News Releases

FMPA Annual Report Featured in Communication Arts Magazine

ORLANDO, Fla., May 29, 2001 -- The Florida Municipal Power Agency's most recent annual report is featured in the May/June issue of a prestigious graphic design magazine called Communication Arts.

"This is quite an honor," said FMPA's Public Relations Manager, Mark McCain. "Communication Arts is a leading international magazine that showcases the best in creative design. For a graphic designer, it does not get any better than having your work in CA."

FMPA's 2000 Annual Report was one of several projects featured in an article headlined "Great Ideas on Limited Budgets". The story explains how McCain was looking through Communication Arts' Design Annual 1999 when he noticed the work of an Atlanta-based marketing communication firm called Merge. McCain telephoned Merge and offered them creative freedom to design FMPA's 2000 Annual Report if they could work within FMPA's budget.

Merge accepted the challenge, and the result is a two-color book with a strong theme and a "less is more" philosophy. The distinctively clean design stripped away all but the essential elements needed to support the message.

The theme is "Power In Numbers." It explores the power of unity, using ants as a metaphor to illustrate the rewards of aggregation, collaboration and preservation, as experienced by the 29 municipal electric utilities that work together through FMPA. "Though the ant metaphor might seem trivial to some, the end result is actually quite sophisticated and helps tell the story in a clear and interesting way," said Michael Taylor, founder and creative director of Merge.

The binding of the book is also unique and serves a purpose as well. Merge designed the annual in two perfect-bound books -- one book is the business report and one book the financial report -- which were attached using a common ACCO metal binder. The functional reason for the two books is that FMPA sometimes uses the business report as a marketing piece. As a side benefit, binding the two books together subtly supports FMPA's essential business philosophy of working together, which is part of annual report's message. The simple, straight-forward presentation and two-color production enabled FMPA to put money into other areas, such as the die-cut covers and the binding.

McCain said, "I think this annual shows that great design comes from defining a singular message, supporting it consistently and clearly, and executing it in all the details. The theme is the heart of the matter. When it's treated as such, it leads to a successful project."

FMPA Contact:
Mark McCain
Public Relations/Public Affairs Manager
(407) 355-7767