Multnomah County’s Department of Community Services (DCS) supports essential public systems across elections, transportation, land use, animal services, bridges, and community investment.
Across these service areas, I help turn complex programs, policies, and public needs into communications that are clear, accessible, visually engaging, and easy to act on. The samples below represent public-facing materials I developed through a combination of strategy, writing, design, stakeholder coordination, and creative direction.
The DCS Strategic Plan translates departmental mission, vision, values, and priorities into a clear three-year roadmap.
I led the communications process from content refinement through final production, working with department leadership and external partners to shape the plan’s design, layout, and information structure. My work included layout, design, data visualization, and translating complex goals and planning language into a concise, accessible document for digital and print use. The final report aligned with the County’s voice while elevating how strategic information is presented to internal audiences and the general public. It set a new standard for County planning materials by combining substance, clarity, accessibility, and visual polish.
The Multnomah County Voters’ Pamphlet is distributed to more than 500,000 voters every election cycle. This year, I lead a complete refresh of the Voter’s Pamphlet to better support informed voter participation by making essential election information clear, accessible, and available to voters across languages and communities.
This included intentional typography selections individually suited to specific languages for increased legibility, a black and white palette for high-contrast visibility, and simplified language to better accommodate people of all reading skills (this also enabled better consistency when translating to additional languages).
After turning heads with my overhaul of the DCS annual budget presentation, I was asked to partner with the County Budget Office to help modernize how budget information is shared with the Board of Commissioners and the general public.
My work focused on creating a clearer, more consistent presentation system for complex financial information, using streamlined layouts, improved visual way finding, and accessible data visualization. The result better aligns budget materials with County branding while making key figures, trends, and priorities easier for decision-makers and residents to understand, and has already begun to be adopted by other departments across the County.
I worked with the Transportation Division to create the messaging campaign for their Rural Shopping Shuttles: a brand new, free service offered to help connect rural adults with transportation to groceries, health care, and other needs. The materials used plain language, large type, and clear structure to support quick understanding across social and print formats.
We identified Facebook as the social platform most used by the target audience and heavily leveraged community groups and word of mouth to help make this an especially popular program in East County in just a matter of weeks after launch.
Informational poster distributed to residents and businesses in East County notifying them of construction impacts.
Public recruitment poster for the Animal Services Community Advisory Committee.
Signage for the Animal Services Shelter cattery.
© TRAVIS SPENCER DESIGNS, 2026
