The UN headquarters in India approached us to design the Annual Report for 2020. ‘UN with India – Annual Report 2020’ focuses on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in India, and how the UN mobilized its resources and capabilities for the country throughout the year of 2020. The Government of India – United Nations Sustainable Development Framework (UNSDF) is the framework of cooperation, resultsĀ and strategies that brings together the work of the UN agencies in the country and guides UN India’s cooperation with the Government of India. The UNSDF is guided by India’s development goals of a better quality of life for all citizens, and consists of seven Priority Areas: 1) Poverty & Urbanization, 2) Health, Water and Sanitation, 3) Education, 4) Nutrition and Food Security, 5) Climate Change, Clean Energy and Disaster Resilience, 6) Skilling, Entrepreneurship, and Job Creation, 7) Gender Equality and Youth Development.

The data provided in the Annual Report is divided into these 7 priority areas, each colour-coded according to the respective colour in the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN. We created a system design, where the section colours and the key of icons differentiate one priority area from the other, with the distinguished UN blue as a common colour throughout the publication, along with a bright yellow. The resulting publication design has different colour blocks intermingling with each other in clean yet engaging layouts. The stencil version of the font adds a dash of an experimental feel to the otherwise clean design language.

Three sets of infographic designs were created for the system, to visualise different types of data. Photographs play a prominent role in the entire publication, with clear references given to the different agencies such as UNHCR, UNDP, UNICEF, WHO etc. We intentionally created captions with a large font and noticeable boxes to give importance to the photography, as well as the stories behind them.