What's with the "cat hairs gone astray," already? Visitors to www.sidcato.com are aware of our perpetual bewilderment concerning one persistent oddity in annual report design: what we call "cat hairs gone astray." The phenomenon surfaced soon after my website was unveiled—the end of April 1996. The recollection remains fresh in my mind: Reviewing one annual report, I discerned what I assumed were hairs from my ever-lovin' cat, whom I rescued from starvation in the woods of Wisconsin. But brushing the page failed to remove them. Only upon closer inspection was it clear: These weren't cat hairs; they were strange little sweeps and swoops, which I subsequently realized were made by a compass—that little device we all used in high school and which can't cost more than a couple of bucks at the nearest office supply store. Since then, some graphic designers—only the schlock operators, I'm convinced—have gone the "design by cat hairs" route, oftentimes simply "letting it all hang out," "going for broke." That is, making an entire circle. Back several years, the National Investor Relations Institute invited me to conduct a workshop for members of its Boston chapter, then to entertain with a dinner speech at Brookline Country Club. Coincident with announcement of my coming, I received a telephone call. I remember it well: I returned the call from a phone booth. It was from a local printer who "on behalf of all the Boston annual report producers" wanted to welcome me to the area, a typical "suck-up-to-the-dignitary" routine. I asked his connection with annual reports. He said he did "Oh, 60 or 70 a year." "How is it," I said, "I've been in this business for years and never heard of you, then?" "I'll send you some samples of my work," the voice promised. Surprise! They never came. Fast forward to a National Investor Relations Institute debate in Boston a few years back—a debate with said printer. Unless memory has failed me completely, he revealed his design arm, Curran & Connors, did annuals which he printed—none of them even close to being worth evaluating. One thing I especially remember concerned my advocacy of women and/or minorities on boards of directors. Said he cockily to the assemblage, "That's not a problem with my clients; their boards have only white males on them!" Cut to the present: While in Atlanta for a breakfast speech, followed by a 90-minute workshop during which I told local NIRI members all I know (and all they should know) about annual reports, I was handed a report on behalf of one AtheroGenics, Inc. Its score, a woeful 18 points, indicates its poor quality—that and a –38.9 percent Cato Positive Index. That's a hugely negative rating; 100 percent (without the minus sign, of course) would indicate a report contained all the elements considered essential for a good report. What singles out this simply awful annual for special mention is—you guessed it: those pesky cat hairs, again. The aforementioned Curran & Connors (nary an Irishman or Scotsman among them, I'm willing to bet) takes credit—or in this case, blame—for design. Cat hairs proliferate! Circles up the gazoo! Five circles alone on the cover. Six on the inside front cover. Sixteen, by actual count, on Pg. 1. Fourteen or 15 (depending on how one counts) bastardizing the letter to shareholders. Silly little swoops this way and that. A dozen on the next page; "only" three on Pg. 5—unless one counts the dozen that provide a running page count. Dozens upon dozens throughout the 28-page book—not least, one for bad measure on the inside back cover, where the portly CEO and four similarly darkened persons are pictured, if unidentified (as, presumably, corporate officers). Encircled, wouldn't you know it, by yet another circle! Other than a printer-provided service, on the cheap (one has to assume), how does this kind of beneath-amateur output persist? You tell me. Addendum: As I wrote in my June 2001 issue—No. 214—"AtheroGenics wins, hands-down: most compass-drawn circles ever in an annual report." Besides, it's terribly unattractive. You tell me: Who in his right mind would invest in this company? Not I, that's for sure.

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