75. ELEVEN INC.
You’d have to be nuts to get a kick out of reading an annual report. But when Diamond of California decided to branch out and take its company from a collective of walnut growers to a publicly held corporation, Eleven Inc. found a way to give its 2004 annual report a fun, whimsical feel that would win friends and influence people at home and on Wall Street.

In addition to positioning the company for going public, Diamond—formerly a culinary or ingredient nut supplier—was expanding its product line to include 16 varieties of premium snack nuts, branded as Emerald Nuts. The challenge, says Eleven Inc. creative director Paul Curtin, was to create an annual report that would speak to their growers, potential investors, and their new market; they needed to cultivate a unique presence and build market confidence so they could compete with the big boys like Planters and Frito Lay.

Associate creative director for the project, Robert Kastigar, says they wanted to leverage the fact that Goodby had expanded their brand personality to include humor, citing the super campy Emerald Nuts TV ad campaign—a series of 15-second spots that play on the initials E.N. and feature such unlikely stars as “Encouraging Norwegians,” “Envious Nomads,” and “Egyptian Navigators.” But Eleven Inc. went at it from a completely different angle. They used photographer Bonnie Holland’s color-rich, poppy shots with a distinctive camp Americana feel to give a little whimsy to the design. “The annual report photos give a little wink to the camera,” Kastigar continues, “The product figures prominently in every shot, but Holland’s stylized, almost cartoon-like photos don’t try to hide that. In fact, the product is a big part of what makes the images fun. The photography gives a bright, optimistic, lighthearted feel to the report, and the fact that it’s oversized delivers the emotion in an undeniable way. It’s funny, unexpected, over the top.”

Curtin adds that Diamond was very picky about its image, and how the packaging was shown. “Originally Eleven thought Diamond would perceive the photography as a little dangerous; we weren’t sure how it would be received. It turns out the layout really appealed to their sense of visual order, cleanliness, and professionalism. Diamond loved it,” says Curtin, “They thought it was kind of futuristic and sleek, and felt that the report would really speak to their target market. It gave them a hip urbanite image—something not everyone expects from a nut-growing cooperative.”
Melea Britt Alexander