The Sharing Table • Creating a cookbook in lockdown

“For me this project was about shining a light on the people who shared their recipes and stories”

Brief

Refugee Roots, a Nottingham-based charity working to support asylum seekers in the UK, approached me to design a cookbook of recipes cooked and shared and participants and volunteers from all over the world.

Concept

The charity had already had a great set of branding guidelines in place, so my challenge was to adapt them to work in an editorial setting. Inspired by the guidelines I created a palette of six bright swatches that would provide the background and signpost each of the book’s chapters. The brand uses a texture of irregular white vertical lines lines to represent roots, and I used this motif throughout to complement the page layouts, sometimes growing from the base like on the cover, and sometimes used full bleed in the background.

Story of the project

I wanted the look and feel of the book to really celebrate the charity and the people who cooked and shared the recipes, but also convey the wonderful flavours of the food. The photography needed to be naturally lit and styled using simple props that might be found in any kitchen, and the page layouts needed to be clear and well signposted. But then Covid-19, and then lockdown, came along just as we were about to start shooting the dishes and as with so many projects across the industry we had to start working remotely. But, undeterred, the team carried on testing and preparing recipes, shooting dishes, writing, editing and designing all in our respective locations around the country. And we couldn’t be happier with the result!

The team

Client Refugee Roots
Branding Three Rooms
Copy Adam Baker, Kathy Thomas and Leslie Cohen
Photography Rob Thomas and Jessica Coates
Printing Sherwood Universal

The finished product