No Average Annual Report

All's Well Who Age Well was the last project I worked on as I transitioned from Marketing Art Manager of Mather LifeWays to Creative Director of YELLmedia. The project specifically was the Mather LifeWays 2006 Year in Review. As with any Annual Report type piece, the purpose was to convey to shareholders, board members, and customers who the company is while instilling confidence in the future of the company, and highlighting certain benchmarks.

At the same time we started brainstorming the project Mather LifeWays had introduced the idea of storytelling or storywelling into its company culture. Working with their in-house copywriter we developed the concept for the annual report by taking the idea of "storytelling" quite literally. The Year in Review as a story that the audience would be more likely to read (maybe even more than once), hold on to, and show to their kids. It would reflect a book from title page and dedications to the foreword and afterword, and separate Mather LifeWays from the others in their industry. It would also convey the companies ideas and feelings about aging and better define the company. Often people are confused at who Mather LifeWays is because of their many great offerings: Research/Education, Senior Living Residences, and Community Outreach.

Our story revolved around a character we invented called Alli, an average, female, older adult who wonders if she is "aging well." As Alli goes on her quest to find "Ways to Age Well" (the companies tag line), she embarks on a virtual tour of Mather LifeWays. The reader learns all about Mather LifeWays as Alli does. As she visits a location, that locations benchmarks are highlighted along the margins of that page.

At the end of Alli's journey the story is left open ended with a call to action for the reader to submit how he/she thinks Alli's story continues. It calls for the readers to take a more active role and symbolically shows that there is more to the journey/adventure of aging than you might think. To download the review click here.

YELLmedia helped with developing the concept, storyboarding, hand drawn paintings & illustrations, layout, and print production.