“The United States of Mexican Food”
Banded together with the team over at Eater to create an illustrated editorial package on Mexican food in America. Explore the whole package here!
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/39cdc6dabb465a6f2a377e95bc519e1db7e44731d585d9dc6c683a49aa9e1650/Naya-Cheyenne_United-States-of-Mexican-Food_Header_3000x1800_Final.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f8cd6a1d80603d451b7f4ce252b85f28aedba6fed2c7a78e7748ba79f04287c8/NC_Food-Spots_Animated_Small.gif)
Welcome to the United States
of Mexican Food:
Challenge: Visually translate prominent Mexican-American dishes by location as well as by region.
Looking to keep visual prominence on the food while eliciting feelings of warmth and exploration, I decided to combine a dotted line reminiscent of treasure maps, with warm tones that land somewhere between desert sun and the aged ink of old travel postcards.
This idea of travel and playful collection-of-things evolved into a larger theme: Treating the package as a road trip, in-and-of-itself. Filtering the supporting headers through the idea that the writer is on a trip lived vicariously through the reader— across stories, across cultures, across meals—and with each new 'letter home', a postcard.
Special thanks to Gustavo Arellano for all location legitimacy.
Read the article here.
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fa3742244a7f15f2162e08916e382d9a0dbf981c1aba93c82c2d08fb9a4abe83/Naya-Cheyenne_No-More-Flour-Tortillas-Header_3000x1800.jpg)
When I Had to Give Up Flour Tortillas, I Lost My Culture:
Postcard illo for an article focused on the writer’s journey of personal and familial identity. A piece driven by two matriarchs, the writer’s grandmothers are of central focus. Tortillas are excluded to more accurately represent loss.
Read the article here.
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c95fc7e127be32e83a02eea3e5a78a46db572ee960259583b3e0afbfaf303d4b/Naya-Cheyenne_La-Parrilla-Header_3000x1800_Updated.jpg)
The Cheese-Smothered Comfort of My Hometown Mexican Chain:
Postcard illo for an article focused on the familiar feelings of a warm welcome home, and the visuals that make this particular place one of comfort.
Read the article here.
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/feeeee26ac0b779bd1d9f4f2301fd5aee8e51553d236f6d7cb405db1d5f61f6a/Naya-Cheyenne_Chipotle-Header_3000x1800.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/77f00954c937a8b479cc362e8fe17547a09dd5d195fae1296d6bf4e969e24e07/Naya-Cheyenne_Chipotle-Spot_Small.jpg)
How Chipotle Supersized the
American Burrito:
Postcard illo & spot for an article about the chain crushing small businesses one huge burrito at a time.
Read the article here.
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/34f14ad711e2c94de265c5e708d56469bc2890f5a6d538a9c26dbe39419fc906/Naya-Cheyenne_Eater-Sketches.jpg)
Process Sketches