For the past few years, we’ve enjoyed a long, successful relationship with Pacific Life, resulting in some of our favorite report-related work. And this year, we’re at it again. As our relationship has grown, the team at Pacific Life has increasingly relied on us to enhance their storytelling —experimenting with new and creative ways to tell their stories to their members. Since our offices are nearby to each other, our teams enjoy the added value of in-person collaboration, brainstorms, and creative pitching. This year we had a new challenge:
Position Pacific Life as a dynamic, lively company within the confines of more conservative brand perceptions and guidelines.
Our Inspiration
In order to create a dynamic aesthetic that represented the values of Pacific Life we pulled inspiration from two contrasting sources.
The Ocean
- Waves
- Motion
- Blue
- Organic
Traditional Design
- Sophitstication
- Structure
- High Contrast
- Clean
Our Approach
The Wave Motif
We experimented with various paints, brushes, and surfaces in order to create the perfect wave that would later be combined with the photography throughout the annual report. Ultimately, we found that using Liquitex acrylic paint on Grafix acetate paper gave us the vibrant colors and clearly defined brush strokes that we were looking for.
Typography
Franklin Gothic, a humanist san serif, was chosen for its balance of structure and friendliness. We chose Bodoni because the contrast of its thick and thin strokes matched the rhythm of the wave motif.
The Colors
We looked at photography of aquatic life to create a color scheme that reflected the vibrancy and depth of the ocean.
What We Built
We delivered an Annual Report, a Report to Members and a Community Involvement Report to be sent to stakeholders and members of the company.
We worked closely with the selected printer to coordinate, create final files, and approve the press check.
"A key challenge with the Pacific Life Annual Report is to present content—primarily business and financial results—in an impactful way that enhances and modernizes the brand. Column Five elevated this piece by pushing traditional boundaries, resulting in a family of corporate marketing publications that together convey an innovative and authentic brand through their final presentations. They are problem solvers and deliver outstanding content design work."
Milda Goodman,
AVP Consumer Brand Advertising
Services offered
- Annual Report Design
- Creative Direction
- Data Visualization
- Design Layout
- Derivative Assets
- Printing Capabilities
- Motion Direction
Credits
- 2015 Column Five Team:
- Travis Keith, Account Director
- Katrina Seidel, Producer
- Renee Granillo, Art Director
- Erin Safreno, Designer
- Charlie Noard, Designer
- 2014 Column Five Team:
- Kyle Ganshert, Account Director
- Elizabeth Spurbeck, Producer
- Renee Granillo, Art Director & Designer
- Walter Olivares, Designer
Partner: Pacific Life
- Tennyson Oyler, Vice President,
- Brand management & Public Affairs
- Milda Goodman, AVP Consumer Brand Advertising
- Pei Tsoung, Senior Marketing Graphics Designer
- Louie Lucero, Advertising and Public Affairs Specialist