We are really grateful to have the chance to collaborate with a variety of organizations doing fantastic work. Krochet Kids intl. is the latest non-profit we teamed with to create a unique annual report. For any project, half of the magic is in the making, so we thought we’d give you a behind-the-scenes look at how this beautiful report came to be.

Krochet Kids intl. is a a non-profit apparel company that empowers those struggling with poverty in Uganda and Peru by teaching them to craft handmade goods.

The Challenge

Kohl Crecelius, Krochet Kids intl. CEO & Cofounder:

“We at Krochet Kids intl. place a lot of emphasis on monitoring and evaluating our work within developing nations to ensure and improve the impact we are creating. As a result, we have a multifaceted program and a robust set of indicators that we measure for each beneficiary who participates in our program on a monthly basis. This creates a challenge in communicating the depth of our work without writing pages upon pages of content.”

The Concept

Because Krochet Kids intl. conducts their business through their online shop, a hyper visual and interactive report that reflected the company’s work and mission was the perfect way to present the work to viewers. Still, we had the challenge of figuring out just how to visually present the information in an engaging and meaningful way.

Jr. Art Director Renee Granillo:

“As we started to look at the work KK intl. does, we were inspired by their unique products made by hand. We wanted to translate that same feel into the annual report. Using string (aka embroidery thread) as our medium allowed us to experiment in a way that was challenging, informative, and eye-catching.”

To visualize the report’s content, the team created string art, creating individual panels for each page of the report. 

Designs were carefully laid out, with thread points carefully marked. That meant poking each point through with a push pin. At last estimate, there were about 1.2 billion points in the panels—at least that’s what it felt like. 

With needle and thread, the team (somewhat painstakingly) created the vibrant panels. 

Panels were photographed individually, then digitally incorporated into the interactive report. This gave the report a handmade feel—even through its digital medium. 

Kohl Crecelius: “We were so excited to work with C5 on this specific challenge because of their amazing ability to take complex data and ideas to make them visually stimulating and more easily digestible for viewers. Their team helped us to bring life to our monitoring and evaluation systems by pairing our key indicators with graphs that paint the clearest picture of our work.”

The Result

The final product is a digital annual report that features a video, an interactive data visualization and our hand-made works of string art to tell the story.

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Kohl Crecilius: “The level of commitment poured into this project was so far beyond what we expected. A lot of people don’t realize this from viewing our annual report online, but many of the elements were hand threaded through card stock. The physical pieces are hanging in our offices and they are even more impressive in person!”

For more about Krochet Kids intl., check out our Q&A with Kohl Crecelius on the inspiration, challenges, and triumphs of running a non-profit apparel brand.

• Find out how to get the most mileage from your content by Maximizing Your Publishing with Microcontent.
• Learn everything you need to know about visual content in The Ultimate Guide to Visual Content Marketing.
• Get the most eyes on your content by reading The Ultimate Guide to Content Distribution.