Annual reports
The challenge with an annual report is to inject a bit of appropriate personality into what is essentially a dry financial document without sacrificing clarity. A high-profile piece of literature, the report must reflect the image of the company, portraying it in as positive a light as possible while remaining an important document of record. Judges mark up for originality and sheer quality of typography and visual imagery, and down for metoo or over-glossy treatments.
Given those criteria, there was absolutely no doubt in the minds of this year's awards jury that The Partners was on to a winner with its report for computer systems troubleshooter BSO. Personality
Abounds in the slim, black journal-style tome, which combines quirky visual delight in the fronted report section with an elegant, no-nonsense approach to the financial data at the back.
BSO wanted the report to show that its strength lies in its global staff network. The Partners therefore asked 30 staff from different BSO offices across the world to fill out a ruled "diary" page, outlining what they do at home and in the office, to give a snapshot of the BSO team. Each was asked to provide ephemera to back up multilingual submissions and these are used as visuals with the odd 3D addition - a tea-bag here, a strip of sticking plaster there. Loads of personality.
By contrast, the accounts section plays it straight. Simple, small-but-legible black type printed on cream paper gives accounting details, with orange type used to highlight key figures and graphics and blocks of subdued grey/blue and terracotta introduced as page markers. A ribbon bookmark completes the effect.
The shortlisted entries vary tremendously in style - though none has quite the complexity of The Partners' winning offering. Pauffley's design for international financial services group CS Holding plays up the simplicity of an ostensibly financial document. Variety is introduced to the facts and figures by use of different weights and sizes of type printed
Black on cream or cream out of black or a dull forest green.
Carter Wong's Broadcasting Statistics for world motoring authority Federation Interriationale de I'Automobile, organiser of the Formula One World Championship, plays up colour through the use of grainy full-page motorracing imagery and smaller national flags.
Shoe manufacturer C&J Clark's previous report and accounts proved a winner for Radley Yeldar in last year's awards. This year the consultancy was beaten, but the judging panel still applauded the combination of careful typography and cool black-and-white photographs to produce an authoritative document.