Columbia River Catering Co. is a culinary company based out of Golden, BC. They needed full branding and promotional material that speaks to their mountain food concept mixed with traditional French fine-dining. Since their launch in 2017, I have been working with CRCC to develop everything from their branding to website to food truck wrap design.

In another lifetime, I was working in the hospitality industry, chasing my other passion: being a ski bum. I spent a season working at an all-inclusive heli ski lodge in the Canadian Rockies. Management at the time was a talented and hard-working couple – Dan and Carrie Bracko. Dan worked in the kitchen as head chef and I was constantly blown away by his mouth-wateringly delicious, original, inspired-by-the-land and aesthetically beautiful food.

Now let’s jump ahead 4 years later to my last year of graphic design school where one of our final projects was to create a full branding package and marketing plan for an imaginary company. At this exact time, Dan and Carrie were about to launch their own culinary company: Columbia River Catering Co – and were in need of this exact design work. I decided I was ready to challenge myself (and create 100X more work for myself) by using CRCC’s real-world design needs for my assignment.

This launch into the real world of designing for clients rather than for supportive teachers was incredibly stressful and challenging at the time (try building an entire website for the first time during your most intense month of school!) but it was also a very valuable learning experience. And while I look at my design work from this time and see all the imperfections of a very green designer, I’m still proud of this work and that I took the initiative to kick-start my career—as well⁠ as gain a great client.