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
Redesigned and assembled Rose of Sharon's 2021-2022 Annual Report. The project involved a complete revamp of the report’s presentation, including its theme, colour scheme, decorative accents, and structure. Also assisted with the printing process and ensured that the document was ready for printing. A recollection of RoS' accomplishments over the last year, I chose to create a yearbook/scrapbook-based template; polaroid photo placeholders, tape strips, cut-out shapes, dotted circles, and scattered dots create a creative and playful layout to adequately display memories and reflect Rose of Sharon's youth-based branding. On the report's cover is this year's Mother of the Year, Katie, with her little boy, Jayson.
*Files available upon request.
SHORTCUTS
COLOUR SCHEME
Rose of Sharon's primary demographics appear to widen by the year; originally created for young mothers aged 14 to 29, the organization has been aiming to also incorporate its young fathers and non-binary parents and guardians. Rose of Sharon has been considering major changes to its company colours to provide a more gender-neutral brand image. This new colour scheme was specifically made for Rose of Sharon's new Resource Portal, Parents Connect; see the process here. I was requested to utilize this colour scheme in the upcoming annual report, as Rose of Sharon aims to eventually utilize it in all their material.
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15-PAGE ANNUAL REPORT
I first noticed the lack of proper emphasis on the titles throughout last year's annual report. A bold, colourful header for each page was conceptualized to highlight each title and provide space to display the report's funky accents. Due to the limited space created by the header, however, methods of saving space were actively considered, especially as the messages from the Board Chair and Executive Chair were much longer this year. It was thus decided that rather than paste their long rectangle headshots as is, cropping them into a small circle, each with a tasteful dotted outline, would serve the design best. This left adequate room for necessary outlines, including dividers between paragraphs and the heart underline vector image placed underneath each photograph, which would become a recurring element throughout the report. The heart underline was also used in each thank you post for the Charity Golf Classic sponsors (see here). Therefore, usage of such would add a sense of coherency to RoS' branding materials overall.
The icons created for the 3rd Annual Charity Golf Classic's "Who We Are" page in its sponsorship package were also repurposed for the "About Us" page. Similar to the "Who We Are" page in the sponsorship package, these icons were used to give readers a brief introduction to Rose of Sharon's ongoing program.
Our program icons were also utilized throughout the page centred on "Our Impact & Participant Outcomes." Not only would they further familiarize readers with our programs but they would also contribute to the report's usage of icons and imagery to signify key points. Therefore, I also decided to reuse icons from last year's Impact & Outcomes page, specifically those accompanying the results of the 2021 annual participants survey.
A flyer to properly advertise Rose of Sharon's new Resource Portal, Parents Connect, was also needed. Two aspects were considered vital to its layout: a reflection of both the site's features and mother-infant demographic. Small blurbs with accompanying images of the portal's main page, inner pages, and features were to be prominently displayed throughout the flyer. The paint blobs, filled in with the Parents Connect logo's main colours, helped create a childlike atmosphere, as well as served as adequate frames for the aforementioned frames. This page went on to be used as Parents Connect's official flyer, which would be used for full-page newspaper ads, as well as be reused for the front page of its brochure.
The next two pages arguably fully realize the annual report's scrapbook aesthetic. The "Community Support" page contains dash-lined frames that are utilized throughout, as well as uses the report's established decorative accents, Within the gallery-style frame is a photo collage of Rose of Sharon's volunteers and their contributions over the past year.
"Katie's Story" was an especially vital aspect of the report; this page serves as testimony and contains the profile of Rose of Sharon's Mother of the Year. This page takes the most advantage of the scrapbook aesthetic, utilizing the aforementioned polaroid photo placeholders with labels written in a font resembling rough permanent marker. To make these photo placeholders more resemble real photos pasted on the page, I also added a slight Drop Shadow element. This prevents the photos from looking flat and thus allows them to appear natural and supplemental.
Both having similar purposes, Sally and Picone Real Estate's profiles visually adopt the layout of "Katie's Story." The Picone Real Estate page goes further with the report's scrapbook aesthetic with the Picone logo resembling a cut-out or sticker pinned to the page with an appropriately-coloured push pin. Casual photographs for each profile were also requested by me to add to the genuine, laid-back nature of the report.
RoS high school teacher Melene's retirement page was rather tricky to set up at first; the collages in last year's report contain images that are rather flat and messily placed throughout the page. To ensure neatness and the proper separation between photos, I aimed to create a nine-box template, where I would simply choose eight of the best photos. This choice was also conscientious of the limited space, which would likely impact the size of visibility of the collage photos. These photos would also surround an education-based quote, placed in the box in the middle. I chose this quote due to finding it especially captivating, understanding the importance of a good teacher to encourage these young girls in need to persevere with their education. When initially creating the template, I also took the initiative to create Melene's thank you message, which my project head ultimately thought best represented Melene's tenor as RoS' high school teacher. Considering the photographs themselves and their separation from each other, I used InDesign's inner glow effect. This effect not only helped visually separate each photograph and prevented them from potentially blending into each other but also softened the layout considerably and once again prevented the photographs from appearing flat.
I chose to take a rather different approach for the "Congratulations 2022 York Academy Graduates" page. This page was to resemble a graduating class yearbook page, each photo containing an elegant frame, which includes a rose to reference the name of the organization. To reflect the celebratory atmosphere, the page's background is decorated with streamers, balloons, and confetti, all in faded colours to not distract from the page's main elements.
The "Donor Support" page retained a very similar structure to that of last year's report, although received a proper frame surrounding the donor logos to provide a sense of formality and tidiness. I was also required to align the logos in the same order as they are in the Rose of Sharon's Donor Page, requiring me to play with the space whilst constructing this page. In terms of accents, I also added a small flying paper airplane icon next to the title, signifying the donation cheques making their way to Rose of Sharon.
Similar to Melene's retirement page, the "Special Events" page also required displaying photographs in collages. This page was especially challenging, however, having to include three collages in one page for three major events. As with Melene's page, a select number of (5) photos were chosen for each event collage, allowing them to have adequate visibility. I also reused the inner glow separation tactic, as well as added a a small separation bar between each collage. Each collage was also clearly labelled with each event's logo, which were inverted to contrast properly with their text box's respective shade of red.
The "Financial Support" page, in fact, took much inspiration from last year's report; the structure of its legend is identical. Rather than simply stacking one legend on top of the other, however, I placed the Revenue legend on the top left and the Expenses on the lower right. Such visually provides a clearer distinction between the two sections. I also utilized a more traditional pie chart to clearly indicate and compare the sizes of the different percentages.
The report closes off with another Community Support page, which displays images relating to RoS' sponsors over the last year. Although the report was originally supposed to end with the Financial Report, an extra page was needed to even out the pages as needed. This ultimately helped us have more places to display more of the year's best photographs.
The back page contains all the necessary info to allow readers to connect with us if they'd like. It was especially difficult to spread and out find a place for each of RoS' social media icons, having to invert their colours based on the part of the background that they are put against. Considering this, I also needed to find a spot where the Parents Connect logo would appear large and prominent; originally placed to the lower left, the lower right ultimately appeared best due to its better contrast allowing for the logo's main colours to stand out. As shown by the previous versions of certain pages below, this back cover photograph was also chosen due to best representing Rose of Sharon's diverse clientele.
