2013 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

Saudi Arabia is known as a very conservative country. But it is also a young country – more than half of the population is under-25. Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel wants this Report to talk to these young people. He wants it to talk directly, in a non-patronising way.

The Brief

Abdul Lateef Jameel Community Initiatives is the division of ALJ that handles the CRS projects. This is their Annual report. But this is more than CRS in the Western sense. This is a deeply personal obligation. It is zakah, the Muslim concept of “returning, as the way to belong”. ALJ is a family company, now in its third generation. ALJCI is the family’s commitment to their community.

How the final design was conceived

The convention for Reports in previous years was show successful ALJ representatives rewarding grateful young people (who are rigid with embarrassment). We do none of that. We take success stories for each project and we tell them, in their own terms. The Report reads like a magazine. Every story has it’s own style. The text is short and pithy – about one para. The graphics are dramatic. It is utterly unlike anything that has ever been attempted in Saudi Arabia.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

How do we measure success? When Mohammad Jameel went on a visit to Washington he asked for a reprint of six hundred copies of the Report to take with him. When he presented a copy to the King he described it as "Saudi Hip-Hop".