In another era, a big part of my creative work as a writer and designer was in corporate and investor related communications. Every year my office produced a dozen or more printed annual reports.

Of course nowadays, you’ll find Annual Reports as pdf downloads on corporate websites. Not the lavish productions that were common back in 80’s and 90’s when my office was creating them. Designing corporate annual reports was an amazing process back then. When I speak to design students about the process, many look at me with blank stares on their faces. “You mean you didn’t use photoshop” they ask. That always makes me smile.

The printed annual report is indeed ancient history. In a recent conversation with a former colleague, we were fondly reminiscing about all the care, craftsmanship and money that went into producing this important annual communication extravaganza. We were marveling at the development process working with the company CEO, the storytelling, the design, the art and photography, not to mention the middle of the night press checks with our blurry eyed clients. Seems rather romantic looking back.

I once had four different annual report press checks going on at the same time at the same printer. Those were the days. Sometimes I miss the energy and the smell of ink standing at the end of a giant press with loop in hand.

Alas annual reports are not completely dead in print form, many companies still actively publish and distribute their annual reports in printed form.  For the life of me, in our digital age, I can’t imagine why? So I went back into the archives to share some of the lost annual report work I am still proud of. These examples are all from the mid 80s. Trouble is I can remember all the client companies and the specific year of publication.