Objectives

• Realize the purpose of a brochure and other multipage formats• Become familiar with the brochure design process• Understand what an annual report is and its purpose• Appreciate the annual report design process

Definitions

• A brochure is a widely used tool, a multiple-page format for communicating information or for promotion.

• An annual report is a document of record, published yearly by a publicly held corporation, containing information about the corporation’s fiscal condition.

Brochures, Annual Reports, and More

• A brochure might be the most widely used and versatile graphic design format, serving many purposes.

• In a few pages, a brand story can be told, information conveyed, instructions provided, products displayed, or desire created.

• Similar formats commonly used by a variety of commercial and nonprofit sectors include promotional or informational booklets and books, as well as common corporate communications such as annual reports, offering memorandums, booklets, catalogs, direct mail, and sales kits.

What is the Purpose of a Brochure?

• A brochure is a widely used tool, a multipage format for communicating information or for promotion; it is also called a booklet (depending on binding and trim size) or pamphlet.

• Brochures are utilized for their efficiency and content, whether in print or PDF, whether external or internal business communication.

• A brochure may be one part of a larger information program or a comprehensive, integrated branding program for a brand or group. Scojo Foundation

Annual Appeal: Brochure© UnderConsideration LLC, Austin, TX

Brochure Design Process

• The design process has five phases: Orientation > Analysis > Conception > Design > Implementation When a brochure or brochure system is part of a broader

marketing or communication program, the design objectives strategically relate back to the greater design brief and its core goals and values.

Once you have gone through orientation and analysis, conceptual design begins with examining the content and formulating a design concept based on strategy, content, brand, and an insight.

Communication Design Newsletter© PrattBrenda McManus, Giovanni Jubert

• Once you have generated a design concept, your visualization process may partly be dictated by brand guidelines, where type of imagery or look and feel is predetermined. A brochure’s design may be based on characteristics of the

visual identity. When a brochure is less tied to the visual identity, then you

determine a greater degree of the visualization, including the sort of images.

Brochure Design Process

Adamo London: Sales Brochure© Chen Design Associates, San Francisco

• Five main issues to keep in mind for brochure design: How the brochure system will work with the existing

visual identity system What type of content How you will communicate the content How the brochures function in context Budget

• Context and Function Brochures are seen in particular contexts, on tabletops,

in wall unit dispensers, on counters, or in racks. Brochures can be mailed directly to people’s homes, too.

Determine how the brochure system will be seen and distributed before making layout decisions.

Function along with budget should also help you determine if more than a brochure or booklet is warranted or useful.

Brochure Design Process

• Format At times, you will have to work with a standard size format

and specifications, or you may need to determine the size based on objectives, concept, need, context, and budget.

If you do have a choice, then trim size and layout should depend on your design concept.

Brochure Design Process

Art Center Catalog© Matsumoto Incorporated, New York

• Grid Once you determine the size, design the grid. Make sure

it is flexible enough to allow for variety, to work for a system of brochures, and to accommodate the content.

Will you combine text and visuals on every panel? Will panels be dedicated to only text or visuals? Also consider a modular-oriented grid for flexibility.

Brochure System• When designing a brochure system, there should be enough

difference among the brochures to distinguish one from another. Each brochure should be able to stand alone as a strong

individual piece as well as graphically belong to the other brochures.

Modular systems or chunking information is a practical route for brochure systems.

Brochure Design Process

What is an Annual Report?

• An annual report is a document of record, published yearly by a publicly held corporation, that contains information about the corporation’s fiscal condition. This report—distributed to employees, stockholders, and

potential stockholders—contains detailed information such as the income statement, balance sheet, description of the corporation’s operations, and general reports about management and operations.

Corporations use the annual report as an opportunity to enhance their corporate identity and to promote their corporate message—the corporate ethos, drive, and main concerns.

