18 Dec, 2019

Annual reports offer the perfect opportunity for a company to highlight its key results from the last year. The report needn’t be a text-heavy document, loaded with monotonous financial data and statistics.

The report needs to be an asset that remains etched in the memory of the reader. This includes stakeholders, investors, and employees.

So, what is the best way to transform generic annual reports into a piece of powerful business communication? – Hire an award-winning annual report design agency.

An annual report designed, with a theme, will stand out. The annual report theme will come laced with visual elements that support the narrative.

Let’s understand more about an annual report theme, and how a report design expert can use it to make your annual report tell a story.

Choosing an annual report theme

An annual report theme has the potential to transform any standard publication into a powerful marketing tool. The theme needs to align the company’s objectives, milestones, and events within a timeline.

The key message of the report, combined with a strong theme, turns a dull report into a captivating piece of communication. Through crisp copywriting, visual layout, and visual elements an impactful annual report is created.

Developing a theme for an annual report is a challenge for report design experts. They start by looking for inspiration from the report. They look for any outstanding results from the past year.

The theme can be centred around a positive impact that the company had on the community. The audience has to be kept in mind. The goal of any report is to create an emotional connection between the report and its reader.

Elements of an annual report theme

When choosing visual elements for the theme, consistency is key. Here is where the power of design comes to the fore. Only a report design agency can introduce visual elements to support the report’s theme.

The colour palette or colour scheme must communicate the tone of the report. The colour scheme must also reflect your company’s branding. Colours activate emotional triggers in humans.

Choosing an image style, and sticking to it, maintains consistency. Spacing and structure affect how the report is perceived. The images need to stay relevant.

Infographics showcase timelines or financial information without clutter. They also support the visual theme through facts, icons, and illustrations. Data visualizations are visual elements that highlight vital information with ease.

Benefits of an annual report theme

The most obvious benefit of creating an annual report with a theme is the creation of impact. An annual report theme can aid the report in making a bold statement.

The most important question to ask is – will the theme generate an impact or not? The annual report theme should resonate with the audience, and touch emotions.

Traditional literature has always been based on themes. When the report tells a story, it centralizes the company’s key achievements. This gives the report a logical order to follow.

The story begins with characters, achievements and envelopes statistics & financials along the way.

Humanizing the company brand helps in engaging with the audience. Every reader has a limited attention span.

A report with slabs of text and confusing financial data is hard to interpret. A little bit of transparency goes a long way in making the report more understandable and human.

An annual report theme presents an opportunity to innovate. The report can be showcased uniquely. The visual representation of figures, numbers, and statistics adds to the uniqueness.

The report is more innovative when it is presented as a digital annual report. Through a microsite within the company’s website, a wider audience can gain access to it.

The report theme strengthens the report’s language and tone. The theme inspires the usage and positioning of image captions, quotes, tones, choice of headings and language.

The annual report theme paves the way for future objectives within the organization. The theme can communicate the organization’s intention.



Only an award-winning report design agency can design a great annual report with a theme. Couple that with engaging content & visuals to create an impactful report.