Creative Annual Reports Make People Want to Read Them

Hard to believe?

It all depends on who is designing them.

Yes, I know it must have all the important numbers to give stock holders and the public a sense of the health of the company or organization but, does it have to be so dry?

I take no greater challenge than to take something that is made year after year and make it stand out.

Creative layout, graphics and photography will do just that.

I like to do a lot of research on a company to find out what will best present them in the best light possible.

I follow their brand as far as colors, logo, text usage and many other special things that says who they are but what else can I design that has not been done before?

The Salvation Army Annual Report was something of a challenge.

Red was the dominant color for them but it does not take much of the color before it becomes over powering.

Red does that!

I used some color photographs but I also used black and white and then added some images that had been colorized.

What is colorized you may ask?

It is a Photoshop technique where you turn a color image into black and white and then paint back just a few places in the B&W and return it to its original color. It makes the image stand out.

Some images I turned into sepia tone to tell a different story.

Other techniques were used on the layout itself to make the report more appealing and enjoyable to read.

In the end, the annual report gave the needed information but it was also eye catching to were someone might just want to pick it up and flip through it.

If that is what happened, then I succeeded in having it stand out.

Creative Annual Reports Make People Want to Read Them