Skills Society is a Canadian nonprofit that supports children and adults with developmental disabilities, brain injury survivors, and their families.
The Skills Society 2025 annual report exudes warmth and a spirit of generosity. It accomplishes this through the choice of colour, line and typography. The report uses the idea of growing a community, and visually, this is conveyed through the use of floral and gardening motifs.
The colour palette plays into this, in its use of muted earthtones. The cover drives the point home photographically, with rich, loamy soil for the background (this soil background appears elsewhere in the report, tying the idea to the pages).
The line used frequently for icons and other design elements, always features curved corners and branching forms, to suggest growth and inclusiveness. Other illustrations match the tone using loose, informal mark-making.
Type treatments are less cohesive. The softer, more ‘handwritten’ typefaces fit well with other design elements in the report but the sharp, modern sans serifs feel a little out of place. In most cases, though, the effect of these sharp edges are worn smooth by the warmth of the colour palette.
