Month: January 2021

Company annual reports provide information on the health of your company to shareholders, stakeholders, the media and your community. Annual report design can come in many formats, ranging from basic typewritten pages to full-color, glossy publications. Understanding the purpose of the annual report can help you ensure that your report contains pertinent information for your company.

Simple design tricks can help you create a more engaging report which is easier and more interesting to read. Let us check a few in detail.

7 Key Elements to Create Pleasant Annual Report Design

A Clear Format

Usually, when we talk about annual report, we expect a booklet of information which would require a lot of reading. At times, this can be boring. Therefore, it is very important for you to select a format that is interesting as well as provides all the required details. Traditionally, the annual report design has to be a booklet-style. However, a lot of contemporary formats are also used today that aren’t boring. These might include, a website page, an app, other digital mediums, or print formats with more visual designs.

The basic idea behind selecting a particular format or medium is to give the viewers/readers a sense of appeal. If the booklet-style is also tried and made attractive, they wouldn’t mind reading it.

Purposeful Story-Line

Once the format is finalised, the second and challenging step is to think of a story-line that you would use for the report design. Along with the finance and figures, the story must highlight the company’s success and learning experiences. Moreover, envisioning the coming year is also a major component here. 

A story-line also depicts the seriousness and hard-working attitude of a company. Hence, choose the best way to tell your story.

Add More Visuals & Infographics

This makes information easy to digest!

Text when combined with infographics, charts, graphs, and other visuals give clarity and lucidity to the report. Therefore, find new ways and designs to highlight the data and information with the most impactful visual effects.

Be Careful With Colors & Highlights

It is advisable to use a single highlight color in the report. Too many colors can often take away the charm of the design. Also, bold typography is an important way to highlight important information. This draws attention to key information. 

Using the colors carefully is also essential when you highlight different information. Although connected with each other, giving every idea a unique theme creates a visual impact that is easy to understand.

Typographic Hierarchy

Along with color highlights, text also plays an essential role in guiding the readers to key information in the report. Therefore, using text with correct size and style makes the report easy to navigate.

The entire document should consist of text hierarchy: Header Text, Sub-header Text, and Paragraph Text. The first is normally big and bold as it helps to grab attention of the readers. Sub-headers are comparatively smaller and not as stylish as headers. Paragraph text is very important as this is the main section that contains all the information. Therefore, keep it simple, clear, and readable. 

Space Utilisation

It is very essential that you use the space wisely. An annual report consists of information that needs a lot of room in the design. Everything should not look too clumsy or disorganised. Leave space where required, as this would give a decent and clear visual impact. 

Divide The Information

Annual reports usually contain a lot of information. Everything should be connected well with a natural flow as you form the story to make some sense. Therefore, it is recommended to divide the information into small sections. Also, use common themes to connect pages. 

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Branding is an important marketing practice in which a company decides its name, logo, and design. These all are elements that are associated with the identity of any business or company. They help to identify a business product and differentiate it from others. Branding is necessary for a memorable impression on consumers. It decides the expectations of clients and consumers. It is a great way to tell others what makes you a better choice. Your brand is built to show a true representation of who you are and what you are and how you wish to be perceived.

There are so many areas that are used to develop a brand such as:

• Advertising
• Customer Service
• Reputation
• Logo
• Promotional Merchandise

All these elements work together to create a unique and fetching business profile, creating a great reputation online. In this blog, we will discuss the different design and branding elements that help businesses grow their identity online. These are not a complete list of elements but a few of them just to give you an idea of how these elements play an important role.

BRAND DESIGN

From startups to multinationals, a great brand identity design can help in shaping an organisation, its products, and services right across the world. A brand identity is the collection of resources that support your company image all through the business functions. Generally, the logo is considered as your brand; however, people don’t know that it is just one part of your brand. We keep focusing on the following elements combined to make up your brand. These include:

• Brand Guidelines
• Brand Narrative
• Branding Design Process
• Colour Palette
• Illustrative Direction
• Language Set
• Logo Design
• Photography Styling
• Tone of Voice
• Typography

If you choose branding experts like us, the very first thing they do is research your market and recognise the key stakeholder requirements. In addition to our own research, we discuss the requirements and creative briefing from the company itself. Nothing is left to chance. We evaluate every bit of competition and find out what is working and more what is not. A well-crafted brand character emphasizes engaging and efficiently communicating to your customer base.

