Edinburgh Futures Institute Annual Report 2025-26

Brief

I was recommended to the team at Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) after working on the Centre for Technomoral Futures Annual Report in early 2026. This was the EFI’s second annual report publication and the brief outlined that “We’d like something much more exiting, dynamic and readable than our first annual report”.

Both print ready and accessibility compliant digital versions are required.

Solution

Looking to the EFI’s brand guidelines for direction I initially supplied a typeset document from the content supplied to get a sense of the page plan and how much space was available. Going from a 12 page to a 16 page report as necessary.

This report should be easily digested – a balance of text heavy content with relevant supplied images and pull out quotes to highlight key information. I have designed annual reports and publications for decades and I use typography sympathetically with the right hierarchy to give the whole document a natural and consistent flow. This typographic structure also forms the tag structure throughout the document. Paragraph and Character styles are mandatory considerations for accessibility.

I introduced more design emphasis on the ‘Year in numbers’ section to make this more impactful and easier to read and absorb. The previous report was set as a bulleted list.

• Accessibility
• Adobe CC
• inDesign
• Infographics
• Print
• Typography