One of the most challenging components of the International Planned Parenthood Federation's 60th Anniversary conference & festival was this enormous 11 metre long timeline, charting the organisation's entire history. We raided the archives to uncover images, statistics and quotes from key players who had contributed to the organisation's work over the years.
The conference & festival were to take place in South Africa over several days in late 2012 but our communications team was based in London which meant all print, production and other promotional logistics were handled by a supplier based near the conference site. This arms-reach approach made project management and production particularly complex.
For me, one of the most impressive aspects of how this project came together was the sheer speed at which we were able to move from our initial content research to final artwork. I prepared the entire typographic framework in advance, so as soon as my colleagues were ready with final copy, the whole piece was assembled in less than a day. To fit on InDesign's artboard, we had to scale the artwork to 10% of final print size, then output the artwork PDFs split into several strips to fit the large format printer. Here's a view of the entire graphic:
This detail shows the early years section. As national affiliates became officially-recognised members of the Federation over its 60 year history, we plotted their names along the top and bottom of the timeline. World events in science health and family planning were interspersed with quotes from the great and the good from the Federation's past.
And here's a view of the past decades as we approached the present day to the right of the timeline.
As the centrepiece of the 60th Anniversary Exhibition, the timeline drew a great deal of interest from many of conference delegates, including Dr Fred Sai – President of IPPF from 1989 – 1995 who appears particularly chuffed with his portrait from 1989.
It's worth just briefly mentioning here that IPPF's 60th Anniversary Conference & Celebration in South Africa was a miraculous project which might never have happened if it weren't for a superb team effort with the entire HQ Communications Team in London pulling together to make it happen. It was one of the projects I was most proud of during my time with the Federation.
Chris Wells
Thank you – I really appreciate you looking over my work & value constructive feedback.
You can find more at Chris Wells Ltd – my digital & design consultancy.
You can find more at Chris Wells Ltd – my digital & design consultancy.
Get in touch to discuss branding, infographics & data visualisation, digital publishing design
& content management for mission-led brands
@chrisdwells_
