Reports

As one of the less ‘sexy’ aspects of design, report design is easy to overlook. Pages of text, financial information and, oh gosh, all those tables! But reports—good reports—can easily communicate complex information. And only a handful of companies understand how important Reports can be to add shareholder value and boost your image in the market.

GCS were looking to go bigger and better than last year. Starting with a unique landscape format, the report is as much excellent marketing material as it is excellent reporting. Internally, the report showcases the scope of GCS projects with double-page spreads of on-site photography, highlighting their key values of Quality, Performance, Reliability and Experience. We do a lot of photography with GCS, and the Annual Report is the perfect showcase for some amazing shots and amazing projects—from the QEII Medical Centre, to Fiona Stanley Hospital, Worsley Cogen Project and Parker Point Fuel Wharf.

Infographics are used internally to not only easily express complicated financial metrics across multiple years, but also keep the report interesting and fresh. The financial information has been set out to be everything an investor could want: easy to read, digest and understand.

The report is finished with a UV varnish of the GCS key values on a matt-laminated cover.

Once again Design city has delivered an eye-catching Annual Report for GCS. From inception and planning, through to copy and photography, and finally to print management and delivery. The team has the ability to surprise us every year with stunning visuals and unique concepts. Essential for any company looking to showcase its professionalism to shareholders and potential investors.

Brendan Krepp, Marketing Coordinator—Global Construction Services Limited

NOPSEMA (for the uninitiated, that’s the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority) is a Commonwealth agency that regulates the health, safety and environmental management of all offshore petroleum facilities.

We created a landscape, spiral-bound report based on the NOPSEMA style guide and corporate branding. The report includes customised graphs and infographics as well as colour-coded sections to easily tell the chapters apart. We were also responsible for printing and print management, ensuring the four colour process document showed consistent colour compared to the corporate style.

Timing was critical for NOPSEMA, and we were able to artwork, typeset and print the report well within the Authority’s timeframe.

New Energy, an Australian company developing innovative and sustainable waste-to-energy projects, engaged us to produce a 500 page Public Environmental Review (PER) report for the Environmental Protection Authority to support the creation of a new waste-to-energy plant in the Pilbara region of WA.

Putting together professional and complex reports can be quite challenging: there is a lot riding on the timely delivery of a top-quality report. The PER has technical reports collated from five different consultants (in all sizes, formats and qualities) and required exacting attention to detail in editing, spelling and grammar checks. You need an experienced team to deal with the potential disasters that shifting timeframes, creatively conveying very technical concepts simply, and multiple versions of each document, can cause.

Luckily, this is the sort of challenge we love and it was a great pleasure to help New Energy and deliver an excellent report.

This complex document has been without a doubt the most challenging in my 20 year career. The professionalism and commitment shown by you and your staff throughout this process has enabled New Energy to set a new standard in submissions to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)…. I would have absolutely no hesitation in recommending you to other proponents who face this daunting process. Thanks again and I look forward to continuing our business relationship into the future.

Jason Pugh, General Manager—New Energy Corporation

With tight deadlines and budgets, sometimes a full Annual Report typeset is out of the question. There’s still plenty we can do as designers to create a professional annual report, as we've done here for Perth-based copper and gold exploration company Sierra Mining Limited.

Design City helped Sierra to create a visual style for the 2012 Annual Report in the form of covers and inside cover spreads. A professional cover not only looks great, but also boosts investor confidence. The internals were typeset in-house due to time constraints and to reduce annual report production costs.

Design City can combine cover designs with the in-house typeset internals, as well as organise print, binding and mail-out to investors with minimal fuss and a quick turnaround. We can also provide corporate-branded Word templates to keep your report internals looking consistent and professional.

It’s been a great year for Hot Chili, who have taken great strides towards establishing themselves as the new and exciting Australian mid-tier copper producer in Chile. The 2012 Annual Report reflects the growth Hot Chili has seen as they transition from explorer to developer.

The cover images inlayed into stylised arrows, for example, showcase this ‘up and to the right ’ movement of the company as well as their drive for growth. The report showcases large images of the mining landscape to highlight current on-site operations and add some visual interest to the report. Layouts used are based on the current Hot Chili branding involving the use of geometric shapes and is creative and dynamic enough to maintain shareholder interest while maintaining readability. The result is a visually attractive report that isn’t traditional in design, but rather, like Hot Chili itself, progressive and distinctive.

We worked closely with Hot Chili to deliver the report in a timely manner and completed all aspects of the job from design to typesetting, print production, interactive reporting and mail-out to subscribers.

Hot Chili Limited has been associated with Design City since April 2010, when work commenced on the Prospectus. The company has received excellent service. The consultants have been innovative and have assisted the company to build the HOT CHILI brand. Hot Chili management has received favourable comments from outside parties, on the various reports and products produced for the company by Design City.

John Sendziuk, Company Secretary—Hot Chili Limited

Dacian Gold (DCN:ASX) is a gold exploration and development company that acquired the Mt Morgans Project in the Laverton district of WA. The Company successfully listed on the Australian Stock Exchange on the 14th November 2012.

With our experience in report and prospectus design, Dacian came to us to design their IPO prospectus. The emphasis was on displaying the numerous full colour geologist figures with maximum impact and legibility for investors and brokers. The report utilises a clean, corporate page layout with a one-column grid that is versatile and allows for justification of text without any unsightly word spacing. A stylised gold ingot shape with rounded corners from the logo became a linking element throughout the report; while the dark blue, gold and grey colour palette and corporate fonts established in the style guide were further used to maintain brand consistency throughout the prospectus.

The end result was a distinguished, well-presented document that complied with ASIC guidelines and regulations. The printed IPO prospectus were delivered on time and into the hands of eager Lead Managers for their road show presentations Australia wide.

The Western Australian Treasury Corporation are WA’s corporate treasury services provider, assisting the public sector by delivering effective and efficient financial solutions. Sound like a pretty big deal? They are.

Design City has worked on the WATC annual report for a number of years. This year, the focus was on their client authorities, highlighting how the WATC has helped Western Australian institutions like the Perth Theatre Trust, the Water Corporation, Western Power, WA Police and Tourism WA.

The report design was an evolution of the current branding and corporate style guide, with the cover representing a stylised graph going up and to the right. A clever play on words in the heading 'Leading the way' was used to emphasise WA's leading role in the Australian economy. The financial information is presented in an easy to understand format, with graphs and charts in corporate style and colours used wherever possible. We assisted with board photography again this year, choosing shots that were more casual, approachable and friendly.

As usual, the report is available as a Reportcast interactive online annual report, making it easier for investors to view the report online.

If you're interested in more corporate or government annual reports, check out some of our other annual report designs.

Design City has successfully partnered Western Australian Treasury Corporation in the production of annual reports over many years.

We are impressed with Design City’s ability to take our simple concepts and ideas and produce a creative, attractive, contemporary and professional product that can be easily read and understood by our target audience. The challenge each year is to improve on the previous year, provide something new and stay within budget, with Design City continually rising to the challenge and exceeding our expectations.

Paul and the Design City team are always very accommodating and provide a great service which is prompt, personal and professional.

Vida Corbett, Marketing and Communications Officer—West Australian Treasury Corporation