Colour

Through my research i have found that colour plays a vital role in helping make a annual report look visually pleasing. Using a variety of colours that work well along side one another will help bring the report to life and also help break up certain areas of the pages such as; headings, sub headings, info graphics and blocks of colour. One of the main things i noted down from last years annual report was the fact that apart from the covers the actual report lacked enough colour to really make it stand out which is why i feel adding this into this years report will benefit the report not only visually but it terms of interaction with its users. This method of using colour i feel will really enhance the structure of the report.

This was an idea i spoke to Fran about pretty early on and she was also very keen for my to bring in more colour, and with the report going down well last year i felt i would just enhance the blue colour that was used last year as well as bringing in colours that would work well with tones of blue. 

below are a variety of colour schemes i feel would work well together throughout the report. 

To begin with i felt i would start of with my favorite colour scheme of the lot as i feel the tones of colour really work well along side each other without being to ' in your face '.  There is a nice blend between the blue and orange colours that i feel would work well when breaking up the pages in the report whether it be through blocks of colour, lines or info graphics.My only concerns would be that maybe one or two of the colors are a little pale so would i will need to test these out to check if they will be legible in the report.

 Although this colour range really focuses on the one colour of blue i feel the types of blue colours here work very well with each other i feel the grey tone at the end would help bring a sense of contemporary into the design as i see more often in designs recently the use of grey as apposed to a standard black, and having agreed with both the client and the comms team about where i plan to go with this we both feel keeping up with trends is a very important aspect of annual report design as there will always be a changing design each year. 

 This colour range i looked at purely as it reminded me of the current colour blend in the 2012/2013 annual report. For me although the report works really well i just feel this colour scheme below looks too bland for what i want to achieve in this years report so learning from my research into colours i will try and look for something a little stronger in this years report. 

 A perfect example of a stronger colour scheme is like this one below, it features 5 strong colours that still manage to form a nice blend by working with each other. Until i put these colours into my designs i will not truly know which will work best in my report but what i have found is that orange and blues work well against each other and in tern will help break up my design for the report. Even though there are 5 colours in this pallet it doesn't mean i have to include all 5 of them for it to work. This is one of the colour pallets i will consider for my design.

 4 of these colours i feel work well with each other as i am not convinced the final colour of burgundy/brown would work in my report as it is earthy and i don't feel it could enhance a positive feeling that i want to bring to this years report. One colour i am keen on is the pale orange, as this colour could contrast with a stronger orange when it comes to producing info graphics for the report. This is something i will take into consideration whilst producing visuals for Fran. 

 These colours below i am fond off as they look quite subtle and look a little pastel coloured. These colours would work well for illustrations and maybe info graphics but i do not feel they are strong enough to use as a structure throughout the report as i want the report to look really strong and positive so the people reading the report believe what they are reading and become interested.

 Finally i looked a different tone of blues and yellowy/orange colours just to see if these could work also, i think they could! These colours here would help structure out info graphics nicely my only worry would be beginning to include too many colours into the report as i do not want to overwhelm the users with a page of colour mixture! Considerations into how many colours i decide to use will also be important whilst producing visuals. 

To summarize my colour pallet research i feel the colours of orange and blue blending with each other will work really nice and also, using a colour of blue helps keep some of the reports identity from last year which i know some of the comms team from OHP are keen to do.