Project:

Becca Wright, founder and owner of snack company Piedmont Pennies, reached out to me in October of 2021 about collaborating on an illustration project. She told me she loved my work (score!) and wanted to hire me to illustrate their signature product, the “Tin Penny.”

Piedmont Pennies is a North Carolina-based company that sells homemade cheese crackers called pennies, made from the owner’s grandmother’s recipe. When we started working together, Pennies were in 70 stores across 5 states!

Becca had ideas to use the illustration on merchandise, stationery, packaging and social media. It quickly became clear that this illustration could be a very valuable component of the Pennies brand.

Process:

This project was a quick turnaround project. Our initial phone call was in early November, and the client wanted to have the illustration printed onto swag items ahead of the holiday season. Because of this, we added in parameters for number of revisions and colorways in order to simplify the process and meet the deadline.

I began with sketches of the Tin Penny, using photo references provided by the client. From here I pulled the sketches into my iPad and traced over them in Adobe Fresco. Once I had the outline down, I added color and detail to the jar and the crackers inside the jar.

The biggest illustration challenge came with the pennies themselves. The crackers are not uniform in the slightest and have a lot of texture on top with flat-ish bottoms. I went through a few iterations of detail on the crackers, finally landing on a style that defined the pennies without being distracting.

Final Tin Penny illustration for Piedmont Pennies

Solution:

Piedmont Pennies has now printed the illustration onto stickers to include in orders and hand out at pop-ups and trade shows. According to Becca, they’re a hit!

The illustration of the Tin Penny provides a fun memento and brand touch for customers and the Penny Pals community, and also “preserves” the original product offering that began the Piedmont Pennies adventure.