Two languages. One institutional voice.
A bilingual annual report for the African Union Foundation, designed as one publication system so English and French readers receive the same story, the same structure and the same standard.
Credibility had to survive translation.
An annual report is how a continental institution accounts for its work to member states, donors, partners and the public. For the African Union Foundation, that audience reads in English and in French.
Two separately designed documents would have risked two different impressions of the same institution. The brief called for one report that holds its authority in either language, while keeping the people and programmes behind the numbers visible.
One system, built for two languages.
Every structural decision was made once and applied to both editions, so translation changes the words and nothing else.
Page for page
Both editions run to 37 pages, with every section on the same page in English and French.
One type hierarchy
Headings, pull quotes, captions and body text follow the same order of importance in both editions.
Institutional colour
Maroon, green and gold, with line and triangle motifs that carry through every section.
Paired covers
English and French covers share one illustration and layout, so both read as the same publication.
A cover that leads with the continent.
An illustrated sunburst over the African continent gives both editions an optimistic, unmistakably African opening. The Foundation's mark sits in gold, and only the language changes between the two covers.
Five years of history, read at a glance.
A dedicated journey spread traces the Foundation from its conceptualisation in 2012 to mid-2017. Each milestone sits in its own colour-coded panel with a date, an icon and a short summary.
A dense institutional history becomes something a reader can scan in seconds and return to for detail.
Impact shown through people.
Photography-led spreads put programmes and the people behind them at the centre, from the launch of a youth innovation programme in Mauritius in March 2017 to the Foundation's partner and stakeholder events.
Collage layouts let a single spread carry a whole event, while the text column keeps the record precise.
Leadership voices, given room.
Statements from heads of state and Foundation leaders are set as large-format pull quotes on full-colour pages, so the key message lands before the reader reaches the detail on the facing page.
Read the report in either language.
Thirty-seven pages covering the Foundation's journey, the inaugural African Economic Platform, resource mobilisation, the Africa Against Ebola response, the campaign to retire the handheld hoe and its youth programmes.
One institution, one voice, in either language.
The finished suite gives the African Union Foundation a report it can place in front of member state delegations, donors and the public in either language, with the same clarity and authority.
The shared system also gives future reports a ready structure, so each new edition starts from an established standard rather than a blank page.