DOI Creative Samples

USDA Food and Nutrition Service BPA

Sage is one of six BPA holders for USDA’s Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) agency. Reaching a ceiling of $15,000,000, this BPA supports a variety of teams including the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP); all of which Sage has delivered communications and marketing services.

For NSLP, Sage ideated and developed a suite of digital and print creative promoting its 2022 National School Breakfast Week campaign. This week-long campaign celebrated the importance of healthy school-provided breakfast for students. Sage proposed a concept that was fun, inviting and engaging for public and nonprofit private school kids. Our challenge was to design compelling creative that would grab students’ attention and spark conversation. Sage designed a cartoon, illustrative look and feel, bringing familiar school lunch items to life—and carried those illustrations across social media graphics, infographics, an instruction guide for teachers, and a set of 40 interactive photo props. We added personality to a bowl of cereal, a smile to a stack of pancakes, eyes to fruits and more.

For WIC, FNS needed Sage’s support in producing a series of educational/training booklets for those who provide services to low-income pregnant and new families, and to infants and children ages 5 and younger who are at nutritional risk. To support these efforts, Sage first ideated and pitched several potential design concepts, key verbal themes, objectives and positionings of the reports. Once approved, we then laid out strategically and thoughtfully designed booklets that carried the chosen verbal themes throughout all materials. We established graphic standards to present a strong, consistent brand, including fonts, image styles, page formats, text formats, photo captions, footnotes, infographics and more. Sage proposed clean, easy-to-follow designs to present the content clearly, and featured rich, full-bleed photography of real providers and families. While this effort did not require a custom photo shoot, Sage guided FNS through the selection of existing photography and provided post-production photo treatments such as resizing, cropping and retouching. We prepared all materials for print and web distribution, ensuring Section 508 compliance.

Sage’s efforts for NSLP resulted in a Hermes Creative Gold Award.