After completing the brand identity design, we then move further to discussing and planning the roll-out of your new branding.

LOGO DESIGN

The logo is important to any business or brand. It is the main identifier of any business organisation. Most of the clients associate the logo with the experience they had with your business. Whenever you think of your favorite company or brand, the very first thing that you will be able to imagine is the logo of the company. Logo design is the first step towards brand development.

WEBSITE DESIGN

Website is the next big thing. It would not be wrong to say that it is the first thing a business should consider as it is no less than the identity of any business. People who could be your potential customers are looking for you online and they expect to see you through your business website. No matter how big or small your business is, you can start with a small brochure style website in the beginning and extend it as much as you can with the response and sales.

A strong website is vital for any business and organisation. Considering this, we focus on designing websites that direct your customers efficiently towards the desired goal. We believe in matching imagination and passion with the technical ability to build a website into the one that customers would love.

Online business has never been so competitive and that’s the reason why a customer chooses an experienced company through their complete online journey. An experienced web design and development company uses its in-depth knowledge to understand what customers want to create the most effective business website. So, make sure you get someone experienced and reputable for the website-related task for your business.

ANNUAL REPORT DESIGN

When you do your best to take care of your customers, then it’s your responsibility to keep your stakeholders updated about the company’s performance and profits through annual reports. It is an integral part of any business which comprises a text-heavy document with complete financial data of the company. It can be overwhelming to the stakeholders therefore it needs to be prepared well or in a professional manner.

We have a separate team of annual report design that is experienced in creating, engaging, and exceptional report design to deliver a clear financial report of your company. We will include attractive infographics wherever required and make the best practice of typography. We include a great type of layout to make sure a consistent and easy to follow content structure.

The Building Blocks of a Great Annual Report

As part of our annual report design process, several different design concepts are considered including:

·         Brand Guidelines: A good company always acts as guardians of your brand and delivers a design that matches well to your brand guidelines.

·         Digital & Print: Within any organisation, consistency of the brand is key to consolidation. This includes annual reports and other stakeholder materials that are time and again ignored. We have great experience in both traditional printed outputs and digital interactive annual reports. We provide the most suitable output formats for stakeholders keeping their needs in mind.

·         Typography: To maintain the perfect balance of design and functionality, we offer best in class typography.

·         Infographic Design: Taking an idea from the data-heavy information and bringing it to life through infographics is a great way to understand the intent and your target audience.

For any kind of branding and designing help, feel free to contact Kaizen Brand Evolution.

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Graphic designer skills are important for all businesses. A skilled graphic designer will translate your company’s message, services and product information using eye-catching visuals. Graphic designers strategically use a combination of technology, art, text, and images to convey messages that attract consumer attention.

HOW CAN A GRAPHIC DESIGNER BE OF VALUE TO YOUR BUSINESS?

Take a moment and look around you. Look at the cover of a magazine or book. A magazine or book cover may give you a hint about what you might read or find inside. It is designed in a way to capture your attention. 

Now think about the packaging of your favorite bag of chips versus the care instructions on your shirt. The perfectly designed bag of chips is enticing you to eat a delicious snack. The care label on clothing is to simply inform you. Notice the billboards you see on the way to work. Take note of the advertisements you view on Facebook and Instagram. Every graphic design has the intent to lure you in for more. 

Graphic designers are used for all sorts of marketing communication. Consider graphic design as a necessary part of your business. Graphic design isn’t just about being creative; it’s also about achieving a set of objectives using text, images, and symbols.

HOW DESIGN CAN TRANSFORM YOUR COMPANY

Businesses use graphic designs for almost everything they do. Graphic designers create a brand image or logo to convey a consistent and unified look so that your customers can identify with you.

Business identity items keep your company name and brand image in the forefront of your customers’ minds. Items like business cards, stationary, envelopes, and logos are apart of your business identity.

Business cards are still relevant. Invest in a good business card and quality card stock. You’ll want to make the best impression possible when giving out your business card. Graphic designers also create local advertisements. In addition, a graphic design company creates artwork for billboards and van wraps. Direct mail is still a common form of marketing. You could send your customers unique catalogs and brochures. Consider sending promotional items such as t-shirts, hats and tote bags. A graphic designer can provide you with low and high-resolution files so you can reproduce anything you need to promote your company.

