The Report That Connected a Fire Department to Its Community

Lu Hickman Creative Co. won a 2025 GDUSA Health + Wellness Design Award for the Public Health and Safety Annual Report created for the Pflugerville Fire Department, which serves Travis County Emergency Services District 2. The award, announced in November 2025, is one of the most respected design recognitions in the country, and the project was produced in partnership with Halo Effect Marketing.

This kind of public-sector design sits right at the center of what we do best. Government and public-safety organizations carry a real responsibility to communicate clearly with the people they serve, and good design is what makes that possible. For this annual report, that meant turning a year of operations, budgets, and life-saving work into something the 160,000 residents of Pflugerville and northeast Austin could actually pick up and understand.

The challenge was building a report that would resonate with the whole community while making complex information feel accessible. We wanted a document that was vibrant and easy to move through, and it had to work in two places at once: as a printed piece people could hold, and as a published report living online. Fires, accidents, and emergency rescues sat at the center of the story, so part of the craft was keeping the tone genuinely positive even as we handled subjects that are serious by nature. The result celebrates the work of first responders without losing its warmth or its sense of hope.

The report did more than showcase the department's work. It gave residents a transparent look at how their tax dollars were being put to use, and it marked a major moment for the community: voters rejected Prop A, the measure that would have pulled sales tax funding from the district. That outcome protected the department's budget and kept as many as 130 jobs in place, and the report helped build the public trust that made it possible.

Designing for the public sector calls for a specific balance. The information has to be accurate and accountable, and it still has to feel human. We are proud to keep doing work that meets a high creative bar while making a genuine difference in the communities it reaches.

FAQ

What award did Lu Hickman Creative Co. win? A 2025 GDUSA Health + Wellness Design Award, in the Annual and Corporate Reports category.

What project won the award?  The Public Health and Safety Annual Report for the Pflugerville Fire Department, which serves Travis County Emergency Services District 2.

Who did Lu Hickman Creative Co. partner with on the project?  Halo Effect Marketing.

When was the award announced? November 2025.

Lu Hickman Creative Co. is a certified MBE/WBE boutique design and marketing agency headquartered in Houston, TX, with presence in Chicago and São Paulo, serving clients across the United States. The firm holds WBE, MBE, Hire Houston First (HHF), HUB, and SBE designations and has earned six GDUSA awards in addition to two 2025 HBMA Lantern Awards.

Services include brand identity and guidelines, capabilities brochures and sales materials, proposals and RFP design, interactive presentations, and full marketing collateral systems, all built for firms that compete in technical industries.

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