A good annual report, of course, gives you more than a clear understanding of assets and liabilities. If at all possible, it must also give the impression that the organization in question is full of beans.

A majority of the panel thought that the Mondriaan Stichting’s presentation of its annual figures met this criterion fairly and squarely, setting out in a well thought-out and elegant way, and above all with a light touch, what the foundation did with over seventeen million euros in taxpayers’ money destined for the arts and heritage projects.

Joost Grootens has previously won awards for his atlas designs. This time he has laid out an enjoyable path of pictograms, navigation bars and systematically coloured text. The layeredness of the information comes out beautifully. The report is dominated by a series of pictograms in cyan and pale yellow: these show how large a part the foundation played in the funding of each project.

The Mondriaan Stichting is in the habit of giving each new report to a different designer and an earlier edition has already made it to the Best Dutch Book Designs. The qualities of this year’s report were also recognized in Leipzig by the judges of the international competition Best Book Design from all over the World, who rewarded it with an honourable mention, commenting that ‘concept, typography and features are convincing in their clarity’.

With all this praise one is still left with the nagging thought: is an annual report a book?

Honourable mention, Best Book Design from all over the World, Leipzig 2007