The Purpose of an Annual Report

• An annual report is not only a required corporate document, regulated in the United States by the SEC, but it is also a marketing tool—a visual communication tool that conveys a corporate image. An annual report describes the state (health) of a company

as well as predictions and intentions for the future. Some designers specialize in corporate communications

with an emphasis on annual reports.

Components of an Annual Report• Most annual reports are divided into two sections.

The front of the report carries the editorial and promotional content and contains the most attractive marketing elements, such as photography or illustrations, the CEO’s letter to shareholders, and thematic statements.

The back of the report contains all the required statistics, what some call the “10K wrap.”

Annual Report Design Process

Conceptual Development for an Annual Report• The nature of a concept or a theme should appropriately reflect

an entity’s values, make a statement, enhance a corporate image, highlight achievements or strong points, or explain major corporate actions.

• A design concept for an annual report may hinge on a theme, a unifying quality, subject, or idea and involve a motif, a repeated shape, pattern, or image.

Chicago Volunteer Legal Services: Annual Report© Lowercase, Inc., Chicago

Theme• The process for generating a theme is the same as for concept

generation.• Some platforms for theme generation can be:

the entity’s mission the company’s charitable undertakings the topic of the CEO’s letter or other research or information the entity’s accomplishments, activities, changes, or

achievements of the past year a general platform, such as family, giving, growth,

advancement, development, or looking toward the future an intangible platform, such as responsibility, brotherhood, or

fighting against tyranny a visual platform, for example, visual juxtapositions, a visual

metaphor

Annual Report Design Process

Annual Report Design Process

Design Development of an Annual Report• Juggling a large amount of content and many components is

part of designing an annual report and demands the use of a flexible, well-designed grid.

• To help guide your grid design, determine the number, sizes, and type of information graphics

required at the outset print and online components how imagery relates to concept or theme visualization of information graphics as related to the

concept or theme paper (cover and text stock) for visualization and quality

Annual Report Design Process

Design Development of an Annual Report• During visualization, determine the kind of visuals and how they

will be presented– Choose imagery that will demonstrate the entity’s values and

attributes and that will best illustrate and exemplify the theme or design concept.

• Ensure: the annual report’s look and feel are considered in relation to

the entity’s established visual identity functionality: reporting information and promoting the entity information is easy to find and logically presented diagrams, charts, and graphs are comprehensible and share a

visual style photography or illustration expresses the design concept or

theme the theme highlights the entity’s achievements or goals

Summary

• A brochure is a widely used tool, a multiple-page application for communicating information or for promotion.

• In a few pages, with text and images, a brand story can be told, information conveyed, instructions provided, products displayed, or desire created.

• Brochures and similar formats have multiple pages or panels, and their purpose differs from other publication design in that their strategic objectives involve topics other than editorial content.

• A cohesive brochure system serves two main functions—to increase brand or group recognition and to provide comprehensible information or communication in digestible amounts—with each brochure covering a different topic, service, or product.

Summary

• A brochure may be one part of a larger information or comprehensive, integrated branding program for a brand or group.

• When a brochure or brochure system is part of a broader marketing or communication, the design objectives relate back strategically to the greater brief and its core goals and values.

• During design development, keep the following in mind: how the brochure or other application coordinates with the visual identity, the kind of content, how the content will be communicated, how it will function in context, and the budget.

• Make sure the grid is flexible enough to allow for variety, to work for a system of brochures, and to accommodate the content.

Summary

• An annual report is a document of record, published yearly by a publicly held corporation, which contains information about the corporation’s fiscal condition.

• This report—distributed to employees, stockholders, and potential stockholders—contains detailed information such as the income statement, balance sheet, description of the corporation’s operations, and general reports about management and operations.

• A design concept for an annual report may hinge on a theme, a unifying quality, subject, or idea and involve a motif, a repeated shape, pattern, or image.

• Juggling a large amount of content and many components is part of designing an annual report and demands the use of a flexible, well-designed grid.