The Annual Report to End All Annual Reports
Annual reports can be so incredibly boring. Why? Why do they have to be? Dana Arnett, designer atVSA Partners said' Robert Miles Runyan was given the title of ‘Pioneer of the Modern Annual Report’ in the late ’50s and early ’60s, and during that time he began to treat that particular communication vehicle as a dynamic expression of a company. In the decades that followed, corporate reports became more regimented and watered down, often retreating to safer conventions and formulaic approaches.' And that's what we, as non profit communicators especially, were left with. Often run by the finance team, or worse,a governance committee instead of the comms team, they can end up being dry factual financial tedium machines. Most organizations produce annual reports but don't take the opportunity to have them designed as an expression of their brand. An opportunity to tell the story of their good works.
'“Today with annual reports being primarily online, you can capture that type of energy through more dynamic content. But the trick back then was: how do you capture the essence of an organization two-dimensionally in a printed document through the use of type, words, pictures, scale, tactile paper, and great writing?'
With online reports using augmented and virtual reality, interactivity and all the other amazing gizmos at our command, there is zero excuse for a boring annual report these days, because even a tiny budget can produce great results.