Annual Reports

Well-designed annual reports from Creative Management Services are worth their weight in fine-quality paper and ink. And boost your image in the marketplace, as well as add shareholder value. Well-designed annual reports are compelling, even sexy, and convey corporate health and wealth management. Well-designed annual reports add an important dimension to a strong marketing campaign.

Once annual reports served as a strictly financial document, but now they serve up a vision of a dynamic corporation. Now they are the signature piece in a communications portfolio to showcase finances, market trends and positioning, corporate growth, products, people and the future.

Annual report designs begin with a vital grid framework, but the layouts are not limited to the structures. They are a beginning, not an end of the design. The basic grid structures:

–Two-column grids. The two-column grid offers a simple arrangement of text which allows elements like images and headlines to cross both columns in both vertical and horizontal layouts.

–Three-column grids. The three-column symmetrical grid allows images and text to cross one two or all columns. Another spinoff of the three-column grid is the three-row grid suitable for tri-fold brochures. Three-column asymmetrical grid allows three columns of distinctly different sizes, even allowing for a pull quote, notes, or heading on a narrow sidebar .

–Four-column and more grids. The four-column grid allows a variety of elements—text, photographs, graphics, tables—to fit artistically. Grids with uneven numbers of columns allow an interesting, asymmetrical arrangement of elements, often leaving one or more columns as white space.

–Mixed grid layouts. Even though we strive for page-to-page consistency, certain pages will ask for a different grid to handle the elements.

–Break out of the grid. For impact, perhaps consider using a full-bleed photo behind the other elements. Also boxing a pull quote in the center of the columns can be dramatic. Also consider an occasional rotated element.

Designers at Creative Management Services begin with a basic grid framework, then creatively develop original interpretations to render a compelling, response-driven annual report.