project Information design
Predatory for-profit schools
Summary
Examine the US Student Loan system, and design a print or digital communication that enables a specific audience to better understand—and make intelligent decisions about—student loans.
Team
Annabel Lee, Annie Vuong
Class
Information Design — Karen Cheng
Disciplines
Data Visualization, Publication, Typography, Design Systems

Graphs made in Excel and Tableau and redesigned in Figma and Illustrator
Context
The recurring theme of student loans is that they are ill equipped to navigate their loans, ending up with mountains of debt. Upon research, we came across some surprising and unfortunate information about the illegal predatory practices of for-profit schools that have been poorly communicated for decades, so we decided to create a much needed handbook holding these companies accountable and a source of call to action for high school career counselors and students.

‘For decades, the for-profit college industry has exploited the promise of higher education. They specifically target low-income students, people of color, immigrants, veterans, and others trying to build a better life for themselves. This industry draws nearly all its revenue from taxpayer dollars and relies on deceptive and relentless sales tactics to recruit students.’
—The Project on Predatory Student Lending
The F**king Tone
We realized that the topic on predatory student loan practices is quite grim, so we opted for a more brighter visual tone and sketches to juxtapose the depressing nature of the information to provide some sense of optimism with this awareness, but also adding alarm and caution to the topic.

For the copywriting, we decided to go for a casual language to target our adolescent audience to feel less intimidated by the daunting nature of student loans and keeping their interest as they go through the booklet. And plan and simply, we wanted to acknowledge how pretty f**ked up for-profits are.