Menu Card

The brief was to create an illustration for a bright sophisticated quality fish restaurant. The establishment was bright and airy and the ingredients fresh. 

Step 1 - Out and About. I took a walk along the street and looked at cookbooks in shops and discovered a real trend for lino cut style images.  I took a few photos with my phone so apologies for the quality!

I then had a quick brainstorm in the Sketbook focussing on clarity of image... sophistication of subject matter and possible compositions

The best images seemed to be the simplest, most sophisticated and stylish. I liked the use of ink as it was traditional, light and airy, fresh feeling but yet quite contemporary. I liked the sardines as an image but thought maybe that Sardines might be a bit too 'peasant foody'. I didn't like the ones that had cooked food on them, I thought it was better to go for the fresh ingredients than the finished dish which would be better served by photos. Eventually I opted for a crayfish but stuck with the ink style. 

I played with the image on the computer to see what it would be like in different colours and with a bit of texture. 

I then placed it on an invented DL menu card (recipes courtesy of Rick Stein)

And felt that maybe a little bit of colour would be a good idea. 

However I also wanted to play with the word 'fish' a bit more and so I did a second version incorporating the letters into the design.

And then tried this on the menu card

 I think that probably I like the first design better and the colour scheme would depend on the colours of the restaurant.