The confectionary company, Kanro, was founded in 1912 by Masaichi Miyamoto in southern Japan, in Yamaguchi Prefecture. Today their sweets and snacks are sold worldwide.
Kanro’s multi-ARC award-winning 2023 report takes its motifs from Japanese Hanafuda playing cards. In keeping with the tradition of Hanafuda cards, the motifs in the reports include flowers, animals, and landscapes. However, these are frequently given a modern twist: along with pictures of cherry blossoms and samurai you will see modern school children using their cell phones, or even flying saucers.
The illustrations carry a faint grain, suggestive of the long history of the company. Extracted elements, like an individual flower or animal appear as icons in the report, linking pages together through shared design elements.
Patterning is an important component of Hanafuda cards and the idea is used in the report. Many of the flat blocks of colour used in the report carry a faint overlay of a traditional pattern. The idea is applied even to certain pages in the financial section, providing a blast of welcome colour. This report is well put together, fusing the ancient and the modern, and by using a simple theme well, a strong impact is achieved.
