Top Tips to Make the Most of Your Annual Report Design Budget

I polled the Annual Report Design Team at MillerCox Design and these are our top tips on how to make the most of your design budget. Whether your budget is generous or streamlined, your organization can benefit from these tips.

1. Reuse and repurpose your content! Print copy and images can be refined for an impact statement,  web copy for an annual report website, a script for an annual report video and copy for social media channels.
2. Collect data, stories, and photos from volunteers, clients, partners throughout the year. This material can be recycled for blog posts, social media, print ads, and more!
3. Designate one contact to communicate with your design firm and give that contact decisionmaking authority.
4. Provide clean and final text to your annual report design firm.
5. Provide print quality photos larger than 1mb. Cellphone cameras allow you to take photos almost anywhere. Unfortunately these photos frequently get saved as low-resolution images. While just fine for your website and social media channels, you will need high resolution photos for your printed annual report.
6. Provide edits in a marked up document using neat handwriting and professional copywriting notation.
7. Enjoy telling your organization’s story! A mix of story-telling techniques, compelling photos, data and professional design will make your annual report shine.