Before we get too far into 2025, we’re going to take stock of 2024 one more time. In case you missed it, we did our annual project highlight post back in December. This time, we’ll go further behind the scenes and examine what we worked on for HALO 22 last year, what we think about it, and how last year might shape this year.

Process

We pushed ourselves to refine how we work. Sure, this is preparation for anticipated growth, but it also makes our day-to-day much easier to handle. Process allows us to have a common shorthand for the steps different projects take and where things are.

Is every project perfect? Nope. But that’s why we keep working on our process—learning how it can help us handle the outliers that make life interesting.

Our Story is Part of Our Process

We’ve long advocated that clients make telling their stories part of their culture. If you’re doing interesting work, someone will be interested in it. Last year, we published 32 times—way more than two a month.

Sure, a considerable part of the HALO 22 story is the work we do for our fantastic clients. But last year, we expanded our focus to explore how we work. The result was reaching a critical mass of posts to launch our Resources page.

That page is one of those things that, once you have it, you wonder how you managed without it. We’ve made good use of it since it rolled out—referring both clients and prospects regularly.

Takeoffs and Landings

Another 2024 project was reviewing how we start client projects and close them out. The review led us to tighten up our Basecamp usage—building and upgrading project templates.

Building help documents directly into our client’s websites became the standard approach this past year. Rolling out a series of private pages designed as references on integral aspects of a new site:

General content management of pages.
Producing and editing posts.
Consistent use of categories and tags.

The first two are narrated summaries explaining the fundamentals of producing and managing content. The last one is a bespoke list and recommendations to make sure the underlying taxonomy of the site supports the information architecture we developed together.

We’re looking forward to refining—and extending—this approach in 2025.

Shaping Our Communities

Our small, dispersed team put the effort into making our communities better. Non-profits work directly toward the public good. Small businesses add to the fabric of their communities. We’re lucky enough to count several of each as clients.

*The Skate Raleigh team at the Conlon Family Skatepark groundbreaking.*

Volunteer Work

The HALO 22 team volunteered over 100 hours in 2024. Much of that went to Skate Raleigh, with some going to get-out-the-vote efforts for the general election. We’re figuring out how to track this better for 2025.

Non-Profit Organizations

We worked with ten non-profits over the course of the year. They cover the full range from small and local to large and working nationally—both ends and the middle are necessary. Some of these clients we’ve worked with for years, and these relationships allow us to develop cohesive suites of work.

Downtown Durham, Inc.: We go way back with Downtown Durham, Inc. (DDI), but 2024 felt extra special since we worked with them on a brand identity refresh.

It was challenging on several fronts, but the largest was making sure we updated things in a way that wouldn’t leave all their existing initiative branding behind.

NC-PAL: Another long-time client, NC-PAL entered 2024 with a brand identity refresh. This paved the way for a website redesign and some great conference materials.

Our non-profit clients provide valuable services and support in our local communities—from Raleigh to Charlotte and beyond. These projects give us the opportunity to show our gratitude through design and content consultation, which in turn allows non-profits to do their work more effectively. It keeps our skills sharp, and we’re always happy to learn how our work leads to a positive, measurable impact.
—Emily Combs, Lead Designer

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Small Businesses

We need to work on our definition of “small business,” but by our best estimate, we worked with ten small businesses. Much like our work with non-profits, there’s a vast range of size and scope—many we’ve worked with for years.

We get excited about new clients. But there’s something magical about long-term regulars. There’s this mutual trust that develops. It’s an easy back-and-forth that can allow a kind of shorthand that leads to work with depth.
—David Spratte, Creative Director

Roger Canaff’s Next Website: It was great to work with Roger again on his website and put our information architecture chops to work. We successfully merged two of his sites into one, blending his life as a fiction writer while preserving his prior work in advocacy.

Fluvial Solutions: Has carved out a niche in green infrastructure over the last twenty years. Last year, we built out a modern brand identity and website for them to continue to the next phase of their business.

Haven Triangle: It’s not every day you get to work on the identity and website for a new business that’s bringing 25+ years of experience to the massage table on day one.

Design Team Highlights

We’re putting ourselves on the spot and sharing personal highlights from our work in 2024.

Disability Policy Consortium (DPC) Website

DPC’s advocacy supports their community locally and broadly, and so I was excited to have the chance to increase their website’s reach through accessibility improvements. Their team now has a solid foundation for regular content publishing and more discoverability. It just goes to show that not all solutions need to be complex—sometimes, all you have to do is take a closer look at what’s already there and commit to small changes that produce big returns. This project also led to our team gaining a deeper understanding of today’s website accessibility evaluation tools, and we’ve published a related resource for our clients who are less familiar with online accessibility best practices.
—Emily

Atomic Empire Entertainment Vouchers

I still love print. Throw in a fun brand, a bit of fun copywriting, and some die-cutting, and, of course, this will be a highlight for me.
—David

Cloud Skater

Cloud Skater was a combination of my two favorite types of projects: identity development and packaging design. This was fun, and collaborating with Trophy Brewing Co. led us to standout label art. We crafted something unique that looks great on a store shelf or on a bench at the skatepark. We love work that plays a role in our community. Purchases of Cloud Skater support a small, local business and hardworking non-profit dedicated to positive changes in the landscape of Raleigh. Only wins here!
—Emily

boundary 2: Volume 51

Even though we didn't get the post up until this year, this volume marked a changing of the editorial guard for boundary 2. Our relationship with boundary 2 goes back decades—long before HALO 22 was a thing. Not only did we navigate those changes at the editorial office with barely a hiccup (tip of the hat to the Duke University Press team), but it’s a fantastic volume of work.
—David

Haven Triangle

Laura is such a joy, and so was this identity project for her new business. Haven Triangle’s identity matches Laura’s bodywork approach in several ways: it’s soothing, welcoming, sophisticated, and artsy. (And it’s purple—FWIW, Laura loves purple and I’m a huge fan, too.) Finding inner peace can be a challenge in today’s world, and our team has a firm belief in the value of caring for oneself. With that in mind, we’ve created a flexible identity that will help Laura reach—and relax—those lucky enough to be in her service area. (Seriously, go get mushed by Laura. You’ll be supporting a local, woman-owned, small business. And your mind/body/spirit will thank you.)
—Emily

HALO 22 Resources Section

Our content work was huge in 2024, and a big part of that was talking more about how we work. That’s paid off with this collection of these evergreen resources we can share with clients. I can’t wait to see how this (and maybe new sections) takes off in 2025.
—David

What do you have going on in 2025? How can we help? Drop us a line and let us know.

2024 in Review