Are Your Client Reports Brand-boosters or Brand-busters?

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1 Are Your Client Reports Brand-boosters or Brand-busters? November 2, 2015 by Joyce Walsh Seven ways advisors can harness the power of design to better-serve clients and reinforce their brand promise Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives. Just as sharp suits and well-appointed offices express high standards and command respect, professional-looking client reports and presentations will engage clients and lead them through the material. Effective design is a powerful tool that helps hold your client s attention throughout the entire report or presentation. Research has shown that after reading well-designed articles, subjects performed better on cognitive tasks. It follows that the use of smart design strategies in advisors reports and presentations will make clients comprehend and act upon them with greater ease. The next time you are creating client reports and presentations, follow these seven tried-and-true design tips to give your clients a comfortable reading experience that underscores the message you want to convey 1. Start with a solid layout. The first step toward creating an engaging design is the page layout pattern you ll use throughout your client reports and presentations. While a well-balanced layout feels coherent and natural, an inconsistent design will make the reader/viewer feel uncomfortable and on edge Figure 1: Asymmetrical Layout Page 1, 2016 Advisor Perspectives, Inc. All rights reserved.

2 Symmetrical layouts are inherently balanced think of two columns of equal height and width with a centered title above but they can get old fast, especially in multipage reports like quarterly market summaries. Asymmetrical layouts, like the one in Figure 1, place elements unevenly on the page. Note how the title overlaps the centerline and text only appears in the left column. Still, the overall effect is balanced, thanks to good use of image placement and white space. While this approach is more challenging to design than the symmetrical layout, it is also more visually compelling and, therefore, more likely to capture and hold your audience s attention to better convey your message. Strategy: If you re committed to a symmetrical layout, try using an asymmetrical cover or title page to add interest. Strategy: To create balance in an asymmetrical layout, place your titles on the left of the page. Strategy: Make titles proportionately larger than the text to establish clear visual hierarchy of the information. 2. Use a grid for a consistent layout. A grid is a handy software tool that helps you design page layouts consistently across reports and presentations. That s important because when there s no consistency across a multipage publication, readers become confused and distracted, missing the message you want to convey. Page 2, 2016 Advisor Perspectives, Inc. All rights reserved.

3 The grid is made of horizontal and vertical blue lines that form rectangles on the page. The rectangles help you decide what goes where each element on the page fits into a corner of a rectangle. A consistent grid results in reports that are balanced and pleasing. Figure 2: Designing with the grid Figure 2 is an example of a grid used with an asymmetrical layout. The text in both columns aligns with the left edges of the gray image placeholders, creating a well-balanced and visually pleasing layout. The repetition of shapes and white spaces is what brings order to the overall design. One risk of using the grid structure is that it may lead to a monotonous-looking report. That s why one of the mantras of professional graphic designers is Break the grid! Like the pinch of bitter spice that makes a sweet dessert taste sweeter, breaking the grid is best done thoughtfully and in very small doses. Strategy: In MS Word, find Grid and Grid Options under the Layout tab. In MS PowerPoint, look for Guides under the View tab. Strategy: Stick to a tried-and-true grid format. No need to reinvent the wheel. Page 3, 2016 Advisor Perspectives, Inc. All rights reserved.

4 Strategy: Apply the same grid throughout your report or presentation for consistency, and break the grid every now and then to keep your layout fresh and interesting. 3. Have a focal point on every page. The first thing people notice in a design is called the focal point. This is your first opportunity to grab your clients attention and encourage them to read on. It should be compelling, but not so overwhelming that the eye skips the rest of the composition. Since the focal point is the entrance into the design, always harness its power on the cover or first page of the report. Figure 3: The focal point In Figure 3, the W is the largest object on the page. It grabs your attention right away. This is the focal point; its size, color and position invite us into the rest of the text. It creates an effective layout that leads readers through the entire report. Strategy: Decide on the design element you want readers to see first and then put it in a prominent position, in a larger size or a different color to establish it as the focal point. Strategy: When your title isn t the focal point, simply place it near the page s focal point to Page 4, 2016 Advisor Perspectives, Inc. All rights reserved.

5 ensure it is read. 4. Design with the Z-scan in mind. Research has demonstrated that people read in patterns. Unless there are large blocks of text on the page, people instinctively scan a page in a Z-shaped pattern, shown in Figure 4. By designing your reports and presentations to take advantage of this behavior, you can place important information where your clients eyes naturally scan. Figure 4: The Z-shaped scan pattern pattern The Z-pattern above illustrates how readers scan a printed page. Advisors can use this to their advantage when deciding on a focal point or placing content for maximum effect. Notice how the logo is in the upper left corner. Given the Z-pattern, placing it in the upper right corner would not have the same effect on the reader. It might even be skipped over entirely if placed there. Page 5, 2016 Advisor Perspectives, Inc. All rights reserved.

