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1999 Annual Report

1999 Annual Report

1999 Annual Report

 

 

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An Internet-Designed Annual Report

A new look for the Group's 1999 accounts

Milan, 08 May 2000

The Internet has revolutionised the traditional way of considering the media, both in form and substance of use. Even so, many of the Net's means of expression can trace their antecedents back to the printed paper.
In fact, sites and portals adopted the techniques of the printing industry and then adapted them to their own needs: more lively page make-up designed for interactive use, short phrases, pictures and graphics often reduced to the bare essentials. In this way, a series of new devices and characteristics have superimposed themselves on those which have been known since before the times of Gutenberg and they have, in turn, rapidly stamped themselves on the collective imagination as elements identifying the "Internet text".
So, from the press to the Internet: a natural evolution which has renewed formats and languages. But the Pirelli's 1999 annual report, which is now being printed, has experimented with an inverted path: from the Internet to paper, bringing to the pages of one of the Group's most traditional publications the graphics of hypertext.
A decision which, together with many others that characterises e-Pirelli, reflects the company's intention of interpreting the Internet universe globally, adapting it to its business reality. And that has given birth to the decision to create the e-annual report, not just its simple transposition to the Net - a procedure which Pirelli, like many other companies, has been carrying out for some time- but the invention of a "real" volume, paper: leaf through it and it gives the impression to having entered the Net by a completely new and different road, one strewn with graphic stratagems.
There is a horizontal pull-down menu at the top of the page, which enables the reader to see which chapter he is perusing - the one in question being indicated in yellow - and which ones precede and follow it. The bar of the vertical menu at the side of the page lists the details of the "open" chapter's sections: here, too, the section being read at the time is shown in yellow. The structure of the page is completed by a second horizontal bar at the bottom of the page showing Pirelli's web and e-mail addresses. To give the lay-out a sense of continuity with the previous make-up, the colour of the bars is still in the traditional green and that same colour - with a variation in tone - is to be found in the text structure.
While, for obvious legibility reasons, the tables of the second part of the publication - the consolidated balance - maintained the style of previous years, the first part of the publication lends itself well to breaking up the text into single theme fragments which easy to consult.
The basic rule of the Internet is, in fact, that the text must be fast and easy to individualise, with few words in evidence to ensure an even more immediate understanding. These are rules which also marry well with the world of the printed word: as with the Net, here it is more agreeable to work with a clear text, which "guides" the reader with thematic indications and images. When tested for its practicability, the annual report revealed itself to be a text well suitable to "internetisation": all of the chapters could be broken up into mini-sections, with a result dynamic and efficient at the same time. Sub-headings in the form of "selectionable" switches brilliantly perform the task of linking the contents which they summarise. Equally quick to visualise, the images are strictly linked to the text which they accompany.
More modern, but without losing any clarity and legibility: that is how the first "clickable" paper balance sheet made its debut in the world of business publications. Signed e-Pirelli.

by Riccarda Zezza, Pirelli, Milan

More: www.pirelli.com/report99/index.htm
More: [email protected]
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