The creation of my award-winning cover illustration for the British wine magazine Glug

Some time ago I was commissioned for a cover illustration for the British wine magazine Glug. Each month the magazine features a different country and its wines and wine culture. For this issue it was Bulgaria.

Click the image to learn more about my recognition at Lürzer's Archive!

I was commissioned by art director Emlyn Firth of a visual agency, for whom I had previously done a few editorial illustrations. One of them won at American Illustration. With this one, I was selected by Lürzer's Archive as one of the 200 best digital artists 2024. (Read more about it here!) Our collaboration is always a great pleasure and always leads to great results.

The briefing or basic idea for this issue:

Thracian culture and Bulgarian wine: some people still celebrate St Trifon, the patron saint of vineyards, during Trifon Zarezan Day on Valentine's Day. Many of the country's wineries are named after Thracian gods: Bendida which takes its name from the goddess of hunting and the moon, Bendis; winery Zelanos is named after the Thracian God of wine; the list goes on. I would aim to interview key people from the wine industry in Bulgaria with a focus on what this legacy means to them in modern-day Bulgaria.

The cover illustration should therefore reflect the cultural heritage in connection with the local wine culture in a modern Bulgaria.

I did a lot of research on the country and the traditions of Bulgaria, which was really interesting. That's what I love about such assignments, you learn so many interesting things about people and cultures in other parts of the world—not even that far away from my home country—and broaden your horizons and your understanding of other people and cultures.

©Pixabay – many thanks to the photographers Anestiev, vladunis, dr42ne, aXer1, Martin Lazarov and Arvid Olson for providing their photos for free!

I came up with 3 concepts and created sketches for them. At this stage, sketches are often created and shown in black and white tones in order to let only the idea take effect without distracting or influencing the client with the colors. In this case, however, I colored the sketches because the color palette was part of the idea. It is based on the colors of the Bulgarian flag, red, green and white (but I interpreted the white as a yellowish tone, that gives the images a golden sunny shine).

Sketch 1: The rich aroma of Bulgarian wine

A woman with traditional Bulgarian clothes enjoys the aroma of wine. Inside the glass of wine, a Bulgarian wine landscape is visible, surrounded by grape vines, as if you peek through them. The idea was, that the Bulgarian landscape, the country itself, is the origin of the aroma. I continued the landscape in the background to make it a more idyllic picture and to leave it open to the viewer, if the landscape just shines through the wine in red, or if the landscape in the glass is a separated scene. I was also considering to change the background to something very differently, so the idea of „Bulgaria inside the wine glass“ would come out even stronger (this would have made a more surreal touch).

Sketch 2: Cheers to St. Trifon

A couple in traditional Bulgarian clothes toast to St Trifon (the patron saint of vineyards), who toasts back out of the sky, above the Bulgarian wine landscape. The clouds are shaped as grapes.

Sketch 3: Bulgarian tradition in every fiber

A woman with a festive traditional Bulgarian headdress and clothing enjoys a glass of wine. In her appearance there are hidden many Bulgarian landmarks or traditions: the black sea cost (which is one of their wine regions) with a sundown, the Rila convent, roses (standing for their wine region „Rose valley“), St Trifon, Mountains, the Danubian plain (another wine region), and some symbols for Bulgarian traditions like the horse, a Surva mask, and a rooster. The Bulgarian headdress often has some kind of little felt balls on top, and I replaced them with grapes, as well as the earrings are hanging grapes too.

The client liked all three cover illustration concepts for their wine magazine, but decided to go for sketch 3, because it was a concept the magazine hasn’t had before and they really liked the idea of combining the landscape and mythology within the cloth.

So I did this sketch as a vector drawing in Affinity Designer with a subtle texture. Balancing the colors was a challenge here because it's so detailed. But it all turned out well—the client is still very happy with it today!

"Julia’s recent cover for our wine magazine ‘Glug’ won admiration from the entire company and Wine 52’s customers – her ability to fuse historical craft detail with a joyful and unique aesthetic has been universally loved and amongst the best I have commissioned.“ Emlyn Firth, Director at “a visual agency”