Digital graphic design services can be used on a daily basis. Websites need to have up-to-date visuals. When you launch new products or services your online store should reflect the changes. Consider the images that are used on social media, and within email blasts. Each visual is carefully constructed and pieced together to drive your defined agenda. A graphic designer can edit images using Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. Maybe the photo you took is not professional enough to be uploaded on social media or your website page. A talented graphic designer can edit colors, remove or sharpen objects to make your image come to life.

WHY HIRING A GRAPHIC DESIGNER IS SO IMPORTANT

Have you heard of the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words?” Graphic designers use advanced design software that will translate your message and make your company stand out. A professional graphic designer will use a combination of typography, photography, illustrations, colours and design expertise while keeping your message and target audience in mind.

An advantage of hiring a marketing and graphic design company is that your business message will be clear and concise. The company branding will be coordinated across the board. When a company does not work with a professional graphic designer, they may use a printer. As a result, the company branding may not be consistent.

As a business enthusiast or entrepreneur, you better know that you need financing to start or keep running your business. It is often not possible to raise that fund or capital from your own capital and your partners’ capital. It is so because generally, a business needs a large amount of money or capital to get started and keep running. Therefore, you need to raise capital from external sources to start or keep running your business. 

Now, you might be wondering what external sources are from the perspective of raising capital for your business. If you have enough knowledge and understanding of starting a business, then it (external source) might not be a new term for you as it is very common in business. But if you are new to the business field, it might be an unknown term for you. If it is so, we are here to guide you. 

What Are External Sources to Raise Funds For Businesses? 

A business mainly depends on two major sources to raise its capital. Those include internal sources and external sources. 

Internal sources include the capital of business owners and partners. While the external sources majorly include shareholders or stakeholders and investors. 

Generally, a company or business sells its shares to stockholders and investors and alongside gives them certain rights of the company. That’s how a company raises its capital from external sources. 

However, to attract investors and stakeholders to invest in your company, you must have a well-prepared business plan. And that you can display using a powerful business pitch deck. 

What is a Business Pitch Deck?  

A business pitch deck is a brief yet detailed presentation of your business plan, the thought behind starting your business, products, services, potential growth in the market, benefits, possible challenges, solutions, etc. These days, it plays a very crucial role in growing a business as it attracts stakeholders and investors and influences their decision-making. 

So, it is very important to have an effective business pitch deck if you want your business to flourish in the market. 

To create your presentation deck design, you can take professional assistance from brand designing agencies or printing companies. They will certainly professionally help you with this. 

But before you hire a brand design agency, you must prepare effective and engaging content for your business pitch deck. 

Here we have compiled four different questions of investors and stakeholders that you need to satisfyingly answer in your business pitch deck. Let’s have a look at those four questions. 

Four Common Questions of Investors That Need To Be Answered 

Generally, investors want to know a lot about your company, products, services, future plans, benefits, etc. before making their investment. And so, they often have a big list of questions. As a business owner, it is your responsibility to answer all their questions and that too in a satisfying manner. If you fail to do so, you can lose many potential investors and stakeholders. So, you must keep this in mind. 

Here are four common questions of investors that you need to clearly answer in your business pitch deck. 

1. What are the potential benefits of investing in your business?

This is the most common question that investors ask business owners. So, you must be well-prepared for answering this question. 

Of course, as a business owner, you will be having some potential benefits on offer for investors. You just need to pitch those benefits impactfully to investors. Try to focus on those benefits which you are exceptionally providing to your investors. This will certainly help you influence the decision-making of investors. 

Apart from this, make sure the list of benefits must be both in your mind and on slides. 

2. What makes you stand out in the market? 

Investors have a number of options in the market to invest their money. And so, they can invest in any company as per their preferences. They will ask you why they should invest in your company and what are the things that make your business stand out in the market. So, you must have logical answers to these questions so that you can satisfy them and convince them to invest in your business. 

3. What are your strategies to outperform the competition?  

Investors want to know how you will beat the competition in your market and what are strategies you are focusing on to outperform your competitors. You have to answer this sensibly because a single mistake or irrationality in your answer can result in losing a number of investors. So, use the data, reports, and surveys logically to explain your strategies to outperform your competitors. 

4. How can your business survive for the long-term?  

This is another very crucial question. Generally, this question is asked by those investors who plan for doing investment for a long time. So, if you want them to invest in your business, you need to clearly explain to them how you are going to survive for the long-term in the highly competitive market. And for that, you have to do good preparation.  

