1. Assignment: Explain the project and its goals to the reader.
The Annual Report is not the only publication that a company presents. But it is the one that puts together all of the information from the previous year. And it’s not just investor information about the company that is circulating. There are hundreds of articles and media reports about Česká pošta (Czech Post) – they may be positive or negative, their customers discuss them on social networks, so there is a colourful image of the company, which we have – at least in fragments – projected in the Annual Report. The aim was to present a public services company not only in austere audited results, but present it as a reliable and traditional institution, which refers to the initial slogan “Czech Post – Bearer of Good News,” and at the same time as a very modern and dynamic company, that while the media was expecting the end of the world in 2012, Czech Post was investing in the future and enjoying unprecedented growth.
2. Your Approach: Discuss your creative process on this project as if to a Potential Client.
Postal services have a long tradition in the Czech Republic. The post has been operating here since the mid-18th century. Czech Post connects this tradition with the future, as it adapts its services to people’s technology needs in the 21st century. We used all these facts when creating the graphic design for the Annual Report. We worked with two types of fonts. Times is a serif font that evokes all the positives related to the word “conservative”. On the other hand, DinPro is a modern sans serif font. The overall graphic design of the Annual Report then comes from the way the Post communicates with their customers – helpfully, clearly and concisely. For a modern and elegant graphic design, we chose a combination of black, grey and yellow colours. Illustrations are created by combining a simple black and white photograph related to the postal service, (a parcel, a letter, a USB connector, a mobile phone display with postal services on offer), with strong typography and simple and clearly identifiable symbols. All this then serves as an illustration for press and online reports which comment on the Czech Post activities, its customers and the media.
3. Results: If known, relate the results and the Client’s reaction of the finished project.
Czech Post is one of the most scrutinized public companies in the country; all people know it and use their services on a daily basis. Logically, they have had some unhappy customers and critics. Therefore, building not only their daily media image, but also reputation with the public is very important. And by reactions from clients and users, this year’s annual report has made a positive contribution.
In the prestigious national competition CZECH TOP 100, which awards the best annual reports in the country, the Czech Post annual report was placed 6th in the category of graphic design.
