Philadelphia Water Department

Philadelphia Water Department (PWD)

At West Cary Group, I lead creative development for our Philadelphia Water Department client’s Water Revitalization Plan (WRP) — a multi-decade plan to strengthen the city’s drinking water infrastructure — in close collaboration with the project’s engineers.

The Team

Art Direction & Illustration - Danielle Probst

Messaging Strategy - Stephanie Patino & Megan Smith

Account Management - Lexi Beaver, Megan Smith & Jennie Mummert

Visualizing Philadelphia’s Water Future

Our creative work focuses on helping Philadelphians understand exactly what upgrades are happening, where they will occur, and when — and how these improvements may impact their communities. In many cases, we use illustration to:

Explain large-scale infrastructure projects
Communicate project locations and neighborhood-level impacts
Increase community engagement online and at events
Strengthen brand recognition and trust

SRX Impact Report

One of our first collaborations with the team was creating a series of illustrations explaining the impact of the Schuylkill River Crossing project, to support an existing written document.

WRP One-Pager

We then partnered to create a public-facing piece that distilled core elements of the Water Revitalization Plan and mapped out project locations across the city. This one-page overview — shared at events and distributed digitally — highlights the many ways the WRP will benefit Philadelphians.

Free_iPhone_&_MacBook_Pro_PSD_Mockup_1.png

WRP Project Pages

Since many materials directed audiences to the WRP’s construction pages for more information, we created iterations of the core map to be used on each individual project page. This made for a more visually-consistent experience.

Leaning into illustration

Our early illustrated pieces didn’t just resonate — they reshaped how PWD communicated this multi-decade plan to its community. The trust built through those first projects opened the door to many illustration-driven initiatives including:

Interactive presentations & event posters
Project fact sheets & infographics
Animated explainer videos
Print brochures, postcards and letters

Community Listening Sessions

PWD held these public meetings to build awareness for their Water Revitalization Plan, and looked to us for creative that would encourage sign ups, and keep people engaged during the sessions. The result? The best-attended community listening sessions they had ever hosted.