ROSE OF SHARON ANNUAL REPORT
2021-2022
DESIGN PROSE
Organization: Rose of Sharon Services For Young Mothers
Mediums: InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Canva
Styles & Techniques: Publication/Print Design
I redesigned and assembled the Rose of Sharon's 2021-2022 Annual Report. This project involved a complete overhaul of the report’s presentation, including its theme, colour scheme, decorative accents, and overall structure. I also assisted with the printing process to ensure the document was ready for publication.
To highlight Rose of Sharon's accomplishments over the past year, I opted for a yearbook/scrapbook-style template. The design includes Polaroid photo placeholders, tape strips, cut-out shapes, dotted circles, and scattered dots, creating a creative and playful layout that effectively displays memories and aligns with Rose of Sharon's youth-oriented branding.
On the cover of the report, you'll find this year's Mother of the Year, Katie, pictured with her son, Jayson.
*Files available upon request.
COLOUR SCHEME
The demographics of Rose of Sharon have been expanding over the years. Created for young mothers aged 14 to 29, the organization is now looking to include young fathers, as well as non-binary parents and guardians. To support this broader audience, Rose of Sharon is considering significant changes to its company colours to create a more gender-neutral brand image. This new colour scheme was originally created for RoS' Resource Portal, Parents Connect; see the processes here. I was tasked with incorporating this colour palette into the annual report, as Rose of Sharon plans to implement it across all their materials in the future.
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15-PAGE ANNUAL REPORT
I first noticed the lack of emphasis on the titles throughout last year's annual report. To address this, we conceptualized bold, colourful headers for each page to highlight the titles and showcase the report's vibrant accents.
I also recognized that the messages from the Board Chair and Executive Chair were significantly longer this year. Therefore, we needed to save space. As a solution, we decided to crop their long rectangular headshots into small circles, each framed with a tasteful dotted outline. This adjustment created enough room for essential design elements, including dividers between paragraphs and a heart underline vector image placed beneath each photograph, which would become a recurring motif throughout the report. The heart underline was also used in each thank-you post for the Charity Golf Classic sponsors, reinforcing the brand's identity (see here).
Additionally, the icons created for the "Who We Are" page in the sponsorship package for the 3rd Annual Charity Golf Classic were repurposed for the "About Us" page. As with the "Who We Are" page, these icons provided readers with a concise introduction to Rose of Sharon's ongoing programs.
Our program icons were prominently featured throughout the page, focusing on "Our Impact & Participant Outcomes." These icons not only help readers become more familiar with our programs but also enhance the report by using visuals to emphasize key points. To maintain continuity, I decided to reuse icons from last year's Impact & Outcomes page, specifically those that accompanied the results of the 2021 annual participant survey.
Additionally, we needed a flyer to effectively advertise Rose of Sharon's new Resource Portal, Parents Connect. Two crucial aspects of its layout were the reflection of the site's features and the appeal to the mother-infant demographic. Small blurbs, alongside images of the portal's main page, inner pages, and features, were prominently displayed throughout the flyer. Colourful paint blobs, filled with the main colours of the Parents Connect logo, helped create a childlike atmosphere and served as suitable frames for the content. This design became the official flyer for Parents Connect, to be used for full-page newspaper ads and repurposed for the front cover of its brochure.
The next two pages effectively embody the scrapbook aesthetic of the annual report. The "Community Support" page features dashed frames that are consistently used throughout the report, along with decorative accents that have already been established. Inside the gallery-style frame, there is a photo collage showcasing Rose of Sharon's volunteers and their contributions over the past year.
"Katie's Story" is a particularly important part of the report; this page serves as a testimony and highlights Rose of Sharon's Mother of the Year. It maximizes the scrapbook aesthetic by incorporating Polaroid photo placeholders with labels written in a font that resembles a rough permanent marker. To enhance the look of the photo placeholders and make them appear more like real photos pasted on the page, I added a slight drop shadow effect. This prevents the photos from looking flat and allows them to appear more natural and complementary.
Both profiles of Sally and Picone Real Estate serve similar purposes and visually adopt the layout of "Katie's Story." The Picone Real Estate page enhances this layout by actively incorporating the report's scrapbook aesthetic, with the Picone logo designed to resemble a cut-out or sticker pinned to the page using a colour-coordinated push pin. I also requested casual photographs for each profile to contribute to the genuine and relaxed nature of the report.
Setting up the retirement page for Rose of Sharon’s high school teacher, Melene, was initially quite challenging. Last year’s report included collages where the images were presented in a flat and disorganized manner. To improve this, I aimed to create a nine-box template. In this template, I would select eight of the best photos, being mindful of the limited space available, as this would affect the visibility of the collage photos. The photographs would surround a central quote focused on education, which I chose because of its inspiring message. I believe it emphasizes the vital role a good teacher plays in encouraging young girls to persevere in their education.
While creating the template, I also drafted a thank-you message from Melene, which my project head felt truly captured her essence as the high school teacher at Rose of Sharon. To enhance the layout and ensure the photographs did not blend into each other, I applied InDesign’s inner glow effect. This effect not only visually separated each photograph but also softened the overall layout, preventing the images from appearing flat.
For the "Congratulations 2022 York Academy Graduates" page, I opted for a different approach. This page was designed to resemble a yearbook page for the graduating class, with each photo framed elegantly and adorned with a rose, in keeping with the organization's name. To convey a celebratory atmosphere, the background featured decorations like streamers, balloons, and confetti, all in faded colours to ensure they did not distract from the main elements of the page.
The "Donor Support" page maintained a structure similar to last year's report, but I added a formal frame around the donor logos to enhance their appearance and tidiness. I needed to arrange the logos in the same order as they appear on Rose of Sharon's Donor Page, which required careful spacing while designing this section. Additionally, I included a small flying paper airplane icon next to the title to symbolize the donation checks on their way to Rose of Sharon.
The "Special Events" page, like Melene's retirement page, also required the display of photographs in collages. However, this page presented a particular challenge as it needed to feature three collages for three major events. I selected five photos for each event to ensure they were displayed clearly. I used the inner glow separation technique again and included a small separation bar between each collage for clarity. Each collage was labelled with the respective event's logo, which I inverted to ensure good contrast with the text box's shade of red.
The "Financial Support" page draws heavily from the previous year's report, maintaining an identical legend structure. Rather than stacking one legend on top of the other, I positioned the Revenue legend in the top left corner and the Expenses legend in the lower right corner. This arrangement provides a clearer distinction between the two sections. Additionally, I opted for a more traditional pie chart to effectively illustrate and compare the sizes of the different percentages.
The report concludes with a Community Support page that features images of RoS' sponsors from the past year. Although the report was originally intended to wrap up with the Financial Report, an extra page was added to balance the overall layout. This change allowed us to showcase more of the year's best photographs.
The back page includes all the necessary information for readers to connect with us. It was particularly challenging to find suitable placements for each of RoS' social media icons, as I had to adjust their colours depending on the background they were placed against. Additionally, I needed to identify a spot for the Parents Connect logo that would allow it to be large and prominent. While it was originally positioned in the lower left corner, moving it to the lower right provided better contrast, making the logo's colours stand out more effectively. As shown in earlier versions of some pages, this back cover photograph was selected because it best represents the diverse clientele of Rose of Sharon.
