Bechtel: The Bechtel Report

An annual report designed to capture innovation

The Bechtel Report is a pivotal document for this global corporation, used to communicate with a multifaceted and diverse audience. The annual report design utilizes an underlying grid to guide the overall format. Using a minimalistic approach, N+S push the bounds of the underlying grid to capture progress and progression through design.

In the 2019 report, readers will find photography that spans the length of individual spreads, and that illustrates the expansive infrastructure Bechtel has built around the world. Using the grid in this way gave us a box to work in and against—illustrating our ability to refine brand elements in innovative and engaging ways.

The Work

Bechtel, an engineering, construction, and project management company, is known for realizing complex projects around the world. 

Our collaboration began in 2014, when Bechtel brought us their annual report. The report is a pivotal document for the global corporation, used to communicate progress to their employees, directors, and customers as well as local, state, and national government agencies.

Bechtel provided a template for the report, which used an underlying grid to guide the format—but, at N+S, we’ve never really been ones to color in the lines.

The Results

We take a minimalistic approach to our annual report design, pushing the bounds of Bechtel’s underlying grid and perfecting its ability to capture progress and progression.

In The Bechtel Report for 2019, the photography helps to move the reader through the report, spanning the length of individual spreads in such a way that it pulls your eye across the expansive infrastructure that Bechtel has built around the world. These photographs are expertly balanced against white space that works to create clean, wide margins that pace readers, page by page, through the annual report.

N+S has never been one to work in the box—but our work within the grid illustrates our ability to refine brand elements in innovative, meticulous, and engaging ways.