Role:
Graphic Designer
Company:
Ivy Funds [Ivy Investments]
Date:
May 2012
End Product:
Saddle-Stapled 8-Page Report
Okay. But there was something a bit different about this project. I was instructed to use ONLY the digital photos in the project folder. And use as many as possible.
Hmmm. Normally, I would ask the project owner about the message of the report. We would talk through some of the details. I would read through the text at least a few times. Then I would start a photo search, utilizing stock photography from one of our paid sources. But this time I was provided several digital photos in advance. This Special Report was born from an in-depth research trip through China made by Ivy Funds portfolio managers, analysts, and other support personnel.
This traveling group had been instructed to take photos — with their smartphones — of what caught their attention. This was early in 2012. And not everyone had an iPhone 5 with an 8 megapixel camera. Many of the photos were actually taken with flip phones. In my opinion, most of the photos were truly low resolution. Many of these photos were going to have to be very small. Additionally, the length of text was set and compliance approved. But it fell somewhere between six and eight pages.
It was time to let the restrictions of the situation generate a solution. Though the assignment was a newsletter, I took heart in the fact that this was a Special Report — that needed a cover. This decision provided an appropriate page count for printing and the opportunity to use some white space throughout.
But what about those photos? I spent time experimenting with different sizes of the especially low rez ones. Some could be made a bit bigger. So, I started pushing them around the page and struck upon the idea of a sort of irregular mosaic. At this point I noticed that the photos presented a cultural dichotomy — past and present colliding in the every day.
A man rides a bicycle. A small group cooks outside next to their motor scooters. Other people eat in a sleek, modern restaurant. The ancient lion statue contrasts the brand new Olympic stadium. Run down shacks. Skyscrapers in progress. Other, higher-rez photos continued this underlying idea throughout the inside.
The project owner — who did not want a cover for the piece originally — was pleased with how the photos amplified the juxtaposition of past and present throughout China's culture. The report was deemed a success and spawned other such reports. The follow up from this was a piece titled: "Ivy Fund Reflections: China At Ground Level"
