Best 70s Annual Reports
What's more culturally meaningful than the cover art to corporate annual reports from across the 1970s?
I recently took a browse through an online gallery of 3,000 corporate annual reports, which you can sort by decade. The 1970s and 1980s had the most reports, with about 800 each, with a steep dropoff of just 100 across the '90s.
Sadly, it doesn't appear to include the very cool Condec Annual Report 1969, even though it's now up on the Internet Archive, after making its debut to the general public in this very newsletter.
Here's what the guy who put together the site says on the About page:
"For the better part of the last century, annual reports were things that companies put lots of effort into, hiring graphic designers, illustrators, and artists. Graphic design work was pricey either way, and so companies took advantage of this sunk cost to turn everyday reports into things with true meaning, rallying their teams around the flag.
When the personal computer became popular and layout and graphic design was 'democratized,' the amount companies expected to pay for things went down. And so, while they continued to invest in branding and marketing, they stopped investing in aesthetics."
You can check out the site for the whole spread of reports – these are just my favorite report cover images from the 1970s (1980, for that first one). Shoutout to Web Curios for pointing me to the site.
Northern Telecom Limited, 1979.
S.H. Kress Company, Jarman Shoe Corporation, General Shoe Corporation, and Genesco, 1975.
"Automatic" Sprinkler Corporation of America and ATO Inc., 1972.
Premier Cablevision Limited, 1979.
Central National Bank of Cleveland, Centran Bancshares Corporation, and Centran Corporation, 1970.
Bell Canada International, Inc, 1973.
Canada Life Insurance Company, 1975.
Also, check out Hershey's 1970 report (lame attempt at evoking childish glee) vs. PepsiCo's 1970 report (aetheral vision of humanity's ascent to the heavens).
It's also pretty funny that the US Steel Corporation's 1973 report labels all of its pictures exactly like a Richard Scarry-style kid's book.
Cool Links
The Importance of Reading (and Teaching) Cyberpunk in the Age of AI - Reactor
"But if cyberpunk can start from a rebellion against classic sci-fi’s obsession with conquering and colonizing space and a tech-filled but inhuman future, and stand against mega-corporations, materialism, capitalism, and the exploitation of other countries, it can rebel against the watered-down version of itself—something I try to do in my own way, by embracing “dumb” tech, asking inconvenient questions, and pushing back against the idea that critical thinking and creative endeavors are better handled by machines than people."
The Nonfiction Book Market is Collapsing - Dear Head of Mine
Well, that's not a great headline to read right when I'm wrapping up my first draft for my next nonfiction book! It's an enlightening article with a lot to say about the current state of publishing.
I do wonder if art books have any exemptions from the decline of nonfiction, since the fun illustrations might put them further towards the "entertainment" side of the entertainment/fulfillment sliding scale, making them seem more digestible and somewhat extempt from rising media distrust.
And if you're thinking, like I was, that nonfiction is vulnerable to replacement by AI summaries or podcasts, check out that same author's follow-up, where he disputes the idea that that's a problem in the first place.
Music Rec: Gasoline - A Journey Into Abstract Hip-Hop. I always enjoy the Trip Hop genre, but this album was particularly good.
Next Time: Part two of my notes on Franz Rottensteiner's 1975 The Science Fiction Book: An Illustrated History. (Paying subscribers can check out part one over here right now.)