During UW–Madison’s 175th anniversary, the university commissioned a new Bucky on Parade statue: “Honor the Air, Land, and Water,” created by Art Professor John Hitchcock with assistance from student artist Kaylee Herrmann.

What began as a possible single-photo documentation opportunity became a much larger multimedia storytelling campaign. Through relationship-building across campus communications networks, I learned about the blank statue before the public reveal and secured the opportunity for my team to document the creative process from early development through completion.

The project became a story about much more than a mascot statue. Through repeated interviews and visits to the artist’s studio, we explored the themes behind the work: place, time, memory, movement, community, Indigenous presence, artistic practice, and UW–Madison’s past, present, and future.

Coforma wanted to move beyond internal year-end updates and create a more durable annual storytelling practice: an impact report that could clearly communicate the company’s work, values, and outcomes to current and potential partners, prospective employees, and peers across the digital services space.

The first report established the foundation. The goal was to create a repeatable annual format that could demonstrate Coforma’s impact, highlight the people and communities served through the company’s work, and give business development, recruiting, and the marketing and communications teams a shared asset they could use throughout the year.

For the next iteration, we had an opportunity to strengthen the practice. Rather than simply producing another written report, we expanded the storytelling approach to include richer multimedia, stronger distribution planning, more intentional audience research, and a more cohesive content experience across web, PDF, social, email, and video.