Commercial Annual Report in Zine Format
An annual report does not only sum up what has been achieved in the year, but also gives an impression of the commercial organisation. Like many similar institutions, Hong Kong Design Centre (HKDC) has been publishing annual reports since 2008 to document an array of rewarding projects and missions. The management of HKDC, aligned with the institution’s intention to rebrand itself, was ready to renovate the design of the annual report to create a new reading experience.
Client
- Hong Kong Design Centre
What We Did
- Book Design
Design Concept
To break the usual rules, Ztory proposed to dissect the annual report’s content into eight themes that would be presented in a magazine format. In terms of design, the team forewent the lengthy texts and replaced them with concise titles, colourful photos and rich visual elements to entice readers’ attention.
This design had been a successful experiment for Ztory and Hong Kong Design Centre. The previous annual reports focused more on outlining the results of different projects, which was rather a one-sided transmission of information. The new annual report was conceived more from the user's point of view. Texts and photos have been deliberately re-proportioned to jazz up the readability.
A Final Word
Ztory's unorthodox design for Hong Kong Design Centre has brought a number of international awards to the latter. Among the awards, the Gold Award in 'The Mercury Excellence Awards 2021/22 (Annual Reports - Overall Presentation: Non-Profit Various)' was a definite recognition. A good design should be by the people, for the people. It should also dare to do something different.
