Over the last five years, Los Angeles City Planning has published an Annual Report documenting and celebrating its milestones and achievements, particularly those in the areas of housing and sustainability. In addition to creating an accurate record of the Department’s accomplishments, the Annual Report has elevated the Department’s profile and proven effective in supporting City Planning during budget hearings held by the Mayor and City Council. Like other agencies’ annual reports, ours includes data, financing information, and an overview of active programs.
The Annual Report takes stock of City Planning’s progress combating the housing shortage on several fronts: streamlining approvals for affordable housing projects, providing incentives for developers to build affordable units near mass transit, and developing new zoning that will accommodate more housing. As they did in 2019, the Department’s Graphics team updated the document’s layout and design for 2020, using new visual elements and a select color palette to create a magazine-style publication that embodies City Planning’s tone, voice, and identity.
The look of the finished product presents City Planning as both professional and approachable, reinforcing the direct, conversational style of the Department’s communications. For the cover of the 2020 Annual Report, the Executive Team requested an image of one of Los Angeles’s many murals. Choosing a neighborhood and a site that are both evocative and on-brand required research and legwork. Also, in an effort to humanize the Department and make the document more interesting to peruse, the Graphics team interspersed staff bios and headshots throughout the Annual Report.
Along with other graphic elements, the headshots and bios provide “breathing room” between stories, giving the reader a visual break from the report’s text- and data-heavy content.
