Thrilled with our creative direction of last year’s annual report, the Alzheimer Society of BC approached us once again to design their new annual report. Working closely with their communication team, we helped create a new design that showcased their selected theme of ‘Community’ while improving upon our success from the previous version. The final product included a 22-page report that was printed sustainably using FSC-certified paper as well a full-page newspaper ad adaptation for the Vancouver Sun that highlighted key information from the report.
Infographics, Print
Alzheimer’s Society Annual Report
What We Delivered:
- Annual Report
- Data Visualization
- Infographics
- Graphic Design
- Copyediting & Proofing
- Newspaper Ad Design
The Challenge:
Outside of the usual hurdles of finding innovative ways to make the content, statistics and information engaging for the target audience, were two challenges unique to this project. The first involved developing a practical typographic solution and hierarchy that breathed life into the story-telling aspect that underlined their selected theme of ‘community.’ The second was figuring out an effective solution to the client’s request that we prominently feature Ted Harrison’s colourful painting ‘Walking Alone’ on the cover, without overwhelming the established brand colours of blue and yellow. This painting holds a lot of significance to the Society itself, and the late artist was also strongly connected to the Alzheimer’s community, helping raise money for foundations after his wife died from the disease in 2000.
What they came up with brought engagement with our Annual Report to an all-time high. We received more positive feedback on our Report than ever before. KIMBO invokes confidence and I always feel that the team is as invested as we are. They have a habit of over-delivering and are relentless in driving projects forward.
Christine Leclerc
Director of Marketing & Communications
The Strategy:
Our solution to the challenge of incorporating the Harrison painting on the cover was to situate it in context as a physical painting, as opposed to using it as a standalone image. From a practical angle, this gave us a means to feature the colourful painting prominently while maintaining the established brand colour palette of blue and yellow. More importantly though is the narrative power this solution provides. Looking at the painting as an artefact being held from a first-person perspective helps to personify their theme of ‘community,’ while also lending power to the role connections play for the Society.
The new content, in relation to the theme, also required us to develop an updated solution for the typography and structural hierarchy. We developed a system that used two distinct type families in a complimentary fashion that makes the layers of content the Society wanted to present both accessible and logical. Making sure to maintain consistency in our hierarchy, our system presents the content in a dynamic and engaging fashion appropriate for the target audience.
Alzheimers Society BC Annual Report 2016 infographics detail.
Finally, our overall use of colour was very intentional throughout the report. We used a mix of colour and duotone photography for the layouts that was intended to be aesthetically appealing while reaffirming the brand colours. We also used the Harrison painting as inspiration for the new colours that we used in the updated infographic we developed in order to establish continuity and flow from the cover to the internal layouts.
Results
The feedback from the client has been tremendously positive. Society team members, donors, supporters, and partners have all found the new report to be a very engaging and effective way to share the successes from the 2014-15 fiscal year while demonstrating their leadership and strategic planning for the future. One very unexpected but positive result of our design solution is that the new report has also proven to be a valuable presentation resource for meetings with prospective donors.
