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European City Research

8 page gatefold print report

Creating an infographic is a unique challenge for any visual designer. Taking often complex information and boiling it down to its very essence to tell a story that is both compelling and simple to understand, isn’t easy. 

 

But that was exactly what was required by ING Media for the 5th edition of their European Cities Report, which this year, was to be launched at Mipim, an annual event held in Cannes which attended by over 20,000 property professionals over 4 days in March. 

 

When I originally met with the team back in October last year, it was clear that they wanted to move away from what they had previously produced and were open to a new approach. 

 

The full research exists online but the ING Media City Strategy Unit led by James Child and Jiyoung Jo, wanted to keep the 8 page gatefold structure used in previous incarnations, to showcase the standout stats from their 6 months of research.

 

The first step in my involvement, was to take a rough draft of their analysis and pull out a strand of the story with which I could structure the findings in a visually engaging way. 

 

It was at this point that I started to sketch ideas: post its, notebook, even a newly acquired white board (which is no longer attached to the wall of my home office but that’s another story) and by the time of my next catch-up meeting with the team which also included Senior Consultant, Lucie Murray, I was ready to pitch my idea. 

 

After a brief discussion and some really positive feedback, it was up to James and the team to fit the information to the structure and flesh out the story into a proper narrative.

 

Once everything thing was in place, I created the final artwork ready for launch at the round table where leaders from Europe’s top cities were invited by ING to discuss the opportunities and challenges which cities face, and how digital visibility and soft power can affect inward investment prospects.

  

To accompany this, I was able to create a complete marketing solution including print, web and social advertising to support the promotion of the report as well as the UK version some weeks later.

 

It was great to see the final finished product and work with the team on what was a really satisfying, rewarding and collaborative project.

Project requirements

Original concept, design and layout

Data visualisation

Image research

Final artwork

Social media campaign design

Client

ING Media

Testimonial

“Having collaborated with Chris for a number of year’s during our time at EG, I was very pleased when he agreed to help us. Chris respected our brief; we wanted to deliver something new and visually show-stopping to the market, while building on the legacy of the previous reports. Fine tuning a mountain of data insights into a concise narrative is difficult – Chris always rises to the challenge’ delivering inventive methods of portraying what can be quite obtuse subjects. I always feel at ease when working with Chris as he always goes the extra mile to understand what we are trying to achieve so he can visually deliver the right message for the right occasion. This year we knew we had to commit less to page despite their being more information than any other year. The “less is more” approach enabled us to bring a robust product to our round table event at MIPIM without distilling the research beyond recognition. The whole team at ING is so pleased by the new design and look at feel of the report.”

James Child, City Strategist - Data, Research & Content, ING Media

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