CellMark is a Swedish firm established in the 80s. It specialises in marketing, and providing supply chain services and raw materials for the paper and pulp industries. CellMark operates across 30 countries worldwide.
In CellMark’s 2016 annual report, the designer, Andrew Cowie (of C52 Graphic Design) uses the visual language of the Franco-Belgian comics scene, most notably that of Hergé’s Tintin books. This is immediately apparent from the cover design, the type treatment of the title, and the use of the famous red stripe on the cover, (first introduced in Methuen’s English editions of Tintin, published in the late-50s).
CellMark makes a habit of commissioning famous artists to work on their reports. In the 2016 report, the artist is French illustrator and cartoonist, Jean-Claude Floc’h. Floc’h is a proponent of the Ligne claire art style pioneered by Hergé. Getting someone of Floc’h’s calibre is a scoop, and practically guarantees the reader will be drawn to the report and enjoy its contents.
The bold colour, strong line work, and unambiguous compositions of the Ligne claire style lead the eye through the short comic at the start of the report and through subsequent full-page images.
Bars of colour along the central gutter of the pages provide a sense of movement and life. The text uses a modern serif for body copy and a sans serif for titles. These, along with unobtrusive pages grids and minimal graphic flourishes ensure the art takes pride of place in this enjoyable report.
