GFH. Annual Report '21

Technologically Superior

Creating the GFH Annual Report

Long standing banking client GFH (formerly known as Gulf Finance House), is one of the leading financial investment companies in the Kingdom of Bahrain and the GCC. Established in 1999 and rebranded by Unisono in 2013, the firm has been a long-standing client over the last decade and the agency has been responsible for all of their annual reports since the rebrand. The 20th anniversary in 2019 was a massive annual report but for 2021’s annual report we have pushed the boat out further.

The creative challenge

Our challenge in creating the 2021 GHF Annual Report was largely to expand the 2021 calendar concept. The Corporate Communications team at GFH were so enamoured with the 2021 calendar they felt this exquisitely delivered concept could be expanded into and applied to this vital shareholder communication channel. The creative team at Unisono took up the creative challenge of making the Matrix-like concept for the 2021 calendar work for this rather tasty and highly techie annual report.

The creative solution

Our solution helped the 2021 GHF Annual Report to stand out and be noticed. The report retained the typographic treatments from the calendar and built upon this expression with new fluorescent inks and dot matrix treatments on imagery. We wanted to retain a link to the 2021 Calendar concept but to allow the annual report to have its own voice too. We chose to create a unique look and feel for the internal sections and to have a standout section for the special report on ESG.

In this report, we really went to town with the information graphics. They pepper the report across several section and really help the key data that expresses the brand’s performance to stand out. From charts and graphs to maps and timelines, the poppy green ink on black helps the key data to jump off the page.

The results of our 2021 Annual Report works

Aside from the design and copywriting, we were also tasked with their unique production, the end result of a extensive print sampling process that began with the notion of doing something exceptional with a creative driver of being ‘visibly technological’.

The 2021 GHF Annual Report was constructed using a prestige cover paper, two distinctive prestige papers for the internal section plus two foils and seven colours, including a fluorescent ink. The exquisitely produced report was housed in a black on black slip case and distributed to attendees of GFH’s annual general meeting in shiny metallic green bags using the same motif as the cover.

The reception to the report from all recipients has been nothing less than wondrous and we are delighted that stakeholders from the CEO down have been so positive about this project.

Services delivered

Strategy, Project Planning, Copywriting, Print Design and Information Graphics.