Connect; annual reports

Key thought:

‘Make it all add up to something’

When it comes to long copy documents, I’m keen for there to be an overarching idea that makes all of the evidence add up to something meaningful.

For example, one of these Connect reports shows 12 facets of the organisation in an aphasia-friendly calendar format, which also cross-sold training. Another illustrates how an inspiring ‘Connect idea’ travels out into the world to create lasting change. (The phrase ‘inspiring change’ is repeated on every spread – the idea coming from the ‘I think I can, I think I can, I think I can…’ of The Little Engine That Could.) Another showed a person with aphasia from the point of her stroke, then finding her feet in the Connect community before moving out into the wider world.

Assets created:

A series of annual/impact reports, co-created with Bridget Long at The Design Works.

My PA had given me my reading file and tucked in it was your impact report – and it is sensational… You get a real feel for the pathos and intensity of the experience; the listening to people that seems to be at the heart of things. Finally, you have made a difference with modest means very well spent. Brilliant.

Charity Chief Executive
In my view, the report is a model of its kind; succinct and crisp, with just the right tone of voice and conveying clearly the organisation’s achievements and aspirations

Publications consultant