Annual Report Design: An Art Director’s View
I’m Drew De Soto, I’m the company Director and Creative Director of Navig8.
I think I'm a lucky chap in that I have done what I love for over 30 years, working with brilliant clients and fantastic team members.
I introduce myself because this is a personal, as well as a professional comment on what my input on a typical annual report project entails – with all the good and bad bits.
My job has a number of factors in the annual report process. I’ll leave out the day-to-day business activities involved in keeping a 24-year-old design and marketing agency going.
Every year we deliver a wide range of reports, loads of them. In fact, I can’t remember a day when we weren’t working on some kind of report. I reckon this week we’ve got maybe six on the go.
These are not just annual reports, but research, sustainability, insight and ESG reports. The one thing they all have in common is they all pass through my beady eye.
As the team goes through the process, these are some of the issues I feel obliged to stick my oar in.
Review
I look through the content and if necessary advise on structure and top-level data and suggest getting the document proofread if necessary.
I review the brief with the team and then question and clarify with the client.
Creative
We perform a round of creative concepts, everybody gets to have a go. The only limitation is – at this stage – we only use paper and pens; no software at this stage thank you. Oh, and no stupid walls covered in post-it notes either.
The aim is to get down as many ideas as possible. I am looking for original ideas, not the same idea presented in different ways. Creativity is the name of the day, creative and relevant. The ideas must answer the brief.
Development and presentation
I choose a selection of good ideas, typically more than I show the client. These get developed into a presentation which includes cover designs, spreads and a set of financial statements.
I review the developed design and make very helpful suggestions…
At the end of this, we have a polished presentation to put before the client.
We arrange a call with the client and gather feedback.
Document set up
We set up the grids, styles and colour palette – the whole kit and kaboodle.
I ensure best practice is followed, delivering the highest design values. Needless to say, everything must be within the client’s brand guidelines.
I check the grid and typography to ensure it will accommodate every content type and eventuality.
Over to the team to produce the first full proof.
Maximising opportunities
I review the first proof with the designer. I’m looking for a number of things, including:
Potential to turn content into infographics
Image adjustments, including improving crops and retouching
Relevant image selection against content
Consistent application of styles
Adjusting pages to improve communication and design values.
Quality check
As we go through the proofing and delivery process, we have a number of quality checks to ensure the highest quality. My esteemed colleague, Ashley, does most of the heavy lifting, his eye for detail is without measure.
As they say, the buck stops here and it stops with me. So I perform one last quality check at the final stages. As well as checking the design, I look for widows, orphans, poor hyphenation, correct use of en dashes and anything that annoys me.
There is, of course, more to it than that, but I wouldn’t want to give away too many secrets.
Everybody aims to deliver the world-class annual report designs our clients deserve.