ECsoft

Design: Radley Yeldar

Copywriter: Iain Banks

Photography: John Edwards, Tim Foster

Printer: Fernedge

IT services company ECsoft’s 2000 annual report and accounts, by specialists Radley Yeldar, poses a range of basic questions aimed at demystifying technology, and putting a more human, humorous face to what could easily be interpreted as a cold, clinical business. On the introductory pages, simple questions and answers are emblazoned across brightly coloured computer screen backgrounds, which bring texture and vibrancy to the design.

‘The words were the starting point,’ says Radley Yeldar senior designer Adam Mills. ‘We wanted to break away from the business IT jargon and show how technology affects people’s everyday lives.’ Most of the copy was generated in-house by the Radley Yeldar design team, and consisted of queries that they wanted to put to clients before embarking on the design process. ‘We got a copywriter in to clean things

up,’ says Mills. ‘But it was in quite a reasonable shape already. We came in as laymen and just asked all the obvious things.’

And though there was a certain amount of rationalising, the majority of the images were photographed from the original presentation screens shown to the client. This was partly a matter of time, explains Mills, but happily, it served to lend a certain spontaneity and vigour to the imagery. Angled, with words set seemingly haphazardly, the computer screen theme is continued throughout the publication, even when photographic elements are introduced later on.