The Opportunity
Uniting Country SA (UCSA) works hard to provide valuable support to vulnerable people and families throughout regional, rural and remote South Australia who are often in very difficult situations.
The Annual Report is an important document for UCSA, presenting not only their annual results to key stakeholders and the community, but also showcasing the meaningful impact of their work over the year. We have enjoyed working with UCSA for the last 2 years on this important project.
With many successes throughout the year, both large and small, we saw an amazing opportunity to shine a spotlight on these in their 2021 – 2022 Annual Report communications.
All of these achievements have an important impact not only on the regional communities they serve, but also on their staff who work collaboratively to deliver the best possible outcomes. It was important to UCSA for these to be recognised and celebrated.
The focus and theme of the 2019-2020 Annual Report reflected UCSAs support to the community through the difficult times of COVID, drought and bushfires, helping them rise to the challenge.
It was important to UCSA for them to be recognised as experts in country services and for the annual report to reflect this position.
Our Approach
2021 – 2022 Report
We created and delivered the theme of ‘celebrating everyday success, big and small’.
To achieve this we:
- Used extensive imagery of UCSA staff, clients and projects together with bright and contemporary graphics.
- This allowed us to capture the audience’s imagination and create a more visual report and apply the design to a video animation to provide an engaging snapshot of the report.
- Incorporated visual infographics where possible to showcase key strategies and statistics
- Designed the report so it could easily read in a digital environment rather than print by applying a grid system.
- Used the existing brand elements, logo, colours, fonts and expanded on them further.
2020 – 2021 Report
Capturing the theme of ‘Rising to the Challenge’, we ensured the 2019/2020 annual report was known for more than just the ‘COVID-19 edition’.
To achieve this we:
- Used hero illustrations throughout to tell the story of rising to the challenge which also reflected life in regional areas. This allowed us to capture the audience’s imagination and create a more visual report
- Used the star symbol from the logo as a focus throughout the illustrations to represent hope and UCSA’s presence to those in need
- Combined the illustration with professional images as well as provided photos
- Used the existing brand elements, logo, colours, fonts and expanded on them further
The Outcome
We delivered two unique, bright and optimistic report designs reflecting the strong collaboration of staff and showcasing the successes they have each and every day in their communities.
They impressed the board and wider stakeholders referencing the approach and concept as “positive, collaborative and celebratory”.
Working within the parameters of the UCSA brand, we were able to publicly recognise the hard work of their staff and inject a warmth and humility through extensive illustration, imagery and apply two different yet contemporary and uplifting designs to showcase the stories and impact of Uniting Country SA’s work in their regions.
As part of the design process, in 2022 we considered how it would be applied in a digital context, creating a short video animation for their social channels to provide an engaging snapshot of the key achievements of the year, further reinforcing Uniting Country SA as experts in delivering services to those in need in the regions.
