Design service / Ebooks & Digital Reports

Ebooks & Digital Reports.

Editorial reports your buying committee actually finishes.

Most studios design first, edit second. We work the other way. Thesis before layout. Chapter logic before typography.

Senior editors with consulting and publishing backgrounds lead every project, with data viz treated as the spine, not decoration. Accessible PDF and interactive flipbook by default.

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Shanghai studio / Editorial design + analytics

Hardcover bound annual report lying open on a warm walnut desk, showing typeset columns and a single clean data chart. Studio work / Polaria Group

Why it matters

Why our publishing
roots matter.

A mid-market software firm spent four months on a sixty-four-page state-of-the-industry report. Fourteen hundred respondents, a thesis a year in the making. Then the analytics came back: median read time, forty-seven seconds. Charts unreadable below 200% zoom on the mobile devices where 61% of opens happened.

We hear some version of that most months. NetLine puts the average B2B buyer at 47.7 hours between requesting content and opening it. So we work backwards from the reading experience. Thesis first, chapter logic second, design third.

Past work has landed in the US, the EU, the UK, the Middle East and APAC.

A professional at a sunlit cafe window seat reading a PDF report on their smartphone.
The forty-seven-second test

73% of B2B decision-makers say an organization's thought leadership is a more trustworthy basis for assessing its capabilities than its marketing materials.

0% Gated conversion rate Against a 4.7% B2B benchmark
0% Lower production cost On recurring report programs
0x Faster to publish Versus a traditional editorial agency

The work, defined

One editorial system,
every long-form format.

An open softcover whitepaper on linen, showing a serif headline and a single hero chart.
Thought leadership

Coverage

What we cover on thought leadership.

Ebooks, lead-gen guides, whitepapers, research reports, industry and trend studies. The formats that earn the gated download and start the buying conversation. NetLine puts ebooks at 53% of B2B content registrations; whitepapers convert downloads to leads at roughly 7%, against 3% for webinars. We design every page around that read.

You get an editorial system, not a template. Thesis per chapter, hero data viz per spread, a sample spread inside week one. The same direction extends into LinkedIn carousels, executive summary one-pagers and the email sequence that follows the download.

In scope

  • Ebooks
  • Lead-gen guides
  • Whitepapers
  • Research reports
  • Industry studies
  • Trend reports
  • Executive summaries
  • Social cutdowns
  • Landing pages
A navy linen annual report and a closed pitch deck on a polished concrete table in late afternoon light.
Corporate & enablement

Coverage

What we cover on corporate and enablement.

The reports your board, your investors and your sales team rely on.

Annual and ESG reports, investor presentations, pitch decks, sales enablement and onboarding ebooks. 94% of Russell 1000 companies now publish on sustainability; the EU Omnibus I narrowed CSRD scope but kept the disclosure stakes high. We build to ESRS, ISSB and the relevant local framework, with citation discipline and an accessible PDF by default.

Investor decks built the MBB way: action titles, charts that read in ten seconds, alignment grids across sixty slides. Sales enablement and onboarding work get the same editorial standard as the flagship report, not template fill.

In scope

  • Annual reports
  • ESG & CSRD
  • Investor presentations
  • Pitch decks
  • Sales playbooks
  • Battle cards
  • Onboarding ebooks
  • Board materials
  • Pre-IPO reporting

Contact sheet

Selected proofs.

Covers and spreads from recent report and ebook engagements, generated and finished in the studio. Every frame is authored work, not a stock pull.

Hardback industry research report with a forest-green linen cover and a gold-foiled Aldenmar wordmark, on charcoal stone.
Aldenmar State-of-industry report
Three slim cream softcover pharma whitepapers stacked under a small Maru wordmark, on pale grey linen.
Maru Pharma whitepaper series
Thick kraft-cover sustainability report letterpressed with a Verdant Ridge wordmark and a small leaf glyph, on weathered oak.
Verdant Ridge CSRD impact report
Black linen-bound annual review with a silver-foiled Polaria Group wordmark, on a dark walnut conference table.
Polaria Group Investor annual review
Coral-orange softcover consumer trends study printed with a black Nyloft wordmark, beside an open spread of data charts.
Nyloft Consumer trends study
Three navy linen sales enablement ebooks printed with a white Halberd wordmark, fanned out on matte black.
Halberd Sales enablement trilogy
A laptop on a daylit desk showing an interactive HTML5 flipbook of a report with a faint engagement heatmap overlay.
Two hands reviewing a printed proof of a research report, with a red editing pen resting on a chart.
+52% MQL to SQL versus static PDF

Optional capability

Need it distributed too?
We can flipbook it.

This part is optional. Most clients come to us for the editorial and design. But if you also want to ship it as an interactive asset, we can pick it up from there.

We package the report as an interactive HTML5 flipbook with embedded lead capture, page-by-page engagement heatmaps, and a clean handoff into HubSpot, Marketo or Salesforce. Interactive gated assessments now convert MQL to SQL at rates 52% higher than static PDF downloads. Accessibility is built in by default: WCAG 2.1 AA, tagged structure, PDF/UA verified before delivery.

  • WCAG 2.1 AA
  • PDF/UA
  • HubSpot
  • Marketo
  • Salesforce

For clients shipping into China, we run a WeChat-native variant with Official Account articles, Mini Program gating and ICP-licensed hosting. Editorial localization is handled in-region where regulatory framing or sensitive financial copy demands it.

