PROJECT OVERVIEW
We are a publicly traded company preparing our first Annual Report and require an experienced publication designer to lead layout and integration over a focused two-week engagement.
This is not a branding or logo project. Core content will be provided. Your role is to structure, format, and professionally present the material in a cohesive, publication-ready format.
A large portion of the report will consist of audited financial statements. The remainder will include:
- CEO and management commentary
- Governance and sustainability sections
- Product overviews and business reports
- Corporate visuals and advertisements already designed by other creatives
- Photography and executive portraits
Your responsibility is to interweave all of this into a clean, consistent, professional annual report layout.
Attached documents include:
- Proposed Table of Contents (to indicate scope and structure)
- ESG section draft
- CEO statement draft and portrait
These are provided to give clarity on volume and layout expectations.
SCOPE OF WORK
- Establish a master layout system (typography, hierarchy, spacing, margins, grid structure)
- Create master pages, headers, footers, and section dividers
- Format audited financial statements in a structured, readable manner
- Integrate written content provided by management
- Insert and align visuals created by other designers
- Incorporate photography and executive images appropriately
- Maintain visual consistency across approximately 80+ pages
- Provide updated working drafts regularly during the engagement
- Incorporate editorial and management revisions promptly
Master layout system should be proposed and approved within the first 2–3 days before full document build-out begins.
WORKING STRUCTURE
You will be the lead designer on this project, but you will not be working alone. We have an internal graphic designer on staff who will serve as your working partner throughout the engagement. Our designer is experienced with standard industry tools (Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, etc.) but has not previously led a publication of this scale and importance.
The working expectation is as follows:
- You will work from a shared project file (e.g. shared InDesign package, cloud workspace, or similar) so that both you and our internal designer are always working off the same canvas. Any changes either side makes should be visible and traceable.
- Our internal designer will only handle minor, non-structural edits — typos, small text corrections, grammar fixes — as directed by our management team. This is purely to avoid unnecessary back-and-forth with a remote designer on things we can fix in-house in real time.
- All structural changes — layout adjustments, design decisions, section formatting, visual placement — go through you as the lead designer.
- You remain fully responsible for overall layout direction, design quality, visual consistency, and final production-ready output.
You lead, we assist. Think of our internal designer as a pair of hands working within your framework, not a second opinion on your design choices. This structure is designed to make the engagement more efficient for both sides so you can focus on the design work that matters.
TIMELINE
- Engagement window: Approximately 2 weeks
- Final delivery deadline: February 28
- Expect daily or near-daily iteration and responsiveness during this period
BUDGET
- Base budget: USD 1,000
- We welcome proposals above or below this base amount. Final selection will consider overall value, experience, and portfolio strength depending on:
- Experience with annual reports
- Portfolio strength
- Speed and responsiveness
- Professional publication experience
Please submit your proposed fixed project fee.
REQUIREMENTS
- Demonstrated experience designing annual reports, investor documents, or professional publications
- Strong typography and structured layout skills
- Comfortable handling dense financial tables
- Able to work under compressed timelines
- Clear and professional communication
- Ability to work from shared project files (InDesign or similar) to enable collaborative editing with our internal team
TO APPLY, PLEASE INCLUDE
- At least one annual report or similar long-form publication you have designed (PDF preferred)
- A brief outline of your approach to structuring large reports
- Your proposed fixed fee for the two-week engagement
- Optional but encouraged: a short sample layout (2–3 pages) using the attached CEO statement or Table of Contents (cover page not required)
This is primarily a layout, design and integration role. Content writing is not required. Branding assets and product visuals will be supplied where applicable.
Contract duration of 1 to 3 months.
Mandatory skills: Magazine Layout, Annual Report, Graphic Design, Adobe InDesign, Presentation Design, Layout Design