created multiple versions of EZ Ride’s annual Impact Report. One of the biggest challenges was determining how to best tell the EZ Ride story in a fresh new way.
The report needed to communicate the breadth of EZ Ride’s work while keeping its larger mission front and center: helping people overcome transportation challenges through partnerships with businesses, government agencies and communities. Four partner stories; connecting Essex County residents to employment, improving senior mobility in Asbury Park, creating safer streets in Red Bank and expanding EV adoption in Westfield, provided specific, compelling examples of that mission in action.
The Objective
We needed to develop a visual language that represented EZ Ride in a fresh and unexpected way while using client-provided non-professional photography. The design required that we communicate not only what EZ Ride does, but why it matters: helping people and communities overcome transportation challenges and creating greater access, mobility and opportunity. The goal was to make that larger story feel tangible and human.
The Strategy
Rather than focusing primarily on programs and services, we focused on the people and communities at the heart of EZ Ride’s work. The four partner case studies give readers a personal and tangible way to understand EZ Ride’s broader impact, and the client-supplied photography became key.
We developed an energetic visual system built around expressive line-work illustrations, bold graphic forms, repeating circular shapes, and a combination of client-provided and stock photography. A restrained but playful color palette and our collage-driven compositions create a sense of environment and movement, while providing a consistent visual framework throughout the report.
The Implementation
The result is a piece that is less of a traditional financial report, and more a collection of hopeful stories about people, their communities, and the benefits of partnership with EZ Ride.
The visuals give each partner story — and each section of the report — its own personality while maintaining a strong visual thread through the entire piece. Photographs show EZ Ride employees, riders and community members in motion, while the illustrated environments provide a unique and whimsical way of indicating place.
The Results
FOR STAKEHOLDERS
The Impact Report is a powerful sales and marketing tool in the guise of a light, optimistic and engaging booklet. The finished report gives EZ Ride and it’s board a compelling new way to broker financial investment and advocacy at the state and national level — bringing its mission, programs and partnerships together under one clear and engaging concept.