188 pages of food, stories and a very worthwhile cause
I recently had the pleasure of designing The Life Savers Cookbook for Gary Buglass, an 188 page cookbook bringing together recipes, photography, personal stories and Gary’s passion for food.
This was a great project to work on as I was involved in the design of the book from cover to cover, creating the overall visual style and bringing all of the different elements together.
The brief
The Life Savers Cookbook is dedicated to the courageous lifeboat volunteers who give their time to saving lives at sea.
Gary has volunteered with the Swanage RNLI lifeboat station, and his own background in catering and his continued passion for food are a big part of the story behind the book.
The brief was to create a cookbook that felt personal, approachable and full of character.
It wasn’t about creating something that felt overly formal or like a high end restaurant cookbook. The idea was to create something that reflected Gary’s story and the type of food he enjoys cooking and sharing.
Designing the book
I designed all 188 pages of the cookbook, including the cover, page layouts, typography, colours, textures and overall visual direction.
There were lots of different elements to bring together, from the recipes and introduction through to the photography and supporting content.
For the imagery, I sourced a large amount of stock photography, while Gary also supplied some of his own photographs. There are also some AI generated images within the book.
I then selected and art directed the imagery to make sure everything worked together and felt consistent across the different sections of the book.
Typography and layout were particularly important. With 188 pages of recipes and information, the book needed to be easy to navigate and practical to use, while still having enough personality to make it enjoyable to look through.
More than just a cookbook
One of the things I particularly liked about this project was the story behind it.
Gary’s introduction talks about his early career in catering, starting at catering college and working as a chef in the 1980s.
His career then took him in a completely different direction, eventually leading him into the telecoms industry. However, his passion for food never really disappeared.
Alongside his career, Gary has volunteered his time teaching sailing and being part of the crew for the Swanage RNLI lifeboat station.
He has also used his catering experience to prepare food for the local sailing club and help organise the barbecue during Swanage Lifeboat Week.
All of this gives the cookbook a real personal connection to the RNLI and the people who volunteer their time to help others.
A book with a purpose
The cookbook isn’t just about recipes.
It is also about giving something back.
Profits from The Life Savers Cookbook are donated to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, supporting the volunteers who dedicate their time and often risk their own lives to save others at sea.
That made this project particularly rewarding to work on.
It is always nice to create something that looks good, but it is even better when the finished piece has a genuine purpose behind it.
The finished cookbook
The finished result is an 188 page cookbook bringing together Gary’s recipes, stories and love of food with the important work of the RNLI.
From the typography and colour palette through to the textures, layouts and imagery, I wanted the design to feel warm, approachable and personal.
It was a great project to be involved with and a really enjoyable challenge to design a complete cookbook from the ground up.
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