As the audience for Annual Reports broadens the use of bespoke infographics is now more popular than ever as a way of presenting information in a quick, clear and informative format.
The clever use of Infographics in annual reports is an ever-growing trend, as the audiences for annual reports grow. The need to make complex data and information easily readable and more importantly understandable has meant a huge increase in well thought out infographics.
Toast are experienced infographic designers – we can help you create the perfect infographic design.
When we create detailed infographics we tend to follow some basic guidelines, a clever infographic will always:
- Emphasise a key fact or message
- Be easy to understand
- Allow quick extraction of key information
- Ensure that format (look and feel) follows function
Let’s take a closer look at each of these points.
- Emphasise a key fact or message
It should be immediately clear what the key message is, if it isn’t then you will have seriously handicapped your design. Most infographics will need a viewer to read more to understand the graphic fully, but the high level – instant takeaway must be there. All too often an infographic is challenged with delivering too many messages, if this happens it is guaranteed to say nothing to everyone. Keep it Focused.
- Easy to understand
The purpose of an annual report infographic is to communicate simply and clearly what the copy alone can’t. If you ask one infographic to convey multiple meanings to a variety of audiences it is most likely going to become confused and disordered. Keep it simple – using a clever visual device or icons help people relate to the key facts, and don’t overcomplicate things with unnecessary graphics that might confuse them.
- Quick to extract key information
Your average annual report reader, will at some point skim through looking for key information or sections they are particularly interested in. This type of reader is looking to get the most information for a limited amount of time spent or effort. Make it easy for them.
- Format follows function
Creativity is essential when creating infographics but it must never override the need to convey the key message or information. If you have an infographic in your annual report and it looks wonderful but doesn’t convey the information it should, it is just a pretty picture and should be replaced. Infographics should always have a purpose and should never be used as a visual distraction, doing so compromises all the other infographics and potentially the annual report itself by creating distrust or confusion for the reader.
Your trusted partner in Annual Report Design
Toast is the perfect partner to help create your annual report and this includes the creation of clever and creative infographics that will make your report successful, whatever the audience. Get in touch and one of the toast team will talk to you about creating your next annual report, call 01295 26 66 44 or click on the link below.
