Ideas For Designing Your Company Annual Report

The company annual report design process is subject to a number of strategic, conceptual, annual, temporal, and regulatory constraints. The success and acceptability often lies in the designer’s ability to feed all channels of information into a suitable aesthetically pleasing graphic masterpiece. Having the fortitude to connect all phases of the project in the appropriate areas of design is what separates the ordinary from the extraordinaire.

Artistic Design

A professional graphic designer will also carry the knowledge of what is attainable in print and litho. This is a critical part of annual report design…not going outside of the realm of what can be illustrated from design to production. Designers should be allowed to think and process there own thoughts first, then a wiser person who knows a-thousand-and-one things not to do may be called upon if needed. Usually that is the team leader that is called upon. In the production planning stage, the printer assumes a significant role.

Commercial printing can make or break the entire annual report design effort, most designers say “quality and knowledge” is what they look for first in a printer. To do this, any printer we work with has to have a broad knowledge base about printing techniques, inks and papers, and alternative ways to get us where the project needs to go. To seek and find a printer that will be able to handle the occasional artistic temperament and to caution when all is not well with a job can make the difference with this complete process.

A two-sided, accordion fold report suggests the two sides of the seriousness of managing a successful business, and the funky ambience of the business itself. Sheet overlaps, shown here in green, were glued as whole pages to let the accordion open, be easily perused and read, without interruption.

I can recall once meeting with a professional, top dollar, Toronto based graphic designer. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss production of the annual report for a multi billion dollar corporation. The prototype had been created by the team of designers and it was absolutely beautiful. It was for a major Canadian based clothier. The concept was a cover of a business man standing wearing a classy business suit sold by the clothier. The image was printed in full CMYK colors, 2 metallic spot colors, foil stamped, UV coated, embossed and die cut.

To open the report you would open it from the center of the lapel the man was wearing by unlocking interlocking tabs of paper. Once the report was opened the internal pages were a combination of translucent and semi gloss coated litho paper stocks. The internal pages would open like an accordion in 3 sections. The 3 sections would be affixed to the inside panels once reader opens lapel cover.

In my years of being in the business this was the most detailed project I had ever seen. All other printing companies that had looked at this project provided every reason under the sun why this could not be produced. I sensed this was the case once we started talking. My approach was anything could be done, the question was how will we do it?

With that attitude alone I was awarded a $95,000 printing order that was actually produced by 11 different companies. This is what separates a mediocre thinker from a creative thinker. The mediocre thinker tells you why it cannot be done while the creative thinker finds a way to make it happen. When it comes to project management, the designer can be the orchestrater. The symphony of music can play truly creative sounds while the conductor offers just that magic touch to make it perfect.

Making The Cover

This task is not a painstaking one; make it top of your list of importance with your company annual report. Don’t worry if you run into a little trouble with how to design a book cover that is why you have a graphic designer. If you are just drawing blanks ask your designer to impress you with fresh ideas. Allow your designer time to research your company and key people that make the wheels turn. A surprising recent finding is people that frequent the average bookstore spend approximately eight seconds looking at the front cover and 15 seconds reading the back, According to “The Wall Street Journal”.

You have front and back cover that need to be included in planning and design! Don’t miss out on concept for the back cover, it should be more subtle than the front while providing extra interest such as company credits, milestones or maybe a mission statement. The natural order will be the front cover has stimulated the reader enough to look at the back cover, then open the report and review contents. Clearly, the one represented by the well-designed, 3D cover with a relevant image will influence you in a more positive way, and will more likely induce you to purchase that book. In order to wrap your report properly it needs the skills of an experienced graphic designer who has experience in book cover design. In so many cases, the designer’s thought processes are likely to be more valued, as well as ever recommendations they make. The fact is a number of designers can give a client a nicely designed annual report, rarely to readers see or consider all the good thinking that went along with that. If we attempt to breakdown the annual report designing process there are 2 basic steps:

1. Designer’s concepts (renderings) in rough form they are created for acceptance. Once the designer’s proposal has been approved the production work begins; bringing all of the different facets of design, art, and production into the picture.
2. Graphic Preparation- Once all approvals are in place it is now the graphic production team than must produce the mechanicals or finished digital artwork needed to go into production

Many good designers share the same view around clients, that is to be seen as more that a person doing a job. There is so much more to offer when a client sees the talent and skill employed by the designer rather than a set of hands.

In general designers will tell you that the most interesting and effective annual reports are (stylistically and strategically) from smaller, more entrepreneurial types of companies, here the designer delivers a one stop operation to the president/CEO. Illustrations in your annual report bring editorial insight to the challenges facing your industry today. For many design companies the belief is in tight designer control. These jobs must be tightly controlled, because they can so easily get out of control at any stage of the process resulting in accurate planning and estimating. Clients need to clearly understand what they are getting from the designer and when a deviation is made from the original game plan why extra charges are applied.

With projects such as annual reports it is often wise to look at from the delivery date backwards, this way you will know the drop dead line. If the project will take 6 weeks to produce then once you infringe on this window of time your client knows the clock is ticking and there is a chance the order will now be late. This is the main reason why tight designer control is important! Creating an annual report book cover isn’t as hard as it seems. There are many new programs, such as Adobe Illustrator that offer a sample gallery of cover designs that make help get the creative juices flowing. Here are a few example found in Adobe’s sample folders.

By understanding what will be involved in designing, writing, publishing and distribution of your annual report, you can put the proper building blocks in place to ensure all goals are met. Listening well is at the top of the “to do” list when gathering the information from clients. When you add that to the designer’s ability to think and process the information you have a magic recipe. In the initial meeting with the creative team and client it is best to use this meeting as information gather only and not to offer any solutions until you have taken it all back, brainstormed with your artistic team, discussed solutions and then return on the second visit with possible solutions.

Best Production Options for Printing Your Cover Design

Option A

Oblong Cover 1 up, 2 out Work and Tumble or 2 up, 2 out sheet wise oblong cover Stock: Cornwall Coated 1 side Ink: CMYK, 1 side (4/0) with protective coating Running Size: 20 X 26″ Finished Size: 12 X 9″ Finishing: Score and Final Trim

Option B

Four page cover 1 up, 2 out, work and turn or 2 out sheet wise upright cover. Stock: Cornwall Coated 1 side Ink: CMYK, 1 side (4/0) with protective coating Running Size: 20 X 26″ Finished Size: 12 X 9″ Finishing: Score and Final Trim

Related Posts

• Brochure Printing Shopping Tips
• Varnished Printing Effects
• How Paper Thickness was Measured in The 80s & 90s