Annual reports can be very boring tomes, but they're also a great opportunity for companies to put a best face forward, and to be human. When I see annual reports that are well designed and interesting, I save them as style reference. One such publication is the 1983 annual report for Potlatch, a lumber company that made $40.5 million in 1982.
Jonson Pedersen Hinrichs & Shakery used a montage of photos and illustrations to present the history of Potlatch and lumberjacks. It's a look that's particularly engaging and an excellent way to present facts.
Did you ever wonder about those famous lumberjack breakfasts? The report says that, "A 10-12 hour day in the woods demanded a lot of energy. Just to keep up their strength, early day loggers consumed about 9,000 calories a day."
OMG - that's more calories than I consume all day!! But of course I'm just sitting at my desk. I'm totally with you on annual reports. I'm always interested in checking them out and seeing how companies choose to represent themselves. Unfortunately most are not terribly interesting - in either design or content. This one, however, is great!!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful post, very entertaining! But I'll pass on the breakfast!
ReplyDeleteThanks quintessence and Paul. I have an image of lumberjacks not only consuming this breakfast, but consuming it hurriedly! It would be interesting to see a typical lunch and typical dinner. The amount of food supplies alone would have warranted railways to the camps!
ReplyDeleteThis montage style, with text, photos and images, is so easy to digest. I think more educational texts and instructional manuals should be done in this manner.
ReplyDeleteYou know, personally I think that a lumber jack breakfast was even bigger than that. As a teenager, I sometimes ate that much or more, and wasn't even that active. Of course we played outside all day and weren't addicted to electronic games. It sure looks good!
Mark, I can't believe this is an annual report! It is like a well illustrated volume for education! I also love old annual reports where companies actual put some effort into them. Now they all look like boring monologues full of stock photos!
ReplyDeleteThank you SwF and David. The beginning of the report is about five spreads in the above style, then the majority of the book is text with typical bar graphs. Something for everybody.
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