The Annual Report of the National Bank of Ukraine for 2016 has won a Bronze Award in the Design/Graphics/ category of the international ARC Awards Competition.
Ms Nataliia Bondarenko, Head of the NBU Information and Public Communications Office, pointed out that the institution’s key image-building product had received high appraisal from the international community due to concerted efforts and constructive cooperation of the NBU team and Ukrainian companies that worked jointly on the design and graphics of the Annual Report.
Ms Bondarenko said: The NBU dedicated its 2016 Annual Report to the 20th anniversary of putting Ukraine’s national currency, the hryvnia, into circulation. National currency is an essential attribute of the statehood and independence of every nation, as well as a symbol of national pride and identity.
Each section of the report is dedicated to one of the outstanding Ukrainian personalities depicted on banknotes. In its choice of banknotes, the NBU was guided by the contribution each personality made to Ukrainian culture and literature. Each section cover features a conventionalized portrait of the relevant personality and a famous quote, which explains the content of the section, and is in line with the NBU’s mission, vision, or one of the values.
To illustrate this, a portrait of Mykhailo Hrushevsky, Ukraine’s first reformer, is on the cover of the Strategy and Reforms Section. This section talks about the NBU’s efforts to reform the Ukrainian economy and to integrate Ukraine into the European and global community. The section starts with the following quote by Mykhailo Hrushevsky: "The Ukrainian people are a part of ... the European civilization not only through historical connections... but through the very essence of their national character." These words reflect the essence of the NBU’s mission statement. ‘The NBU is a modern, open, and independent central bank enjoying public trust and integrated into the European community of national central banks.
The creative design of the Annual Report was created by the advertising agency Why Not. The NBU’s 2016 Annual Report has been designed to incorporate the colors and elements of modern hryvnia banknotes..
The Ukrainian and English versions of the Annual Report were paginated by a young design studio Splendor. "We are grateful to the NBU and ProZorro public e-procurement system for giving an opportunity for our company’s young and talented team to design such a significant product and win international recognition," said vitalii Siatynia, creative director of the design studio.
For reference
The ARC Awards Contest established in the USA in 1987 is the world's biggest annual report competition.
This competition is based on high evaluation standards and the core principles underlying judging are openness, independence and integrity.
The jury panel is comprised of judges come from around the globe. Final judging is made by presidents, CEOs and other senior executives of corporations, agencies, and design firms. In 2017 , the competition was judged by over 130 professionals.
Every year each annual report is evaluated by judges based on a set of criteria. The overall number of scores gained allows entries to qualify for Gold, Silver, Bronze and Honors Awards.
Annual reports are evaluated across 30 categories, , including Overall Excellence, Cover Design, Chairman's Letter and Interior Design. The competition is open to companies from different industries from across the globe. This year such well-known international companies as the Boeing Company, BAYER AG, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., HP Inc., General Electric, Cisco Systems, Inc., Volvo Car Group, Volkswagen, and AG Daimler AG UNIQA Insurance Group AG participated in the competition.
The Silver and Gold awards were not awarded in the Design/Graphics category this year. The NBU’s 2016 Annual Report became a Bronze Award winner. 33 entries entered this’ year’s competition in the Design/Graphics category.