A commemorative coffee table book of the story of a 50-year-old agribusiness organisation.
Overview
As a pioneer of agricultural micronutrients in India, Aries Agro is an institution unto itself in the history of Indian agriculture. In 2019, Aries Agro celebrated their 50th Foundation Day. To commemorate this historic milestone, Aries commissioned Content Conspiracy to write and design a corporate history book.
Conceived and produced as a coffee table book, Future Perfect, is Aries’ definitive corporate memoir. The book is one of the first to explore the breadth of Aries Agro’s story through its genesis, growth, and future-looking ascendancies.
The Challenge
A business anniversary is an opportunity to reflect upon the context of the organisation - where it’s been and where it is going. Capturing the essence of this collective journey is a daunting task: several individual threads in a five-decade narrative, and each event a turning point in its evolutionary progression.
The challenge was to capture and create the context with depth and represent a distinct point of view of each stakeholder. A part of this was to bring out the intrinsic value and capture the various different ways the various ways in which it has manifested to help the organisation progress collectively
How do you then connect the dots and create such a story?
The answer lies in rigorous research, free-flowing candid interviews, and a well-defined aesthetic vision.
Our Approach
The 200-page single volume is a collection of 37 stories, several images, and numerous memories painstakingly sorted from the in-house magazine (Aries Flash). The chronicle underlines Aries’ contribution in shaping Indian agriculture.
The book is organised into five thematic chapters, each opening with a topical prelude that segues into stories from long-serving Aries family members.
To engage readers, symbolic epigraphs open each chapter. Different voices are presented as transcribed interviews along with archive images connecting the dots between the milestones and memories of Aries’ rich history.
Early on in the design process, we chose image spreads to highlight a significant milestone to create a visual semblance. Text was kept at a minimum, yet interviews were transcribed in full to retain individual personalities and their memories.
Some of the most intensive visual artwork is in the form of motifs representing Aries’ alignment to UN SDGs and the word-cloud that represents the Aries DNA.
We ploughed through over 40-year of avail
able archive of printed documentation and pictures, creating a narrative motif. We also interspersed the book with infographics as well as created a recurring design motif utilised throughout.
This quintessentially Indian graphic motif first appears on the hard-bound cover and then appears on a page of special significance in the book.
Sparse layouts, and large graphic and typographic moments are the highlights of this book.
Why we love it
Future Perfect is a monumental project for us, both in scope and effort. The lessons from this project are both practical and profound.
The imagery is accompanied by insightful profiles written and edited after intense telephone and face-to-face interactions.
Future Perfect is a six-month endeavour culminating in a book that the Aries’ members take pride in. It was a project that put our creativity and attention to detail to test.
There is no higher adulation than when the client says “The soul of Aries has been captured.”
“Content Conspiracy worked hard meeting our people across the country, conducting hours of interviews, and creating photo essays curated from an archive of thousands of photographs.
In the end, they weaved a memorable masterpiece for the Aries family to treasure - Future Perfect, an exceptional chronicle of the legacy of Aries Agro over our first 50 years.
The final publication is exactly the gem we set out to create - a proud history of our company, re-lived through very personal and emotive stories of the very people who lived through this journey.”
Dr. Rahul Mirchandani, Chairman & Managing Director, Aries Agro