This February I was commissioned by Foodies Festival to illustrate a series of advertisements for their “2015 Foodies Festival”. The Foodies Festival just to give you a brief overview is a series of food festivals lasting several days throughout the country. Each festival brings in local chefs, some Michelin star, as well as produce providers and product makers from all over the country. There are also cooking demonstration tents and best of all lots of stands where you can try all kinds of different foods which range from BBQ meats, seafood, Jamaican, Mexican, local Michelin star restaurant and so forth. Last year you could even drink from coconuts.

So back to this job, I was told that my illustrations are going to be used on their website, on their tickets, banners, posters and flyers. So after this project finished I was really desperate to see my illustrations in public. As I’m based in Edinburgh and Edinburgh has so many festivals of all types most events don’t get a lot of advertising until quite close to the event but on several trips out I’ve seen my illustrations including on the billboard below and a flyer at a local Marks and Spencers.

My friends sent me photos they took in a local restaurant when they saw the flyers, then I saw the aforementioned flyers at Marks and Spencer in their magazine at the check out counter. I was so happy as this is the first time I have seen my illustrations outside in the public.

Finally and as mentioned also above I also saw my illustration billboard size at Craigleith Retail Park which is a really busy local shopping park with a Sainsburys, Nike shop, Marks and Spencer, KFC, Boots and more. Well actually, my husband saw the billboard when we were driving in. We drove into then park and he shouted “look at the poster” and my heart nearly popped out of my chest when I saw it.

This is first and only time I’ve seen it in poster form as to be honest I don’t really go into town that often. My friends liken me to a hermit as I literally work all the time from home but I’m really happy with how the poster looks.

So if you’re in Edinburgh between the 7th and 9th of August and want to taste some really quite awesome food (genuinely the food is great, I’ve been for two years now and it’s great) then you should make your way to Inverleith Park to join this delicious and fun event. You also have the added bonus of Inverleith Park sitting right next to the Royal Botanical Gardens so you can spend a few hours at the Foodies Festival and follow this up with a lovely walk around the gardens (which really do look lovely at this time of the year). Chris and I are going to the Foodies Festival this Sunday as the organisers very kindly gave me some free tickets. I guess this is one of the bonuses of being a freelance illustrator and this is one of those jobs that makes me really love being an illustrator.