Research: NHS Oxfordshire

In order to further understand what makes an annual report and provide inspiration for my own, I looked into some existing examples from organisations such as the NHS, and in this case the county of Oxfordshire.

This can be found here: http://www.oxfordshirepct.nhs.uk/about-us/publications/documents/NHSOXF-AR-20128.pdf

The cover of this report has many similarities with the Area of Highest Need Annual Report, featuring simplistic base design and montaged photographs. Again, the document's style is halved, with white at the top and colourful designs further down. This is a very formal looking document and wouldn't inspire me to read it but I feel it works very well for its intended audience, and I like the text on this cover, both the style and the colour. As the next report will use the 'Our Happy Place' title, a colourful look like this document would tie in with that well.

 The contents page uses white type on bright green, while the facing page uses mainly black on white with some highlighted text using the same colour as the stripe down the side of the page. As the rest of the document follows on with the white background, as did the front cover, I'm not sure why the decision was made to use green on the contents page.

I like the way the copy is laid out in the rest of the report, with white pages and simple type. The stripe down the side of the page is rendered in the same colours as were featured on the front cover, and the photography is unstructured and wonky as used on the front. This all combines to give a uniformity to the document, which could look potentially too cold and formal without the fun image layout and bright colour scheme.

I like to use simplicity and white space in my designs with minimal colour, and this report uses these styles to great effect for a document with a lot of complex information to convey to show it clearly and concisely while remaining easy on the eye.