The Rotunda Hospital Annual Report 2021

2021 was another record year for the Rotunda Hospital, with more babies being delivered than ever before. The goal for the design of the 2021 Annual Report was to visualise the hospital’s clinical performance activities and financial report in an engaging way.

With such a monumental year in mind, we wanted to focus on the life in the hospital by creating a visual language that would carry through the entirety of the report. It was first established with the design of the report cover. The heartbeats of babies and mothers were captured through soundwaves and were then adapted into graphic shapes. These heartbeats, showing the life of the hospital, are contained within a circle that symbolises the care and protection offered by the Rotunda staff.

The publication uses two typefaces throughout: Eskorte Latin, designed by Elena Schneider, and Catamaran, designed by Pria Ravichandran. In designing a report where the nature of the data was centred on the care of the mother and baby, it only felt right to exclusively use typefaces designed by women. These typefaces offer the balance and clarity needed to accommodate the variety of content and data sets being laid out.

Visual story-telling was used in this year’s photography of the mothers, babies and staff to give an in-depth view into the everyday goings-on behind the hospital walls. The photography gave a level of intimacy to the report that the numbers and figures could not.