You may have already seen our regular project highlight post back in December. Before we get too far into 2026, we’re taking another moment to reflect on what we did and learned last year. And, much like last year, we’ll look behind the scenes, share what we think about our work, and talk about how all of that will shape this year’s goals.

Process Reigned, Again

We picked up where we left off in 2024 and continued the push to improve how we work. We’re a small team, which means process efficiency allows us to put more time into understanding what our clients, and ourselves, need so we can deliver great finished products.

Another upside of this continual refinement is a wealth of posts on how we work.

Doubled Down on Resources

All that process work made it easy to post to our website. We published 38 posts on our site this year, compared to 32 last year. This is a sustainable pace for our team, but we won’t let it limit us.

Thanks to our ongoing writing efforts, our resources page has grown enough that it made sense to deploy the underlying taxonomy to categorize them. We’ll continue to fine tune its organization as we publish in 2026. Let us know if there’s a topic you’d like us to cover.

Project Landings Get Refined

In 2025, our client website documentation went modular. We built this content as individual components to supplement specific feature sets. These building blocks help us quickly assemble customized support documentation based on the work that went into each site.

The result is documentation built into the admin side of the site for each client. These improvements will roll forward in 2026, with refined notes and more. Maybe that’s not too exciting for our dear readers, but it sure is for us. We’re huge fans of keeping our clients’ learning experience as accurate yet succinct as possible. It helps maximize our time and theirs. A win for everyone!

Design Team Highlights

Keep reading to hear from our team about why our highlighted projects stood out.

Haven Triangle Website

Our team had a great time taking Haven’s new brand styles and applying them to a new e-commerce website. Squarespace offers section divider shapes to add visual texture other than straight lines, so we made use of the wavy, flowing divider styles to convey Haven’s peaceful, relaxing vibe. Our brand styles played out nicely online, with rich purples and soft bronzes to supplement imagery and text on pages and products. Despite being a small site, we’re really proud of how it looks and functions—and Haven is, too!

All Signs Point to CTC 2025

We love multi-faceted projects like CTC. One of the biggest undertakings with each conference is getting a handle on signage needs, and then designing those pieces to be visually engaging while communicating messages quickly and effectively. NCSC received great feedback about their signage after the event, which meant our efforts were a success. We also had a bonus challenge this year: Designing movie theater-style posters for a selection of NCSC’s Center Quarter talks, taking stylistic inspiration from blockbusters like The Matrix, AI, Finding Nemo and more. The posters were then printed in mini size to use as unique conference giveaways and gifts for speakers. It proved to be a rewarding approach, and we can’t wait to see what we might cook up together for CTC 2027.

DDI 2025 Merchant Handbook

We worked together with Downtown Durham Inc (DDI) to create a colorful, photo-rich piece that clearly conveyed the most important information for downtown merchants to know. It was exciting to see how they’d taken those brand styles and applied them to their Ambassador uniforms, vehicles, collection bins, etc., and how well that “IRL” branding connected to this booklet and the rest of their materials. We found that a horizontal layout worked best for grouping section content, as compared to the previous, traditional 8.5x11 layout. The new layout structure, combined with the new brand styles and photography, resulted in a vibrant piece that DDI can be proud to share.

454 Grill Identity Refresh

While it was far from our first food service identity design, 454 Grill was our first food truck logo since the formation of HALO 22. To toot our own horn, we created a professional, friendly, inviting, fully customized kit on a tight budget and fast timeline. It’s easier than you might think to have fun despite project constraints! It was a great way to flex our creative skills quickly while envisioning all the ways their new brand could work out in print and online. We can’t wait to see how they deploy their new kit as they continue to grow in 2026.

Bonus Highlight: Triangle Made

Triangle Made also made a surprise reappearance at the end of 2025, after taking 2024 off. We created all new prints and wallpapers for you to buy or download for free (respectively)! It’s always exciting for us when we find the time to fit in a fun, artistic exercise—especially if it means we can share it with you. It keeps our minds and creative skills sharp, which helps us continue to bring fresh ideas to our client projects. We hope you enjoy the visuals! Sign up to receive to be the first to know about our next Triangle Made release. (We promise not to spam.)

What’s going on for you in 2026? How can we help? Drop us a line and let us know.

2025 in Review