Originally a German mail order shoe company established in 1949, Otto Group is now one the world’s largest ecommerce sites and includes financial service and real estate businesses.
Otto’s 2020-2021 report, like many of the time, relies heavily on illustration, rather than photography. Here, lively and bold illustration work is shared by James Andrews and Timo Kuilder. The report is also notable for its use of finely drawn icons.
The illustrations provide a blast of colour to the section divider pages, in particular, as well as livening up the monthly summaries in the early pages of the report. The images provided by both artists are thoughtfully composed and well suited to the contents of the report.
Icons appear throughout the report, drawn using fine line work and composed in a single colour (though some later usage uses a colour overlay). The line thickness used to draw the icons also appears in ornamental design elements and maps, tying these visual elements together throughout the report.
Colour provides a similar function of tying together the report in its consistent use of red, yellow, blue and black, across illustration, navigation, and financial reporting. A well-rounded report and one worth studying for its use of illustration and colour.
