Phoenix Sustainability Report
PHOENIX is a privately held and family-owned packaging company that manufactures plastic injection molded caps and closures.
PHOENIX came to 3R Sustainability, a full-service sustainability consultancy, and me, Cait Kearney, for support in developing the company’s inaugural sustainability report. I was the lead graphic designer on the project.
The report needed to highlight PHOENIX’s sustainability initiatives and goals and provide sustainability performance data, while also incorporating Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards.
Objectives
Create a design that:
1. Aligns with PHOENIX’s branding standards
2. Incorporates a unique circular design element that resembles a cap turning
3. Highlights and organizes PHOENIX’s sustainability material topics
4. Presents sustainability information in a clear and compelling way
5. Is an interactive PDF
OBJECTIVE 1: Align report design with PHOENIX’s branding standards
Intake
Before I designed the report, I met with the PHOENIX team for an hour via video call to discuss their design expectations and branding standards. PHOENIX provided me with several resources to use to design this report. They shared a library of professionally photographed pictures, examples of marketing materials for inspiration, such as their slide deck template, vector files of iconography, and a branding guide.
Additionally, a PHOENIX marketing specialist with graphic design experience made a few templated pages to demonstrate the direction the PHOENIX team wanted the design to take. From her templated pages, I used the header and footer design and the colors she suggested for the three main sections of the report (People, Product, and Planet).
Some hallmarks of PHOENIX’s visual identity, observable on the page above:
Bright, saturated, colorful color scheme
White space, no clutter
Sans-serif font
Multi-colored headings
Imagery of their products, production
Inspiration
Sketches
Mock-ups
OBJECTIVE 2: Incorporate colorful, unique circle designs that resemble a turning cap
Creating cap-like elements
PHOENIX requested a design element that was unique to their brand and to this specific report.
Because PHOENIX manufactures caps and closures that are often circular and twistable, we discussed a recurring circular shape that exuded movement and energy.
As you can see on the left, I took inspiration from circular designs on Adobe Stock and Behanced and from observing the caps themselves.
I sent the PHOENIX team my sketches and mock-ups, and they requested a combination of mock-ups #2 and #3.
Bringing it to life
You can see how I developed the mock-ups further and integrated the circular element throughout the report. The element is used as a frame, as a callout box, and, most notably, as the main attraction on the cover (bottom left).
OBJECTIVE 3: Highlight and organize PHOENIX’s sustainability material topics
Colors and icons as a map
Because materiality is a critical component of sustainability reports, I always make sure the materiality section includes a well-designed figure that shows the company’s material topics.
For PHOENIX, each material topic was assigned its own icon. I made two of the icons, and PHOENIX supplied the other five. I chose to organize these icons in a wheel because the circular shape fit the report’s circular theme. You’ll notice the red, blue, and green blocks in the wheel (that are labeled “people,” “product,” and “planet”) are echoed on the cover.
The color coding (people=red, product=blue, planet=green) and the icons are used throughout the report to help guide the reader.
OBJECTIVE 4: Present sustainability information in a clear and compelling way
Designing with the reader in mind
For each material topic, there is a box in the theme’s color (e.g. planet=green) that lists PHOENIX’s goals related to the topic. Gray boxes signal a callout feature, focusing on a new program or product. By keeping these two boxes consistent in color and use throughout the report, the reader learns what to expect and how to navigate the information.
There are several tables in this report, including a GRI Index. You can see these tables in the full report here.
OBJECTIVE 5: Make it an interactive PDF
Jump around
I designed this report using Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop. I kept the assets organized in an Adobe library and backed up the design file regularly to secure cloud storage.
The InDesign file was exported as an interactive PDF. This type of PDF allows for reader engagement through features like hyperlinks and a jump down menu, which was used for PHOENIX’s table of contents. The jump down capability of the table of contents can help readers more efficiently find the section they are looking for. The social media icons on the last page of the report are linked to PHOENIX’s social accounts.
An interactive PDF can be easily added to a website, sent as an email attachment, and uploaded to sustainability assessment platforms.