Willamette Industries

Annual reports, 1996–1998

We produced four annuals for the 80-year-old forest products company (three of which are shown here) in the years just before it was taken over by Weyerhaeuser Corp. Willamette was a plain-spoken company with a good sense of itself, and thanks to its tack-sharp Communications VP – the late Catherine Dunn – it knew how to get that sense across to its constituents. We made sure the message was delivered clearly and with dignity. Mostly, we kept out of the way.

1996

In 1996, Willamette doubled its land holdings with the purchase of 560,000 acres previously owned by a British firm. That was the big story this year, with the subtext being responsible stewardship of all of its land holdings. We set Steve Terrill’s landscape photographs against Victorian-inspired typography, fitting them both into a layout meant to be at once conservative and dynamic, leaving the reader with 
a sense of a modern company that is also fussy about details.

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Operations, section opening

We established a two-column type area, weighted towards the center of the book, into which the narrative would flow.

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Operations, internal pages

Information not strictly necessary to the flow of the narrative (graphs, sidebars, etc.) would orbit around the central text area.

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Notes to financial statements.

The financials were built on a separate but derivative grid to allow for a wider measure (and comfortable table width).

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1997

Nothing fancy or particularly clever here. Originally, the 1997 annual was supposed to deal with the clearcutting issue, but two-thirds of the way through development, Willamette’s CEO left to take the top job at Weyerhaeuser. To shore up shareholder confidence, the clearcutting story got the ax, and was replaced with…a profile of senior management. Not an earth-shattering concept, but a pleasant book; we enjoy its solid and craftsmanlike quality.

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Operations

Portland photographer Rick Rappaport photographed plant, equipment and the heads of the various business groups. Design-wise, there's some overlap from the 1996 book, though the layouts tended to be cozier: again, to address investor unease during management transition.

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Financials

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1998

A capital-improvement (big new machine) story. Among other machines, this book celebrates Willamette’s construction of k2, a three-storey, 600-foot-long machine for manufacturing uncoated free sheet, used in making copy paper. This book always felt to us like the annuals done by Arnold Saks for his industrial clients: simple and confident, if a bit dry. Photography is again by Rick Rappaport.

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Operations

Look, is that a gelled working environment in the center? That was my fault, I'm afraid. I made Rappaport do it. Pinch operative Mark Conahan made the illustration of the k2 paper machine at bottom.

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Financials

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