Design with a difference - Nesnadny + Schwartz

Crain’s Cleveland Business, April 25, 1994differentiate yourself, not just from thecompetition but the world of information,then the whole activity is fruitless,” hesaid.Mr. Ade (pronounced AH-dee) saysthe art of attracting the would-be readerbegins with the cover.“If the cover doesn’t promise anythingof interest, the less likely it is that anyonewill even spend a minute with it,” said Mr.Ade, whose company has won two dozendesign awards over the last five years.Mr. Schwartz and partner JoyceNesnadny see the annual report as anopportunity to reflect the corporate cultureand to provide insight into the directionof a company, instead of concentrating onits past.Their ability to produce engaging,interesting books has won them nearly200 awards locally and nationally for theirannual report designs. The honors include41 American Advertising Federation, orADDY, awards since 1988. The firm alsodoes other types of graphic design work.Ms. Nesnadny and Mr. Schwartz saythere’s no big secret or magic formula toproducing a good annual report – just lotsof research, time and hard work, alongwith a good team of creative people andcooperation from the client.With new clients, the productionprocess ideally begins five to six monthsbefore publication and includes extensiveresearch on the client and the industry.“You need to find out what’s going onin the industry, how the competition istrying to differentiate themselves from theclient, what market forces are at work thataffect business and what things are trulyspecial about the client,” Mr. Schwartzsaid.When the research is complete and aconcept is developed, senior managementis called in for a formal presentation. Inthe best of all possible worlds, the clientgets involved and the report becomesa collaboration rather than a one-sidedproduction, Mr. Schwartz said.“We do our best work when we’rebrought in to be part of the conceptualteam,” he said. “Clients coming in withpreconceived notions about the reportgenerally do not allow us to do ourstrongest work.”At Ade & Associates, the firm typicallysits down with a client company’scommunications officer, chief financialofficer and chief executive officer notonly to talk about the year that was,“but beyond that, to look ahead to tell acompany’s direction,” Mr. Ade said.“Our first job is to listen, and listengood,” Mr. Ade said. “Then we comeback to the client with something thatshows we listened.”Mr. Ade said this first discussion withthe client “is pivotal to the process” ofcreating an annual report that conveysthe company’s message to its shareholdersand customers.“Sometimes there is a seed of a conceptthat the client isn’t even aware in whatthey’ve said,” Mr. Ade said. “Our job is togrow the idea (for the annual report) fromthat seed.”Such was the case with the latestannual report Ade & Associates designedfor Royal Appliance ManufacturingCo., maker of the Dirt Devil line ofvacuum cleaners. Mr. Ade said Royal’smanagement during its planning meetingwith his company kept referring to 1993as “a year of contrast” at the company, soAde incorporated that theme in Royal’sannual report.In large block letters on facing pages ofthe annual report are contrasting wordssuch as “ONE…MANY” “HOME…AWAY.” Mr. Ade says the former pairingreflects Royal’s transformation froma single-product company to a multiproductmanufacturer, while the latterhighlights its geographic expansion fromdomestic distribution to internationalsales.Likewise, strong client collaborationand trust have been the keys to successfulwork Nesnadny + Schwartz has producedfor its most visible customer, ProgressiveCorp. of Mayfield Heights.Nesnadny + Schwartz recentlycompleted its 11 th annual report forProgressive, a high-risk auto insurer.This year’s report was developed arounda comment about redefining strategy wasmade in a meeting with the company’spresident and chief executive officer, PeterLewis, who talked about redefining thecompany’s strategy.The back cover of the 1993 reportfeatures the definition of the wordprogressive from Webster’s Dictionary.Many of the inside printed pages usedictionary-style line drawings as abackground to the text in an effort tosubtly reinforce the idea of redefinition.Other concepts for Progressive annualreports have come when least expected.The 1989 report, which examined theissue of drunken driving, surfaced duringa discussion between the partners after ameeting with another client.“We had just finished a long meetingat the Federal Reserve Bank and wedecided to go somewhere to get a drink,”Mr. Schwartz said, ‘While we sat talking,we said, “What about drinking anddriving?”Progressive decided to make a themeof the idea: Its 1989 annual reportannounced its commitment to expand itseffort to reduce car accidents.While annual report production isstill dominated by print, multi-media isslowly beginning to invade the industry.Nesnadny + Schwartz’s latest client,Lincoln National Reinsurance Cos. ofFort Wayne, Ind., has challenged thefirm to produce a CD-ROM disk thathighlights the details of the printedreport.“The design opportunities on screenare tremendous,” Mr. Schwartz said.“That whole concept of linear display,with pages and starts and stops is gone(with CD-ROM). People can just grazefor information. It’s really difficult, butdifficult is fun.”Mark Schwartz, president, and JoyceNesnadny, vice president, of Nesnadny +Schwartz are known for the avante gardeannual reports they produce.Gerhard Ade, president of Ade &Associates strategic communications firm,says the key to getting someone to read anannual report begins with an interestingcover.2