McCain sustainability report
A fresh take on ESG reporting: combining regenerative storytelling, brand-led design and digital-first functionality for McCain’s latest sustainability publication.
The challenge
McCain briefed us to reimagine their annual sustainability report, creating a hybrid format that would place a spotlight on their regenerative agriculture efforts while also covering their broader ESG activity in a more concise, accessible way.
The report needed to strike a balance between creativity and clarity: less corporate, more visually engaging, but still structured, professional and easy to navigate. The existing McCain brand needed to be respected and extended, while new treatments and infographics would give the document its own visual identity.
Key requirements included a digital-first format with an interactive navigation pane, integration of impactful photography and stakeholder quotes, and a consistent visual system that kept content digestible and distraction-free.
The main challenges
- Create a hybrid-format report with a bold hero section on regenerative agriculture, followed by a shorter ESG summary
- Push the McCain brand forward from the previous year without losing core recognition
- Balance a creative and accessible tone with professional credibility
- Make strong use of photography, with minimal visual clutter and digestible layouts
- Include custom infographics and icons to communicate stats and processes clearly
- Embed stakeholder quotes creatively throughout
- Ensure digital-first delivery, with interactive navigation and full accessibility compliance
The process
We began by interrogating sustainability reports across the sector, reviewing structure, content hierarchy and visual style. A series of moodboards were then used to explore possible design directions, from organic textures to modular, icon-led layouts.
From here, we developed two initial concepts, each featuring cover and sample inside pages. Both were firmly rooted in the McCain brand, but took different stylistic routes based on findings from the research phase.
One concept leaned into natural textures and tactile visual references; the other used clean modular layouts and keyline iconography. Following internal feedback, we selected and evolved a direction that combined the strongest elements of both, bringing in more core brand features while simplifying structure for ease of navigation.
The final report was fully accessibility-enabled and delivered with screen reader compatibility and clear digital navigation. Alongside the report, we created a set of social media assets to showcase key statistics from each of the report’s main pillars.
The solution
The final report was a confident evolution of the previous year’s design, clearly part of the McCain visual universe, but with a more creative and engaging tone.
The hero section on regenerative agriculture featured custom hand-drawn iconography, including a ‘tractor-timeline’ device that framed the narrative and helped break down the section into digestible sub-topics. Photography played a central role, giving real-world context and humanising the data.
Throughout the document, we introduced colour-coded infographics and keyline illustrations to highlight core stats, supported by thoughtfully styled stakeholder quotes to bring in external voices.
A bright yellow brand bar, a recognisable feature of McCain’s identity, was adapted as a framing device for an interactive navigation pane, allowing readers to easily move between sections. The layout and structure prioritised clarity, ensuring that both dense data and storytelling content were easy to engage with across devices.
Would you like to see results like these for your organisation?
If you’re interested in finding out more about how we could work together, send us a message and we’ll get back to you.
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