Metro Magazine billboard

The brief was to create a billboard to promote the Metro Magazine’s annual Best Restaurant issue. The Auckland-based magazine wanted to show caricatures of its panel of 12 food professionals and critics presented in the Leonardo da Vinci painting, The Last Supper.

‘Metro sent me photographs of the judges taken as profile and front view, with some expressions, for me to base my illustrations on,’ says Joseph Ma.

Ma first selected the most suitable facial angles and then drew the caricatures of the judges based on the photo.

‘Each person has got a unique character, I studied them and placed them into the positions of the 12 disciples,’ he says.

Joseph said his favorite two people to illustrate were Metro editor, Simon Wilson (far right), and hospitality expert, Rebecca Jones (seated third from left).

‘The most difficult task was to decide which judge goes where in the Last Supper setting. I tried to balance the number of male and female on each side.’

The result is a visual feast and a unique illustration that captures the passionate debate required to choose a winning eatery.