Lantra Scotland The Wood and the Trees
Publication Design

Design Brief

In 2021, Cunningly Good Group was commissioned by Lantra to design a new publication that would induct and support new job entrants to the forestry sector.

In the last 100 years, forest and woodland cover in Scotland has increased from around 5% to 18.5%, higher than the rest of the UK, but still well below the European Union average of 38%. Forestry’s contribution to the Scottish economy has increased to £954 million GVA, rising 30% since the recession in 2008 and currently supports over 25,000 jobs.

As a rapidly growing sector the Scottish Government, through Skills Development Scotland, tasked Lantra with supporting the upskilling and reskilling within Forestry. As part of this work, the need for increased support for new entrants was identified.

The aim of this publication was to:

Induct and enthuse those new to working within the sector, providing them a full overview of forestry but in an accessible format;
Provide guidance and act as a key signposting publication on key regulations and where further information can be accessed on areas such as training, health & safety, first aid, species identification and pollution control.

The budget for the whole project was £17K to include creation, copy and printing and was delivered slightly under budget.

Cunningly Good Group’s Approach

The development of the publication was a joint effort between Lantra and Cunningly Good Group. Lantra worked with the sector and the colleges to compile the content, with the technical copywriting undertaken by Henzteeth. Cunningly Good Group had the publishing and design skills to create a publication that was both visually appealing, would work as a quick reference guide, and ensured the core messaging was conveyed clearly. After consultation with those working in the sector, and with educators, it was agreed that what was needed was ‘the missing beginners’ textbook’

The primary distribution network was aimed at colleges and specialist training providers, and it was quickly identified that the publication needed to be structured in two clear sections:

The Trees (the scientific part)
The wood (the practical manual)

The initial plan was to develop a 30 page digital booklet, to be made available to students through colleges and training providers. It wasn’t long, however, before the extent of the content and a desire to make it accessible to the reader, saw it quickly extend to a massive 88 pages from cover to cover.

With an intended purpose to be “a beginners’ textbook”, it was essential that the copy and content reflected this and so the publication has been written to be unapologetically accessible, opening up the subject matter to everyone from the beginner to the more experienced forester.

The design is deliberately uncluttered, bold and modern, with key sections of the document clearly marked out with vibrant top bar colours. Reader engagement is created through the use of a narrative cartoon guide called “Ask Smithy” who appears in several places throughout the document, fostering a culture of “if you don’t know, ask someone who does” within the industry.

As forestry is a small sector, where eventually everyone knows everyone, the decision was made early on to ensure that “Smithy” was someone who actually existed (and who actually is that helpful). Although predominantly represented as a cartoon, he is photographically featured and identified in the publication towards the end.

Imagery used throughout the publication is deliberately diverse, showing students of all ages, sexes and racial backgrounds, as well as showcasing a range of different job roles, to make sure it is clear that forestry is accessible and open to people from all walks of life.

The Cunningly Good Results

With the plan for it to be a digital publication, the 88 pages of content wasn’t expected to be problematic, however when it started to roll out to colleges, there was an immediate upsurge in demand for hard copy versions with reasons given cited as:

“handy reference”
“shows we are investing in their learning”
“often our students are only using their phones to get online, and they would struggle to read such a document on their devices”
“many of our students have limited connectivity”

This prompted Lantra to consult with the Scottish Government, who had requested the creation of the publication initially, and who subsequently permitted the reallocation of funding to enable to the publication to be distributed more widely in the print format. The digital version is currently also available on Issuu.com for use by affiliated colleges and training providers and, once the publication is officially launched in hard copy, it will also be available via Lantra’s own website.

Demand for the publication quickly became apparent, with a number of colleges requesting hard copies within weeks of it being distributed electronically via issuu.com

Hard copies have now been requested by and delivered to:

Scottish School of Forestry
SRUC Barony
Rural Skills Scotland.

The first print run of 200 copies has been divided between Rural Skills Scotland and SRUC Barony and the second print run of 200 copies was sent directly to the Scottish School of Forestry in Inverness. From each site they will be distributed directly to their full-time students, new apprentices, as well as trainees taken on through the Kickstart initiative.

The publication has been reviewed and commented on by both the Scottish and English Forestry Skills Forum and has been highly praised and positively received.

Lantra, along with The Scottish Government, is planning for an official launch of the print edition, which is scheduled to take place summer 2021 with Ministerial presence.