Apart from these four questions, there are more you should include in your pitch deck presentation. You can explore those questions on the internet. 

A pitch deck matters a lot for startup companies and businesses as it is an important marketing tool to attract investors and impact on their decision-making. It helps them raise capital from investors, establish their business, and start operating their daily business operations smoothly. So, it is crucial to design a killer business pitch deck that has some interesting and effective content to attract investors and impact their decision-making.

Generally, most business owners prefer to hire a trusted brand design agency for designing their business pitch deck. It is a good option if you don’t have in-depth knowledge and understanding of pitch deck designing or if you want to have the highest quality pitch deck. You can hire them, but alongside, you should also have enough knowledge and understanding of business pitch deck designing because ultimately, you will be the one who will be pitching in a room full of investors. If you don’t have enough knowledge and understanding of business pitch deck designing, this ultimate guide is for you. 

In this ultimate guide, we have comprehensively explained every step of designing a killer business pitch deck. Let’s have a look at those pitch deck designing steps. 

Pitch Deck Designing

Pitch deck designing is a strategic process that requires a lot of internal and external research to be done. Referring to internal research, we are talking about deeply exploring your business, the thought behind starting your business, the short-term and long-term goals, and the benefits you are offering to your customers and investors. When referring to external research, we are talking about deeply exploring the market, market trends, scope, and potential customers. And this is the first step of designing a business pitch deck. Let’s discuss it in more detail.

Step 1 – Do Proper Research  

Doing proper research is a must as it helps to prepare the base of a business pitch deck. It helps you know some important points and factors that provide extra value to your business and potential scope for investors. You should focus on them while designing your business pitch deck because those points can be key to grab the attention of investors and stakeholders. 

So, before you start designing your presentation pitch deck, make sure you do in-depth research both internally and externally. 

Step 2- Create Compelling Content 

Content is the main part of a pitch deck as you pitch it to investors and audiences. So, it is very important to create compelling content for your pitch deck. It will help you impress the investors and stakeholders and make them invest in your business. 

To create interesting and engaging content, you must first consider the outcomes of the research. Based on those outcomes, you should prepare your content making strategies. You should focus on those points which show the strongest side of your business. For example, if your business is doing something differently from other businesses and that is beneficial for both the customers and investors, you should highly focus on that. Apart from this, you should involve the following things in the content. 

• Who you are- (a brief introduction)
• The basic idea behind starting your business
• A message for investors and other audiences from the CEO of your company
• The faces behind your business
• Products & Services
• Potential market scope of your business 
• Potential benefits for investors 
• Some historical data and metrics about your business category
• Short-term and long-term future goals

Step 3 – Design a Professional Presentation 

Once you prepare content for your business pitch deck, the next thing you need to do is to design a professional pitch deck presentation. Here is how you should design your pitch deck presentation. 

Select a Professional Layout or Theme – Firstly, you need to choose a particular theme and layout for your pitch deck presentation or you can design a new one. Here you need to consider a few things that are:

The aspect ratio of your selected slide or layout must be 16.9. It is an ideal size for a professional pitch deck presentation as it covers the whole screen without leaving space in the sides, top, and bottom of the slides. 

The layout and color palette of your pitch deck must be attractive enough to grab the attention of investors and other audiences. 

The theme of your presentation must be professional. 

Add Content to Pitch Deck – Once you select a professional slide design for your presentation pitch deck, the second thing you need to do is to add content. The content you prepared earlier, you need to add that in your pitch deck. 

While adding content to your pitch deck, you can use different features of the pitch deck to make it more attractive and interesting for your audience and investors. You can use bullet points, graphical presentation of data and metrics, infographics, pictures, videos, etc. 

Apart from this, while adding content to your pitch deck, you should avoid using lengthy paragraphs as they can trigger boredom. Instead of length paragraphs, you should use two-four lines paragraphs and bullet points. You also need to nicely align and organize all your content so that it looks pleasant to the eyes. 

Step 4 – Review Your Presentation Pitch Deck 

Once you have completed designing your business pitch deck, the last thing you need to do is to review your pitch deck. You need to ensure that every single detail you mentioned in your pitch deck is correct and doesn’t have any false information. If you find any irrelevant and unnecessary content in your pitch deck, you should remove that. Now, your business pitch deck is ready to share with investors and stakeholders.