Telling the story well

Background

The British Universities Financial Directors Group (BUFDG) has a large membership of higher education organisation and works to equip and educate its members with latest best practices, effective and helpful tools, as well as highlight sector news in the world of higher education finance.

We have worked with BUFDG in designing and printing reports and publications that are distributed throughout their membership in printed and digital form.

More than words

BUFDG approached us in 2016 to work with them on a publication looking at the subject of Integrated Reporting and how this method of report writing relates to Higher Education institutions. The goal was to help universities tell the stories more effectively, going beyond the standard fare of financial reporting to shed light on the broader context in which they find themselves. A prominent aspect of is storytelling and providing the reader with greater insight into the goings on of the organisation. This is achieved through a greater transparency as to the challenges faced for the future growth, development and direction of the organisation, rather than simply highlighting the wins and successes and showing the financial reports.

It is an approach that is proven to engage stakeholders and paint a more accurate picture of an organisation.

Practice what you preach

For BUFDG it was important that in a publication about Integrated Reporting, the report itself should demonstrate the principles of Integrated Reporting and so the information needed to be presented in such a way that it would be consistent with Integrated Reporting guidance.

This meant that as well as a clear and uncluttered layout with section headings and subheadings, a series of illustrations was also created to add a visual element to each section.

With the theme of storytelling playing heavily within the report text, we created a style of illustration that is a nod to children’s story books. Combined with the simple and clean text layout, these illustrations give an additional visual interest to lead the reader through the document.

What BUFDG thought of our delivery

The process of working with CWS for our document design project was a pleasure from start to finish. Their communication was always prompt and the work was to deadline, but what most impressed us compared to other designers we have worked with was their creativity and interpretation of our initial ideas. It would be selling them short to say they nailed the brief because what was produced was far above and beyond our initial expectations. The artwork delivered was original and delightful, and greatly enhanced the final product.