Creating an Elegantly Understated, Compelling Annual Report

Are there two more antithetical words than “compelling” and “annual report”?

The Jefferson Scholars Foundation would disagree.

Yes, the purpose of an annual report is to comprehensively convey the facts, figures, and activities pointing to the year’s successes to an organization’s donors, shareholders, or other business affiliates. In other words, annual reports aren’t typically the most fascinating—or beautiful—reading material. 

But for the Jefferson Scholars Foundation, an extension of the University of Virginia that provides scholarships and programming to intellectually gifted and philanthropically motivated students, the annual report is much more than a package of financial statements. The Foundation gives its supporters a story that is as visually engaging as it is intellectually.

Effective Visual Storytelling for an Annual Report

Journey Group often begins partnerships by asking, “What kind of stories do you want to tell?”

Through a fruitful partnership with the Jefferson Scholars Foundation, now spanning more than 11 years, Journey Group has helped bring the Foundation’s mission to life each year through the design of its annual report. 

For more than four decades, the Jefferson Scholars Foundation has operated via donor funding in order to identify and pursue individuals of remarkable intellect and outstanding character. The Foundation serves as an extension to and asset of the University of Virginia, as it seeks to nurture students “who possess the highest concomitant qualities of leadership, scholar­ship, and citizenship.”

In collaboration with the Foundation’s communications director Joyce Carman, Journey Group strategizes and reflects with Carman on the previous year to identify themes that inform the content and design of the report. Recent themes were generated by a momentous $100 million donation from Jane and David Walentas, targeting first-generation college students, and, of course, challenges and opportunities arising from the global pandemic. 

Journey Group always strives to have a collegial relationship with clients, rather than a transactional one. The conversation about planning the publication’s narrative is less about structure and format and more about design approach and creative experimentation. Through the lens of each year’s theme, questions are guided by genuine interest in the why and how of the Jefferson Scholars Foundation’s visualization of success. 

The Jefferson Scholars editorial team meets with Journey Group as they pitch design. From this meeting, a design direction is decided, and a visual narrative arc is born.  

Communicating Consistent and Adaptable Design

Through the brand ethos of understated elegance, the Foundation’s annual report appears in concert with the university’s visual identity while still retaining an aesthetic unique to the Foundation. In contrast to the historical white columns and serpentine walls found on UVA’s grounds, the Foundation takes inspiration from a modern, clean architectural style. The traditional orange and midnight blue of the university are toned down to a bronze and desaturated navy. 

While this publication is purely in-house for art direction, local creative and Journey Group production designer Brittany Fan lends her photographic services as the team seeks to capture architecturally geometric lines and textures to inspire the report’s design. 

Each year, the publication design reflects the story and theme behind the feature article. 

The 2020 publication celebrated the monumental $100 million donation for the Walentas Scholars Program with a feature titled “A Transformational Gift.” While honoring their generous benefactors, the Jefferson Scholars Foundation wished to draw attention toward the impact that such a gift would have on their mission for years to come. From such words as momentum, impact, and trajectory, Journey Group proposed the visual metaphor of a ripple effect. This motif is found throughout the pages of the 2020 annual report. Nuanced but effective, the image communicates the future benefits of such a generous endowment for first-generation scholars for years to come.

Leading into planning for the 2021 report, the global pandemic provided an involuntary but appropriate moment to slow down, take account for the margins of life, mourn, and strategize how to move forward in a time of uncertainty.

The Jefferson Scholars Foundation, like many higher-education institutions, adapted and replotted its course for an unknown future. But the temptation to pause was never an option. 

Instead, there was an opportunity to embrace the stillness and reflect on how far the Jefferson Scholars Foundation had come.

Coinciding with a logo rebrand that reimagined the bust of Thomas Jefferson into a flatter image, resembling a seal, Journey Group designed a simple, textural gradient to grace the report’s cover, allowing the new logo to have a more significant presence. 

The gradient symbolically pointed to emerging from a dark place and moving toward light. It was a subtle nod to persevering and overcoming. 

Without sacrificing intentionality and craftsmanship, the Journey Group team embraced a minimalistic vision to successfully convey a bold message of hope. 

Trustworthy Design to Propel the Future of Scholarship 

While the reader of an annual report may not consciously recognize an embossed insignia, such an intentional design choice compels a reader to engage with the publication more deeply than a series of mundane, bland pages. 

For the Jefferson Scholars Foundation, ensuring the brand is well reflected in each detail is integral. Their dedication to investing in the future requires dedication to excellent design.

Journey Group is annually entrusted to bring fresh ideas that are distinct yet tethered to a common brand pattern. Each report is an expression of the values the Jefferson Scholars Foundation wishes to promote to attract elite scholars, citizens, and leaders, and as the Foundation’s long-term design partner, Journey Group consistently rises to the challenge.