Annual Report Design: Grids
With every annual report we design we devise a bespoke grid. A grid is the invisible framework that holds all the content together. It helps deliver consistency, increase legibility and improve the visual impact of the document.
The design of the grid is a process unseen by the client and may not even be obvious to the eye even when the first proof is delivered. And that is how it should be. The design of a grid (and no two are the same) is just one of the things a graphic design agency does ‘in the background’.
A grid will vary based on several factors. Primarily on whether the report is to be printed or solely an online digital annual report.
In addition, these are the things we consider before designing the grid:
Is the document landscape or portrait?
What is the nature of the content types?
How many columns should the text areas have to best deliver the content (this isn’t as straightforward as it may seem, more on this below)?
Will the grid need to change to accommodate different content? For instance, a case study or the financial statements.
Does the grid need to accommodate content outside the main body? For instance, headers, footers, footnotes and page numbers.
The list goes on – but I had better not – I think you get the idea.
So, how do all of these questions and the subsequent answers, translate to the page design? Below are a few examples of how the creative director at Navig8 will make decisions when designing the report’s grid.
Margins
A question we like to ask our juniors is ‘What is a margin for?’; The answer (when designing an annual report for print) is ‘it’s a space to put your thumbs’. It’s not something people usually consider. It is the same principle for book design. A user needs to be able to hold the pages without obscuring the text.
A similar principle applies to the gutter (the centre of the bound document), the gutter must have enough space so that none of the content is lost.
We often see documents produced by other design agencies that use a default setting of a 10mm margin on each side. This is a sign of a poorly designed report.
Arguably a report that will only be delivered as a PDF and used a digital-only solution could have a smaller margin on each side, but by doing so it may not be as visually appealing.
Columns
The number of columns greatly affects the design and legibility of a report. More than you can imagine. Typically, your choice is between a single column, two columns or a three-column grid – or a combination of two of them. All should fit within consistent margins, no matter what.
There are advantages and disadvantages when choosing your number of columns, like most things in life. For instance, a single column is very useful when the content has embedded tables that sit within the flow of the text. If you use a two-column grid the flow can be disrupted and the reader will struggle to ‘connect’ the following copy that follows the table.
However, a single column can make the line length too long and reduce legibility. Too many words on a line can make it very hard to read. Have you ever read something and got to the end of the line and ended up reading the line you just read over again? More often than not, that is a line length issue.
A two-column grid is perhaps the standard, but unless implemented correctly it can reduce the capacity of the page or look bland. Whatever the case, over 24 years of experience, a 7mm gutter (between the two or three columns of text) works wonders.
So when would you use a three-column grid? Well, the decision should be (and always should be) based on the content. If the copy allows for top-level figures, pull-out quotes or interesting ‘side-bar’ content, a three-column grid can create a very elegant and engaging page, but there are very few annual reports that have the appropriate content to maximise this solution. A three-column grid tends to lend itself to a sustainability report, business strategy report or an ESG (Environmental, Sustainability and Governance) report, where targets and goals can be directly compared.
Financial statements
If you need to accommodate the financial statements, and every annual report does, then you will need the full width of the page. The very nature of some of the tables would make it almost impossible to accommodate the sheer number of columns and data in some of the tables. You need the width.
With smaller organisations, this issue isn’t such an issue. But with a larger company, say an AIM, pre-IPO, IPO or LSE company, the data is usually complex enough to need a lot of space to breathe and not drive investors or stakeholders to distraction.
The data dictates the page design.
A decision needs to be made as to whether the footnotes to the statements are contained within the main body of the content – there are financial reporting standards that need to be adhered to. So the situation is, as it always is; how best to deliver corporate reporting in the most engaging, clear way and within financial reporting conventions whilst still making a benchmark, award-winning report.
That’s what we get paid for, and that is why our clients don’t shop around – they come back to us year-on-year.
A grid is something unseen, but without one – a well-designed one – your annual report, or any brochure design, will never deliver what it should.
Grids are important, but so is typographic hierarchy… we’ll deal with that one next…