Annual Report 2010-2011

I received a copy of the Area of Highest Need Programme (now titled Our Happy Place) Annual Report for 2010-2011 and have been able to analyse it and think about how to improve it for the next publication.

The front cover consists of white and shades of purple, with a lilac colour used for the bottom half and violet text and flourishes. The typeface is quite uninspiring, as is the rest of the cover, and is reminiscent of school textbooks. Together with the photography it does give an impression of a community publication, perhaps a school prospectus or brochure, which is suitable for some of the readers they will be aiming for. However, I don't think anyone would pick up the magazine and read it for fun or having been drawn in by the front cover.

The inside page of the cover features a collage of newspaper clippings showing inspiring articles about projects they have been involved in, complete with lots of photographs of smiling children. It works as a celebration of their achievements and would evoke pride in parents and anyone involved in the projects featured, but from a design perspective it seems cluttered and fractured.

I like the contents page on the other side of the spread as it is clean and simple, and carries on the purple colour scheme started on the front cover, giving the document continuity. The writing is legible in black on white and a sans-serif font, which seems friendlier than if a serif typeface like Times New Roman or Baskerville had been chosen. The key points are surrounded by a lilac box to stand out from the rest of the article, and there is another inspiring photograph at the foot of the page.

The foreword pages are the first that use the footer that features the page number and web address, which is then continued until the end of the document. The purple is also used throughout, and again the text is broken up with photographs to prevent it looking too wordy.

Charts and tables like this one are used where there is a lot of information to display but I don't feel it is the best way to display the data and again is reminiscent of school textbooks.There is an opportunity with the data, especially in this table, to present it in an intriguing and entertaining way but they have decided on a plain and boxy style.

Another aspect which is seen numerous times throughout is the use of quotes, highlighted in a purple box set out from the text and at a jaunty angle across a photograph. This has a charming look but when you read the quote and look at the picture it doesn't fit, and is just a line lifted from the text and not a vox-pop which is how I feel it is presented.

The back cover uses the same style as the front, and features logos from all the organisations supporting the AOHN programme. Due to the number of logos it would be difficult to set them out any neater than it is here, and it looks good against the white part of the cover.

Although I don't find the cover inspiring and wouldn't choose to read the publication, I feel that the design works in the context of an annual report for a community organisation. It is clean and functional, and using the same colours throughout gives it uniformity. Without knowing exactly what they would like changed it is difficult at this stage to improve the design, apart from giving it a more structured layout.