At the beginning of February I received a really exciting email from the managing director of a company called “The Media Company Publications” and she asked if I have interest in working with them to create a series of illustrations for “Foodies Festival” which would be used for advertising. I was super excited about this project and I immediately answer YES to her.

Over the last 2 years I’ve visited the Foodies Festival held here in Edinburgh and I love it and not simply because I was hired for this job. The Foodie Festival brings together both local and national food and food related product producers and you can try all kinds of really delicious foods and drinks.

So back to the job, I thought it would just be for the Edinburgh Foodies Festival but in fact my illustrations will be used nationwide and will be shown in at least 13 major cities.

As a former chef I always wish I can be involved in more events like the Foodies Festival but I don’t always have a chance to do so. My last chef job was way too busy to join most years of the foodies festival  and the head chef at a hotel I used to work at only chose “his people” to attend “Taste of Scotland” and “Foodies Festival”. The rest of the chefs who stayed in the hotel, including myself, would have to work like Cinderella, one person doing two people’s job and pick salad leaves until 2am while the head chef and his chef pets enjoy the festivals and drink beers.

So you can imagine how happy and exited I was when as a former chef and now full time illustrator I was contacted about creating a campaign related to food. Unlike working as a chef, people don’t care about my colour, my language, who I’m friends with, all they care about is my portfolio and this company liked it.

I’ll always really appreciate Sue, the managing director, gaving me this opportunity to work with “Foodies Festival” and Sue and the graphic designer Angela McKean are have been absolutely brilliant to work with.

Also thanks to creator and illustrator Laura Caldentey who created the “Happy Fox Font” and the creator of the font “Black Jack”. They very generously shared their fonts with me and allowed me to used them in this project.

I created many illustrations for Foodies Festival and the first illustration is inspired by the Foodies Festival scene. They specifically required “blue skies and a colourful festival feel”. So I illustrated a lot of tents and food trucks, mobile bars..etc for this illustration.

Rooster crowing and Chicken walk with chicks

Sue told me she loves my rooster illustration and they would want me to illustrate rooster, chicken with chicks so they can use it for the advertisements. I illustrated a rooster crowing and chicken walk with chicks.

Vintage Cake Stand and Cup Cakes

They love my “Vintage Kitchen Illustrations” so they wish I can illustrate vintage cake stand with cake on it. I decide to illustrate a series of cup cakes as when I working on the rough sketches I don’t feel the traditional cake suits for this illustrations. Also if I illustrated series of cup cakes illustrations and they they have more illustrations can use for their advertisements. I provide all the cup cakes in the individual files for the designer Angela

More cup cakes!

Bacardi bottle, Pimm’s jug and Bombay sapphire bottle

Strawberry, Tomato, Watermelon and Rhubarb

They want to replace their old strawberry logo and use my strawberry illustration as their new logo.

Lemons and grapes illustration

Paella, Dumplings and Shumai illustrations

Sushis and Kebabs illustrations:

Cheesemonger stall illustration

Olive oil stall illustration: 

Posh pie stall illustration

Tableware stall illustration

Ice cream van illustration

French Citroen truck bar illustration

Summer vegetable illustrations

Also show you some of my sketches if anyone is interested