The introduction

AI and robotics: from science fiction to business fact was a major piece of research for Curium Solutions. The aim of Kathryn Hobbs, the company’s communications consultant, was for Curium’s research to stand out from other similar digital publications and to be a highly engaging visual report design.

Our client

Curium Solutions is an award-winning change management consultancy based in Birmingham who have clients around the UK. Curium empowers individuals to make change sustainable for the long-term.

The project

Kathryn discussed with us that, while technology featured heavily throughout the content, primarily, it was about people. She was keen to reflect this in a visual report design that avoided clichéd robot vs human imagery.

As this was the first time Curium had worked with us we wanted to show Kathryn how we work with our clients, including them in design decisions and retaining ultimate control of their projects.

To do that required transparency, which we bring to all our work, and so we involved Kathryn in all stages of the design process as it evolved.

Our approach

Our prime focus was turning a text-heavy Word document into an engaging and memorable report.

We aimed to achieve this by opting for a distinct illustrative style and by highlighting the main points through infographic-style pages, pull-out quotes and other visual devices.

The most important parts of our design brief for this project were to produce:
• a logical flow of information;
• visually enhanced text; and
• highly engaging graphics.

During the early planning stages, we established a structure and flow to the content, deciding which information was the most important and which the least. By wireframing (blocking areas for different content), we created the framework for the content and then checked with Kathryn to see that she was happy with the way we’d broken the content up and the parts we’d highlighted.

We then used an infographic design style to simplify and clarify the content, creating visual elements that amplified, illustrated and explained crucial points. This was a key differentiator for Curium’s report compared to the wealth of information that was already available on this subject.

The suite of custom illustrations and icons we created complemented Curium’s own branding, giving the whole document a professional, bespoke and engaging finish.
 

The outcome

By illustrating key points graphically, we helped Curium’s clients to see, understand and remember important information quickly.

The challenge of putting together such an extensive set of illustrations and making sure the content was ordered in a way that led to an engaging read, involved a lot of planning in the early stages of the project, yet was hugely satisfying.

The feedback from the client throughout the process was extremely positive. As intended, Curium used the report for workshop-led events and received positive feedback from their clients on both the content and design.