Olimpia Zagnoli for Barilla – Image Source 1

I originally came across the work of Olimpia Zagnoli by listening to the podcast ‘creative pep talk’ in which the host Andy J. Pizza (another illustrator and graphic designer) discusses her work. I looked her up and found her work instantly recognisable – I just knew I had seen some of these before! And there is no wonder I found Zagnoli’s work recognisable, it has been on the pages of major magazine and newspapers and adorning advertisements and fashion brands world wide. Besides the beautiful aesthetics and colours, the thing that really got me gripped was the story of Zagnoli’s work for Italian pasta manufacturer ‘Barilla’. Long story short, Barilla were a homophobic company who had previous spoken out against having gay couples represented in their advertisement – in an act of protest Zagnoli created work for them that featured a female couple holding hands and sharing spaghetti. Barilla ended up using the work in their campaigns and on packaging! I will leave a link here to an interview where Zagnoli tells the story, it is worth a read. It does show how much the illustrator and designer can actually influence.

Olimpia Zagnoli for Barilla – Image Source

We are looking for a contemporary illustration in your signature style for the pasta manufacturing company Barilla.

• The client is looking for an illustration to use in advertising campaigns as well as to adorn their packaging. Barilla’s packaging is consistent and our brand is instantly recognisable. Barilla’s packaging is typically blue showing their logo, a white and red ellipse with the company name in the centre. The client would like to keep with these colours.
• We would like the illustration to feature a couple or a family and incorporate pasta into the design somewhere – whether it be a repeat pattern or people enjoying pasta.
• We are looking for a contemporary illustration to update the image of the company. We would like to update stylistically with more contemporary packaging and also by representing more diverse groups that we haven’t represented before.
• We would like the art work to appeal to both our existing customers but also to attract new customers. We would like to appeal to a younger market, and attract more millennial customers and we need to understand that we need to be more inclusive as a brand in order to do this.
• The illustration will be used on both advertisements and on our pasta packaging. This means that the image will need to be high resolution, as it will need to be used on our boxes but also be able to be resized to fit magazine and newspaper advertisements.