ALL WORKCONTACT ↗CLIENT WORK / INTEGRAL / 2026
// DARK MATTER GRID / CASE STUDY P12
THEENGAGEMENTFALLACY
A 172-page workforce study shaped into a clear argument about what people do at work, why they stay, and what organizations miss.
READ THE STORY ↓
9 × 7 IN / LANDSCAPE EDITION01 / THE OPENING QUESTIONTHE REPORT BEGINS WITH A CONTRADICTION
WHAT IF THE
WAY WE MEASURE
ENGAGEMENT
IS THE PROBLEM?
The sixth Integral Index brought together research on employee behavior, workplace conditions, managers, trust, change, and business cost.
My challenge was to turn that density into a story a reader could follow across 172 pages. The design had to reveal relationships, build tension, and keep the people behind the numbers present.
BEING PRESENT
IS NOT THE SAME
AS BEING ENGAGED.
THE VISUAL SYSTEM MAKES THE DIFFERENCE IMPOSSIBLE TO MISS.
02 / NARRATIVE ARCHITECTUREBUILD THE RESEARCH LIKE A FOUR-ACT STORY
172PAGES
ONE REPORT.
FOUR TURNS.
The reader moves from a familiar assumption to a more consequential understanding of work. Each act changes the question before the next set of evidence arrives.
01 / THE ASSUMPTION
ENGAGEMENT LOOKS LIKE ONE NUMBER.
The research told a more complicated story. People could be committed, skeptical, stuck, or actively disengaged. A single score could not explain why.
THE READER ENTERS THROUGH SIX FINDINGS
03 / EDITORIAL SYSTEMRHYTHM KEEPS 172 PAGES MOVING
ARGUMENT.
EVIDENCE.
BREATH.
Dense analysis is broken by section openers, human portraits, decisive data moments, and quieter interpretation pages. The rhythm gives the reader time to absorb one idea before the next arrives.
- 01LEAD WITH THE POINT
Every section states what matters before asking the reader to study the proof.
- 02MAKE RELATIONSHIPS VISIBLE
Scale, color, and overlap show meaning before detail.
- 03KEEP PEOPLE IN FRAME
Portraiture interrupts abstraction and returns the research to lived experience.
FIGURE 07 / CULTUREONE RELATIONSHIP, SHOWN CLEARLY
04 / DATA AS DRAMALET THE RIGHT NUMBER COMMAND THE FRAME
A single contrast leads the page before the explanation arrives.
The distance between cultures becomes the visual event.
The closing argument connects workplace experience to action.
05 / SELECTED SPREADSTHE REPORT CHANGES FORM WITHOUT LOSING ITS VOICE
06 / OUTCOMETHE REPORT
THE REPORT
DOES NOT JUST
HOLD DATA.
It directs attention. The final system turns a dense body of workforce research into an editorial narrative that is legible, memorable, and useful without flattening the evidence behind it.
The work demonstrates how art direction and information design can move a reader from recognition to understanding, then from understanding to action.