If you already own the distribution stack, no problem. We deliver the accessible PDF and the print-ready CMYK file and step back.

Our process

Editorial direction is
the spine.

Most studios sell process. We sell the editorial call. AI made the technical side cheap and fast for everyone. It did not replace the eye that picks which thesis is actually worth a hundred pages.

First two steps are where it is won or lost. The rest is execution.

A senior editor at a wooden worktable spreading out research printouts, data sheets and a draft brief beside a bound report.
Where it is won

Brief, thesis and data audit.

Format, distribution plan, framework requirements (CSRD, ESRS, ISSB where relevant), citation check.

A senior editor studies a single sample spread mocked up on a studio wall, showing the thesis and one hero chart.
Where it is won

Editorial direction. The step that matters most.

Thesis, chapter structure and cover concept locked before design begins. This is the call that decides whether the report carries the buying committee or stalls on page three.

A designer arranging a grid of dozens of cover and spread direction proofs across a daylit worktable.
The rest is execution

AI exploration.

Dozens of cover and spread directions in parallel, mocked photoreal in context.

A designer's monitor showing an InDesign layout with accessibility tagging panels open beside a printed PAC verification sheet.
The rest is execution

Refinement and prepress.

Typography, accessibility tagging, alt text, PAC verification.

One report shown in three language editions and a smaller executive summary, lined up on a daylit table.
The rest is execution

Adaptation at scale.

Market variants, language localization, executive summary, social cutdowns.

The new math

How AI changes
the math.

A client lands with a sixty-four-page state-of-the-industry report, fourteen hundred respondents, sixty charts, three regional editions. The same brief, run two ways.

The old workflow Twelve weeks
Research synthesis Four weeks Editorial drafts Four weeks Design & production Four weeks

Old workflow: brief an editorial agency, four weeks for research synthesis, four for editorial drafts, four for design and production. Twelve weeks, three or four rounds, and a tired team that never quite gets to the executive summary.

Our workflow Two weeks
Brief to first draft Two weeks

Our workflow: editorial direction locked in week one, sample spread on the table by day five. Cover and spread variants explored photoreal in parallel. Language editions and executive cutdowns generated from the same master, not rebuilt from scratch. Accessibility tagging baked into the source file, not retrofitted at the end.

Two weeks for a 20 to 40 page ebook from brief to final files. Three to four weeks for a 60 to 100 page report. Four to six weeks for a full annual or ESG report with framework alignment. Faster on extensions of an existing series. You see a sample spread inside week one regardless of format.

Project-based for one-off ebooks, whitepapers and reports. Monthly retainer for ongoing report programs or quarterly research series. Three rounds of revisions sit inside the standard scope, and we rarely need more once the editorial direction is locked at step two of the process.

On the marketing-ops side: gated landing page conversion rate, download-to-read rate, page-by-page engagement heatmap, MQL-to-SQL conversion on leads sourced from the asset, time-on-page in the flipbook. On the editorial side: completion rate. The Jellybooks benchmark for non-fiction long-form considers anything above 50% very good, and 25 to 50% solid.

Brand guidelines if you have them. The thesis or research question if it is clear, or the raw research if it is not yet. Final or near-final copy, or a draft we can edit. Source data for any charts, in spreadsheet form. Citation list. CEO or executive foreword copy if it applies. Reference reports you like or want to avoid. If brand guidelines do not exist, we work from what does and flag the gaps.

Standard. We sign your NDA before the first working session and route all draft files through a permissioned workspace, not email. For listed companies and material non-public information, the protocol tightens: named-only access, redacted draft circulation outside the core team, and no AI training on the underlying data. The studio has worked under those rules on investor relations and pre-IPO reporting.

Senior editors from consulting and publishing backgrounds lead every project. Art directors with editorial design experience handle layout and visual identity. Data visualization specialists handle charts. AI specialists handle the production volume. No junior teams running the brief alone.

Like you. We train our AI on your existing brand assets and prior reports, so the output stays inside your visual system rather than ours. For brands without a documented system, we build one as we go and hand it over with the files. The system is yours to keep regardless of whether you continue with us.

You own the final deliverables. We use commercially safe models, document the workflow, and editorial illustration generated with Firefly carries Adobe Content Credentials when the brief calls for it. For the legal side in full, see our Copyright and AI guide .

Both. Some clients come to us for one flagship annual report. Others come with a quarterly research series across three languages, plus the executive summary, the LinkedIn carousels, and the sales enablement extracts. The workflow scales either way.

All three, depending on the brief. The default is a WCAG 2.1 AA accessible PDF plus an interactive HTML5 flipbook for the digital launch. We add a print-ready CMYK version when the report doubles as an investor or board document. The flipbook ships with page-by-page engagement analytics, optional embedded lead capture, and a clean CRM handoff.

Our production team is based in Shanghai, and we produce reports for clients shipping into the US, EU, UK, Middle East and APAC. For China specifically, we handle ICP-licensed hosting, WeChat-native distribution through Official Accounts and Mini Programs, Baidu indexing, and the editorial localization that matters for regulated industries.

Yes. Send us one brief. Inside two weeks you get three editorial directions and a sample spread. No retainer, no commitment, the work is yours either way.

Try us

See it on your
own thesis.

Send us a brief. Inside two weeks you get three editorial directions and a sample spread. No retainer, no commitment. The work is yours to keep either way, and if you decide to go elsewhere it gives you a sharper brief to hand to the next studio.

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