Most of the work I do is mainly for South Africa or commissioned for Argentina, but once in a while I get to work on some projects for other parts of the world. So when the guys from Calentita contacted me all the way from Gibraltar, I couldn't hide my excitement. Specially when they said that they wanted me to design and illustrate a poster for the biggest street party and food festival in the area.
Gibraltar is a curious place: it sits on the southern most tip of Europe - the gateway to Africa and is the meeting place between the Mediterranean and Atlantic. Geographically tiny, (5k long 1.5k wide) it is home to 30,000 people. British for more than 300 years but it was previously spanish, then moorish then spanish, then moorish... the site of many sieges, a natural safe harbour, trading post and refuge and it has been culturally diverse and cosmopolitan for many years - home to spaniards, british, italian, portuguese, moroccan, jewish, and over the course of 300 years its own population of Gibraltarians (or llanitos - pronounced yanitos) and its own peculiar mix of english and spanish (llanito).
Calentita is the "national dish" of Gibraltar and Calentita, the food festival, celebrates all of the above - both historic culture and food influences. 2013 is the 7th edition of this festival...
For the Festival poster, the organizers wanted to reflect a fairly common scene in Gibraltar which is the trip to the beach. So before getting head down to work, I did quite an intensive search on the customs of the place... There are a few things that instantly resonate with the local population about a day out at the beach in Gibraltar: firstly they are ramp packed right to the waterline, everyone sits under an umbrella which will be branded (reminded me of Mar del Plata's summers in Argentina), people like to drink hot tea and eat rolls; they play a game called "tablita" which is basically ludo but with much more interesting looking hand made boards. And as one of the festival organizers says, "we're a bit backward in Gib and the speedo trunk is far from unknown as is the well tanned gentleman sporting them".... heheh
So if by any chance you are in Gibraltar at this time of the year, don't forget to check out Calentita (not that you could miss it if you are there)... Hopefully, I'll be able to go and experience it myself in future years...
If you want to find out more about Calentita click here
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