2021

A 12kg report for some pretty weighty issues

Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System

Challenge

Grindstone was engaged to create the final report of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System.

The objective of the report was to provide the community with a clear and ambitious set of actions to fix a system deemed as “broken”, enabling all Victorians to experience their best mental health now and into the future.

Given the subject and depth of the report, our biggest challenge was to present the extensive data in an engaging and accessible way to its diverse audiences and meet a demanding editorial workflow head on.

Strategy

Transforming 2500 pages of mental health policy and research, technical information, data and graphs, footnotes and indexes into a compelling read is no easy task. Our design solution was to create a visual system for the report to highlight key information and provide intuitive navigation across five volumes, bringing the myriad of content to life.

Our strategy also included innovative techniques to streamline the drafting process for the client.

Alongside the main printed report, Grindstone strongly recommended developing an interactive website to support the report’s powerful narratives for public consumption as a highly accessible public record. An interactive PDF and summaries of the interim report in a variety of accessible digital formats were also delivered by Grindstone.

The five-month project required precision planning to manage a specific but evolving set of deadlines, and expertise in print and digital design and strategy.

Outcomes

The five volumes culminated in a printed and bound report weighing a hefty 12kg. Iconography, infographics and data visualisations were applied to the printed report. We created interactive elements and animations to enhance the report in its digital format.

The final report was tabled in Parliament by the Victorian Government on the 2nd of March, 2021. The state government says it will implement all of the report’s 65 recommendations.

View the website at finalreport.rcvmhs.vic.gov.au/

Services

Design

Report

InCopy workflow

Web design & development

Animation

Accessibility design & development

Accessible PDF

Designing a report that calls for a radical redesign of Victoria’s mental health system.
“Designing a final report for a Royal Commission isn’t a project that comes along every day. There are enormous volumes of information and a need for attention to detail, soaring expectations and some super tight deadlines. Grindstone were creative, professional and reliable all the way through the project, particularly during those high pressure moments. They demonstrated time and again their ability to adapt to some evolving requirements from our end. We were really pleased to work with them, they’re a great team.”
– Phuong Nguyen, Project Director and Luke Horwill, Head of Communications and Media
, Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System
“Apart from their clean design approach and ability to deliver creative solutions to our broad brief, one of the most impressive things about Grindstone was their commitment to delivering what they said they would deliver. The quality of work was always to a really high standard and their communication was very clear. We are really proud of the final report and we think the additional tools Grindstone helped us create, like the website and fact sheets, will help the community to engage with the Commission’s final report now and into the future.”
– Phuong Nguyen, Project Director and Luke Horwill, Head of Communications and Media
, Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System