Top Six Strategies You Should Follow to Design Your Annual Report

Posted on: March 1, 2021 11:28 am

Graphic Design - Kaizen Brand Evolution, Annual Report Design

An annual report is a crucial part of a business marketing strategy. It plays a vital role in attracting and engaging investors and influencing their decision-making. 

It also helps a business stand apart from its competitors and expand its market to local and global markets. Therefore, it is crucial to design a stand-out annual report to help your business achieve its goals within a targeted time. 

When it comes to annual report design, we predominantly focus on designing a text-heavy annual report. It is a traditional approach to design an annual report. But these days, this method is no longer followed by most businesses and companies. They follow a new way of designing an annual report that involves elements of infographic-inspired designs, such as data visualizations, illustrations, and icons. This new method is predominantly focused on visual content as the visual content is a much better medium of effective and engaging communication than text-heavy content. 

In this blog, we have compiled the top six strategies to design an infographic-inspired annual report. You should follow all those. 

Let’s go deeper to explore. 

Feature the Stats Using Infographics

Stats are never featured in text form. They are featured either in bullet form or infographic form. So, make sure you do not present your company’s stats in text form in your company’s annual report because text-based stats can be difficult to understand for the audiences.   

First, to feature the stats in infographic form, collect all the stats, and organize them appropriately. After that, choose particular infographics that can present your company’s stats effectively and engagingly. You can select any of the following infographics. 

  • Statistical infographics
  • Timeline infographics
  • Process infographics
  • Geographic infographics
  • Informational infographics
  • Hierarchical infographics
  • Infographic template etc. 

If you don’t know these infographics, you should consult with an expert and experienced annual report designer. He/she can help you with this. 

Illustrate the Data Like a Story 

The illustration of the data is as important as the presentation of the data. So, make sure you illustrate all your annual report’s data effectively. It would be best if you illustrate it like a story. 

First of all, design a unique cover page (like a movie poster) that awakes your audiences’ interest. Your annual report’s cover page must be full of infographic elements and photographs, including icons, characters, graphs, shapes, 3D shapes, etc. It will be best to leave a long-lasting impression on your audiences’ minds. 

Secondly, share some of the main highlights of your company’s annual report in the beginning. You can present these highlights in bullet points, arrows, or a template. It will also be helpful to attract your audiences.  

Apart from this, you should illustrate all your company’s annual report data sequentially. And every data, stat, and the transaction must connect to others. It will allow your audiences to understand what you want to make them understand readily. 

Use Photographs Effectively

Photographs are the true visual element. They are effective and attractive more than any other visual design element. They bring your goals to life as they add a human element to your annual report. 

It would be best to use high-resolution photographs in your annual reports. First of all, find out all the pages of your annual reports in which you can use various pictures. After that, consult with an annual report designer and select high-quality pictures you want to feature in your annual reports. Then place them perfectly to grab the attention of your audiences and engage them.

Using photographs effectively in your annual report, you can readily attract investors and stockholders and influence their decision-making. 

Make It Interactive 

If you want your audiences to read or see your annual report, you need to make it interactive using various interactive elements. Use subtle animations, characters, and graphs to make your annual report interactive. Apart from this, you can add relevant video presentations, image presentations, GIFs, etc., in your annual report’s digital form. It will help you keep your audience engaged during the whole presentation. 

Comparison Infographic

If you want to show your company’s performance is getting better than the last year, you should use comparison infographics. With these infographics, you can efficiently and effectively demonstrate how your company did better than the previous year. Apart from this, you can also show the growth expectation of your company through comparison infographics. This method of visual content can also influence the decision-making of investors and stockholders. 

Create a Short Motion Graphic

As part of the introduction, it would be impressive to create a short motion graphic to thank and welcome your audiences. You can also give a brief introduction of the company and annual report in a short motion graphic. It will be exciting. 

These are some of the best strategies you should follow while designing your company’s annual report. These methods will help you create a powerful and result-oriented annual report.