I had stumbled in wondering what a flavour-filled Caribbean restaurant was doing in the middle of under-seasoned meat and potatoes Amish Country, on Main Street in New Holland – notorious for failed restaurants. Ginny and Fernando, the owners of Toadally Caribbean, had operated a food truck. Due to zoning codes, they had to shut it down, so they took a leap and opened this adorable little restaurant. They made everything fresh, never frozen, and poured immense love and care into every single dish they created.

When I walked in there and saw their poor design work – using the decorative font in their logo as body text atop a patterned green and purple background with absolutely no grid all over the place, with multiple spelling errors – I knew there was no way their restaurant would survive more than a couple months in that area without an entire design overhaul. Their budget was tiny, so we agreed to barter design work for food and it was a totally unfair trade because their food was out of this world.  I was just settling in New Holland at the time, and unemployed, so it was perfect timing. I developed their identity, menus, social media, a website, flyers, events, and all of their food photography. Their Facebook presence skyrocketed to 700 likes over a year. This was one of my favorite clients and they were almost like family to me by the end.