Annual Report Design: Kick-off meetings
Everything starts with a kick-off meeting and they can be a really useful way to define and agree on a whole host of project-related issues. The client will have their own agenda and a list of things they would like to cover, and the design agency theirs. In this article, we set out a list of questions from a design agency's perspective that will go a long way to ensuring a happy and successful annual report delivery.
Roles and responsibilities
It is important to introduce the teams on both sides. It’s a dry old conversation along the lines of ‘my name is Jemma Excelis and I’m the CFO’ etc, but an important one. The most important part of this opening gambit is to understand the roles and responsibilities each delivery team member has. From the design team’s point of view, we want to know:
Who’s the main point of contact(s), are there different contacts for the design (most likely the marketing manager/director) and the financial ‘back end’?
Is there a different contact for POs, supplier setup and invoicing?
Are there any ‘specialist’ team members, for instance, a proofreader or the IT contact if you are delivering a digital online report?
Once you know who’s doing what you have an opportunity to hear their views and tackle their concerns from the beginning – that is going to make your life a whole lot easier down the road.
Content delivery advise
The manner in which a client delivers content for their annual report will make a massive difference to the ease with which you produce it, your profit margin and your heartache. We provide a PDF guide when we submit our proposal, but most of the time that gets overlooked or not passed on to the actual delivery team.
It’s a share screen moment, share the PDF and talk them through it, and most importantly, explain the repercussions if the advice is not followed. Those repercussions being costs and time delays; clients don’t like either of those.
You need to position this as something that helps the client rather than being a draconian process that makes your life easy – it makes everybody’s life easier.
If we are working with a team that may not have been through this process before, we suggest a separate call with the delivery team to go through draft content and highlight any potential issues before we get the content. I can’t tell you what a difference that makes.
As it is nearly Christmas, I’ll let you download our PDF on content supply.
Schedule
Defining a schedule is important, it establishes reasonable (which they never are) timings and details responsibilities in a very tangible way. Also, clients love them.
Of course, things will change; of course, the client will miss a milestone, but if you are any. you will have allowed for that and can play catch-up without pulling an all-nighter.
Managing revisions
There is no project that attracts revisions like an annual report does. It is a fact of life, so get your head around it and deal with it. There are two options, sometimes combined, that should ensure revisions are done diligently and in good time; mark up the PDF or get the client to use InCopy.
Make sure you and the client are crystal clear on the revision process.
Photographic content
There are three types of photographic content, most reports use a combination of at least two. During the kick-off meeting the design team will need to establish where the photographic content is coming from and whose responsibility it is to search and select.
It’s important to keep as much creative control within the design team as much as you can when selecting and using the most appropriate photographic images.
Stock Library
Who will be responsible for searching for images? Try and make it the design team’s if you can because if not it may fall to someone who may not have the right brand and design expertise and the report might end up with pictures of cogs and compases, or kittens in goblets.
Have you established a budget? Are you using your stock library accounts or theirs?
Client library
If the client has their own library – and it is good – happy days. However, the libraries can be full of odd and miss-matching stock shots that can be a bit, well, rubbish.
Another pitfall to try to avoid is using images that have been used in previous year’s reports, it’s OK to use the same board photos, but anything else should be replaced or updated.
Anything shot on a phone is generally a no-go.
Photoshoot
We have an article extolling the photoshoot and the financial and communication benefits that come with a ‘bespoke’ photoshoot. If you are tasked with organising a photoshoot, establish the client’s needs as well as your own suggestions. You’ll need to write a proper brief, the kick-off meeting should inform that process.
Creative brief
You may already have a creative brief, but now is the time to question it and the kick-off meeting usually means the whole team is on the call, finance and marketing in one place. If you don’t have a brief, now is the time to get those questions in to define one.
Most, not all, reports have a theme for the year. Find out what it is. Is it down to the creative team to write the title? It should be. These themes can be difficult to define. Clients often want to say too much or mix their messaging; ‘We had a great year, with some setbacks due to market forces, oh and don’t forget to mention sustainability’. Hmm.
Then there is the visual style. Of course, some of this will come to fruition when you present your concepts, but the more you can establish before you start, the better.
It is always a good thing for the creative director to state right up front that every design will be on brand and follow the corporate styleguide.
Of course, every project is different and every kick-off meeting will need to address different criteria. They are rarely a waste of time and certainly offer an opportunity that you are unlikely to get further down the design process.
Let the whistle blow…