10 were commissioned to design and print the National Food Strategy report, the first independent review of the UK’s food system for 75 years, to communicate the vision of its lead author, Henry Dimbleby, founder of the Leon restaurant chain and non-executive board member of DEFRA.

Launched in July 2020, the first part of the strategy contains urgent recommendations to support the UK through the current the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on how to ensure a generation of disadvantaged children are not left behind through hunger and illness. It also discusses opportunities presented by Brexit in December. Part 2, due to be published in spring 2021, will reveal a plan for how this will be achieved.

10’s brief was to bring the ground-breaking and comprehensive report to life through engaging, visually appealing design that accurately communicated Henry’s vision for the future of food in Britain.

Design Director Michael Freemantle said he wanted the look and feel of the report to join the dots with both the brand film and the work of illustrator Tom Kilburn.
“When you know that you’re going to be working with such a high calibre of words and pictures, courtesy of Henry Dimbleby and Tom Kilburn, then the success of the piece had to come from creating an engaging and fiercely credible report,” he said.
“The digital world may be dominant but we had the opportunity here to also create a tactile report designed to bridge the gap between the wonderful film created by Tom and narrative within written by Henry. We produced three different cover wraps, featuring stills from the film, and featuring Tom’s illustrations as a lead into the four main chapters of the report.”

10’s creative director Jill Peel said she was exceptionally proud that the team was chosen to design the report: “We were honoured to be asked to produce such an important and influential report. Good information design is fundamental in communicating comprehensive content whilst engaging the reader.

“The result is an exceptional piece of creative that brought to life the remarkable vision of Henry for the future of food in our country. It is a very proud moment for the 10 team.”
Henry Dimbleby was appointed by the then Secretary of State for the Environment Michael Gove to lead the review into the UK’s food system. Henry co-founded the Sustainable Restaurant Association and co-wrote the School Food Plan in 2013, setting out actions to transform what children eat in school and how they learn about food.

The report explores the damage being done to our health by the modern food system. Diet-related illness is one of the top three risk factors for dying of COVID-19; even before the pandemic, poor diet was responsible for one in seven deaths in the UK, around 90,000 a year – more than road traffic accidents and almost as many as smoking.

Henry’s recommendations cover two themes – ensuring all children, including the most vulnerable, get the nutrition they need and using Brexit as an opportunity to re-evaluate the type of trading nation the UK wants to be, negotiating new trade deals that protect the environment and animal welfare. Read more over at nationalfoodstrategy.org