How and why Kate Prior turned to cheffing over lockdown

Headlining June’s Nicer Tuesdays event was Kate Prior, the London-based illustrator you may know for her colourful, fun and bold style which is full of life. During the first lockdown, Kate and her partner found themselves in a new area but with no way to meet the locals. To keep themselves busy, and use their creativity in a very different way, they decided to set up their own pop up pizza business. In a detailed Q&A with our editor-in-chief Matt Alagiah, Kate explains how they raised over £1,000 for local food banks, and how Short Road Pizza came about.

Before launching into the pizza chat, the illustrator told us more about how her illustrative career launched, and how it was actually a side project to begin with. Mentioning a few key projects which bring us up to date with Kate’s practice thus far, Kate then told us about the visual branding of Short Road Pizza, which saw her incorporate friendly characters and joyful design decisions along the way. A significant side project birthed from a very difficult time for a lot of people, Short Road Pizza not only gave back to the community, it also taught her a lot about her own creativity too. Peppered with questions from the audience throughout the Q&A, Kate rounded up her talk with some good advice for anyone thinking of embarking on a new side project: “Just give it a go. I’m scared of things going wrong or not going well, but this has been a lesson in the opposite.”