While this project was proceeding, I was asked by the owner of the agency to take on an illustration project for the same client to create a deck of novelty playing cards for the restaurant group that would feature the figurehead sushi chef and his wife as the face cards. I created multiple vector illustrations of the subjects as the King, Queen, Jack and Joker as well as a custom illustrated pattern for the playing card back.

Because these were vector based illustrations, we were able to quickly modify them for use on the sushi restaurant website project, with the ornate crowns and clothing removed. This gave the client additional high-quality illustrated elements on the website without drastically increasing the budget.

Before the final app went live I received a brief to create a fun & interesting loading screen. I illustrated a cartoon sushi roll & hand with chopsticks in Adobe Illustrator with the individual components broken out for animation rigging. In Adobe After Effects I animated the sushi roll bouncing onto the screen with tiny bits of rice flying out along different paths, with the hand reaching out with chopsticks to grab it.