Annual Report Design: What Happens When You Supply All New Content
When we work with a new client, they have deep concerns about getting early proofs with draft content ready, to show progress to the board or management team during the early stages of the annual report delivery process.
Generally, producing a full proof with draft content is a bad idea. The only purpose it serves is to placate the CEO which results in a lack of trust in the agency. That’s understandable. Most agencies are slow to react, slow to create a proof and if they do, it is of poor quality.
However, clients who have been with us for years know that we have the processes and manpower in place to wait until the content is ready and at a reasonably advanced level to make the first proof meaningful and relevant.
The phrase ‘get your ducks in order’ applies here. Setting aside the cover design, the year’s theme and any copywriting may need to be done. We will prepare master pages, stylesheets, table styles (for the financial reporting) and even object styles so that everything is prepared for final, or near-final content.
I can’t overstate the need for trust in the design agency, but I do understand the caution a new client might have.
Let me give you an example.
We had a post-proposal call (or kick-off meeting) with the CEO, CFO and head of marketing to secure the project. We don’t free pitch – we never will. We have enough demonstrable experience in producing world-class annual report design that if a client asks us to free pitch, we don’t want that client.
We secured the project and we were handed over to a more junior team. Not experienced in annual report delivery.
That’s fine, we support and advise our clients to ensure they get world-leading, award-winning annual reports.
The CFO was concerned about showing early progress in creating proof. So that is what we did.
In a matter of weeks. It turns out that (this is pre-audit) the content had changed so massively that our first proof, setting aside the approved design templates and styles, was of no real use.
So new content came; we got the entire content for the annual report again, front end, back end, the lot. When we saw the new content we knew – like the client – it was impossible to ‘track’ the changes, as the changes were huge. All the finance had changed; new tables, new columns to existing tables – even new sections (that bit is important).
The only way to deal with this situation is to go back to our templates and start from scratch.
If this happens, the first thing we need to do is make the client aware of any cost implication (there will be one) and give an expected time for a new full proof.
There are two ways this situation could have been avoided. The client could have waited until the content was closer to ‘final’, but as I mentioned above, the CFO was keen to show progress. The reality is we'd gone backwards.
These situations can’t always be avoided. In our experience, this scenario tends to happen only in the first year we engage with a client. This is because the client’s delivery team worries the report won’t be delivered on time.
The reality is, our team (Navig8) can turn around a 100-page report in days, not weeks.
The second way this situation could be avoided is if the client used InCopy to make the changes. By working directly in the InDesign document the changes are made directly into the first proof.
We have to recognise that this can be very difficult for the client to manage. They will have multiple contributors making last-minute changes, who are unlikely to want to use software they are unfamiliar with.
The reality is the graphic design agency has to pick up the slack, take it on the chin, knuckle down and all that.
What we try to do is support our clients and advise them to help save money, deliver a report on time and leave them with an award-winning annual report.