Here at Flow, education is integral to a lot of what we do – from internal training to teaching externally and, of course, assisting education-related clients with their communications needs.
We boast many clients for whom education is central to their offering, including Maropeng, the Two Oceans Aquarium, uShaka Sea World, TEACH South Africa and others, such as the awesome Sci-Bono Discovery Centre in downtown Johannesburg.
Sci-Bono is a much-needed initiative to interest kids, in particular, in mathematics, science and technology, and was launched 10 years ago by the Gauteng Department of Education in collaboration with the public sector. Hundreds of thousands of youngsters (and their teachers) have already benefited from its various innovative programmes.
But they don’t come cheap, and it’s critical for Sci-Bono to be run as a viable business; part of this entails Sci-Bono presenting itself and its activities as professionally as possible. One of its most important “shop fronts” in this regard is its annual report, which details its management, its activities and their impacts, and of course its financials.
This is not a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have. It’s a reflection of strong corporate governance, which is important considering that public money is spent on Sci-Bono, and corporate financial support won’t be forthcoming otherwise.
Flow was thus delighted to be given the task of designing and editing Sci-Bono’s latest annual report, and helping to showcase its important work in an eye-catching, attractive way. The job fell to project manager Ros Caboz, designer Nomthandazo Peyise and me, the copy editor.
But, being Flowstars, this was not just about repeating what had been done before – we just had to take things up a notch or two, especially in the way the report is presented …
Says Nomthandazo: “Working on Sci-Bono was great, I enjoyed doing the job on so many levels, from the concept to the photoshoot [at the centre]. The idea behind the annual report was to showcase science and how fun it is. The look and feel was a simple use of white space with simple lines – a graphic language.
“It was inspiring to see how the client played a role in making kids passionate about science, and the programmes put into place to assist South African children and teachers. This I saw while we were doing the photoshoot for the client; it’s cool to see that kids are still intrigued by learning.
“As always, it was a pleasure to work with an awesome Flow team, Ros and Willem. It’s always cool to have a team that works well to get the job done.”
Ros says the annual report has worked well: “We were very happy with the classy and clean new look for the annual report. It is always a pleasure to work with Sci-Bono, which provides such essential educational school support programmes in the maths, science and technology fields, to the learners of Gauteng.”
And we’re very pleased to report that the client is happy with how it’s turned out, too. Francois Gerber, Sci-Bono’s senior marketing and communications manager, sums it up thus: “Flow went above and beyond to deliver an exceptional product.”