6 Strategy: For printed material, use the Z-pattern to place content for maximum effect. Strategy: In PowerPoint presentations, place key information in graphics or next to bullets to take advantage of viewers natural inclination to scan for shapes before they read text. 5. Use brand-boosting images and graphics to create a consistent visual theme. Images and graphic elements can reinforce an advisor s brand promise, but they need to work together as a whole, reflecting similar styles and color palettes. For example, a report that uses a sienna-tinted photo on one page and a colorful illustration on the next runs the risk of seeming confused an impression no advisor wants to convey. A good way to establish a consistent visual theme is to use your firm s logo as a benchmark for the color and style of images and graphic elements, as in Figure 5. Figure 5: Establishing visual consistency Page 6, 2016 Advisor Perspectives, Inc. All rights reserved.

7 This advisor makes good use of their brand color palette to establish a visual theme. Their logo color (1) appears on every page but not in the same way. The upper left and bottom right pages carry the color by repeating the logo. The bottom left and top right pages don t show the logo, which helps keep the report from becoming monotonous. But the color is picked up in callouts and images, so the effect is consistent. All the images (3) have similar qualities. They are muted and monochromatic, yet the colors complement the company s brand palette (1). Although the images are of different objects, each leads the eye into the photo and toward a distant point in the background. Are we leaving the past and heading toward the future? Both are great metaphors for this advisor s brand promise. Strategy: Create a visual theme with repetition of these elements: fonts, brand color palette, layout and image style. Strategy: Use a consistent color palette throughout your design for a professional-looking report or presentation. Strategy: Choose images that subliminally reinforce your value proposition to clients. 6. Maximize the storytelling power of your charts and graphs. As an advisor, you work with charts, graphs and complex data series every day. They are the cornerstone of most client reports and presentations. However, many clients are less comfortable with charts and graphs and need text to help understand the key takeaways from graphics. While integrating words and images isn t hard to do, doing it well can be the difference between a professional-looking presentation and one that looks thrown together. Thoughtful design can integrate graphics with text in a way that helps clients relate to the data you are presenting. Figure 6: Use tables to complement charts Page 7, 2016 Advisor Perspectives, Inc. All rights reserved.

8 This report page has a chart on the left and a table on the right. The information in each is complementary. By presenting the data both ways, the report makes it easy for all readers to grasp the message quickly and comfortably. Strategy: Place labels near charts to ensure your client can read them. Strategy: Use tables and other textual information to complement charts and graphs. They help make the information accessible to all viewers and underscore your message. Strategy: Use bullet points to help readers summarize key points in charts and graphs. They are especially appropriate in presentations, where tabular data or running text can be difficult to see from a distance. 7. Always include this must-have content. These design best practices ensure your reports and presentations communicate effectively to your clients: The table of contents (TOC) A table of contents is essential to a well-designed report. It summarizes the content at a glance and allows the client to access the most relevant content quickly. Page numbers Include page numbers in every report and presentation you produce starting with the cover page. Page numbers facilitate communication, especially when referencing the report over the phone. If you make reports and commentary available online as PDF s, be sure the first page is numbered 1 to be consistent with the software page display. Put page numbers in the footer, or the bottom 1 of the page. If you use MS Office Word or PowerPoint, the header and footer can be accessed under the Page 8, 2016 Advisor Perspectives, Inc. All rights reserved.

9 View menu. As of Date Dating every page of your presentations and reports places the content in the context of a particular time in the industry. Logo, strategy and account name Your logo, the client s name and the topic of the report should also appear on every page. These identifiers go into the header, the top 1-1 ½ of the page. Titles, subtitles and subheadings These elements serve several purposes. You can use them to establish visual hierarchy, signaling relative importance of the topics at hand. They allow readers to scan for content, and they break reports into meaningful and more manageable chunks of information. Subtitles can also be used to tell a story by summarizing key points and pulling the reader along a sequential content path. Photos Photos humanize your presentation or report, help break up large blocks of text and reinforce relationship building. Invest in a professional photographer who will create handsome headshots of you and other key account personnel. Save your selfies for social media! This article is the last in a 3-part series and was adapted from the paper First Impressions Matter: Optimizing Information Organization and Design for Investment Industry Reports and Presentations, done in collaboration with Assette. With academic and professional backgrounds in both the arts and technology, Professor Joyce Walsh is the author of Graphic Design Essentials: Skills, Software and Creative Strategies, the first book to combine design fundamentals with creative software skills. Page 9, 2016 Advisor Perspectives, Inc. All rights reserved.