Dalata Annual Report 2019 - Red Dog - Design Consultants Dublin

Discipline

Annual Reports

Sector

Hospitality

Reporting on a culture of success and a passion for growth.

When we started the process of designing our sixth consecutive Annual Report for Dalata Group, their 2018 Report had just been declared Overall Winner at the 2019 Chartered Accountants Leinster Society Published Accounts Awards. This was in addition to winning in the 'Small/medium quoted company' Award category. So the pressure was on to ensure we present this year's Report engagingly and memorably to try to secure some more awards in 2020! No pressure!

The Approach

As Ireland's leading hotel operator and with the Group's focus firmly set on the UK market, the theme of this year's Report was 'Growth and Resilience'. This theme would underpin the creative strategy throughout the entire Report. Our main goal was to create a report that not only presented the information clearly and in a visually interesting way but told the story of a dynamic, resilient organisation whose growth is led by its people.

The Execution

To achieve this, we focussed on narrative, visual language, and information visualisation. Firstly we introduced additional headings to each section. These big, bold headings help to communicate the main narrative of the Report, giving the reader quick snapshots on the Group's ethos. Secondly, we aimed at conveying a sense of dynamism and growth. We achieved this visually by introducing polygonal graphic shapes to add visual interest to layouts or to house imagery. The polygonal shapes used throughout the Report are inspired by the 5-year growth chart on the cover of the Report. The Dalata Group's Hotel Assets grew from €52 million to €1.47 billion in 5 years. This outstanding result is subtly portrayed on the front cover with the chart's polygonal shape used to house the imagery and its data subtly presented in spot varnish.

Elsewhere, in key sections throughout the Report, the content has been streamlined and replaced with an infographic approach to tell the story in a more visually arresting way, ensuring these pieces were easier to digest from a reader's perspective. In the Strategy and Business Model section, both infographic and narrative approaches were used to communicate the people-oriented Business Model of the Group - from the decentralised model whereby the hotel general manager has ultimate responsibility for their hotel to the Group-wide training and development programmes for all employees.

The Result

In recent years, communicating the culture of an organisation has become a key aspect of annual reporting. However, for the Dalata Group, its people and the Dalata-way of working have been at the core of the organisation's success since its foundation in 2007. This year we wanted the Annual Report to reflect this too. The result is an easily digestible Annual Report that tells a story of strong performance, a culture of success, and a passion for growth.