CREATE A POWERFUL ANNUAL REPORT YOUR AUDIENCE WILL APPRECIATE
By definition, annual reports are comprehensive summaries intended to communicate a company’s operational and financial conditions over the past year. This level of detail is essential and often a lot to digest. It is also an instance where function falls before form due to the nature of the content – or is it?
Make your annual report speak visually through clean design, streamlined layout, and easy-to-grasp graphics. Here’s how:
Be Smart with Organization
Effective organization becomes essential in the structure of the report (or outlined order of information) and the arrangement of information on each page. It starts with planning the flow of your publication and defining how you want to communicate your journey over the past 12 months.
Tell a Visual Story
Hierarchy can be powerful, pushing headlines and graphics to the forefront to convey your message quickly and allowing body copy to support your main points. With the outline of information in place, you can begin to incorporate good graphics, designed data and strong supporting images to speak on behalf of your written message.
Remember White Space
When a publication is content heavy, white space is our friend. It is the blank part of a page that makes content more easily understandable, improves focus on what’s important, and offers breathing room for readers’ eyes.
Convey Your Personality
Remember, your annual report is another brand touchpoint. It should breathe your organization’s voice, vision, and values – keeping aligned with your established standards and sharing your brand’s ideas and progress.
In any case, the goal is the same – create a document that will inform, engage and move people to action. It’s a communication, resource, and opportunity to be remembered.
Aedieno is a boutique creative agency. To discuss meaningful visual communication or powerful publication design, please contact us.
