Illustration Portfolio
Food & Travel Illustration with A Cultural Flavour
Yaansoon's Professional Biography
Yaansoon is the artist alias of a freelance digital and pen-and-ink illustrator who produces culturally informed illustrations for clients, art directors and graphic designers looking for food illustration, travel illustration, illustrated maps, and women empowerment artwork with a multi-cultural Mediterranean feel. Having travelled to over 20 countries in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, she brings some of that exposure into her illustrations, which transmit an acute attention to cultural flavour.
With multi-cultural roots that include Moroccan and European ancestry, Yaansoon is currently based in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA region), with clients in Italy and the UK.
Clients
Here are some of Yaansoon's illustration clients, mainly from Italy and the UK:
The Italian Trade Agency
Italy's Export Promotion Agency
Over several years, The Italian Trade Agency - ITA (Agenzia ICE) have commissioned Yaansoon to create a series of illustrations for some of their main annual calendar events including, Pizza Day, Italian Culinary Week, Italian Green Solutions B2B Workshop, and other events promoting Italian industries, culture, and way of life. ITA/ICE is a governmental department under the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (Ministero degli affari esteri e della cooperazione internazionale - MAECI).
Sellerio Editore
Italian Book Publisher
Italian book publisher, Sellerio Editore, licenced one of Yaansoon's Middle Eastern food illustrations as a book cover for their culinary title, Delizie d’Oriente (Delights of the Orient) by renowned scholar Peter Heine. This food history manuscript and cookbook explores the cultural history of food in the Middle East, and offers foodies over 50 recipes with insights into the food traditions surrounding them.
DIFD Inclusive
UK's International Cooperation Department
DIFD Inclusive, part of the British Government’s Department for International Development (DFID), commissioned Yaansoon to create a women empowerment illustration and GIF for their social media channels, on occasion of #16DaysofActivism marking the "International Day to End Violence against Women & Girls.” The artworks were also used alongside an interview on their Medium blog promoting India-based app and website, “Safecity,” a project promoting safe havens for Indian women facing harassment and gender-based violence.
La Mia Mamma
Italian Restaurant in London
Ahead of their launch, London-based Italian restaurant, La Mia Mamma, commissioned Yaansoon to create a series of branding illustrations meant to expand on their initial logo. As such, Yaansoon created a set of cohesive illustrations meant for online use as well as part of their interior design, stationery and branding design. These include illustrated maps and illustrated recipes used as wall art, social media and website illustrations, and spot illustrations printed on menus, aprons, restaurant tiles, and more!
Approach & Style
Analogue Pens, Inks, and Watercolour & Gouache Textures meet Digital Illustration
Illustration Technique: Yaansoon usually works in pen and ink, producing linear drawings which she then digitises to complete her artwork with a Wacom Cintiq tablet. Now and again she’ll experiment with collage, introducing different royalty-free photos and textures into her illustrated compositions. She also likes to incorporate different analogue mediums into her digital artwork, including gouache and watercolour, which are also scanned and digitised to fit into her final artwork. The artist works with Adobe Photoshop as her main go-to illustration software, in addition to Procreate on iPad Pro. She also occasionally produces artwork using the natural-media software, Corel Painter Essentials 5.
Illustration Style: Yaansoon’s style is culturally informed and inspired by a combination of influences, mainly travel, cultural curiosity, and her keen interest in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food culture, folk handcrafts and tribal heritage. These include handmade Moroccan, Tunisian, and Italian ceramics, hand-stitched and hand-woven tribal and Levantine textiles, hand-stamped Italian kitchen linens, and hand-carved Syrian and Lebanese wooden furniture, marquetry, and intricate inlays.
Video Profile
A quick video profile with food and travel illustration, hand-lettering, and more!
Drop me a line!
If you have an idea for a new illustration commission, please drop me a line and we'll get started with your next project!
