Meet the Makers: Rocío Egío

Tucked away sous le toit of a bright blue apartment building in Lausanne is the sunny studio of artist and creative coach, Rocío Egío. There is a seamless blend of color and intention from the studio to the living space, to the artist herself.

The space is drenched in sunlight, the rays highlighting shelves lined with sketchbooks, prints, and food-related inspiration scattered throughout – everything meticulously organized, with pops of primary colors adding rhythm and personality.

We spent the afternoon in Rocío’s studio, learning about her journey and inspirations, discovering some of her favorite corners of Lausanne, and even making one of her sandwich recipes together. From her background in architecture to personal projects and client collaborations, her work reflects a clear sense of intention and coherence — between who you are and what you create.

Discover the full studio visit and conversation below.

Can you introduce yourself and what you do?

¡Hola! Welcome amigos from Lausanne. I’m Rocío Egío, I’m Spanish and I’ve been living here in Lausanne for almost ten years now.

I’m a creative and a food lover. All my work is related to food. I do illustration, design, and I also help other people connect with their creative voice.

Why is food such an important part of your work?

Most of my work is related to food. I love food, I love cooking – it's something that connects me a lot with my grandma, with my Spanish roots, with my origins.

Was there a project that helped you find your voice?

When I started illustrating, I was trying to find my voice. I knew I wanted to do illustration, but [needed to determine] my message, what I wanted to show and communicate.

I started illustrating because I found my grandma's recipes. My mom had written them down and I knew I needed to do something with it. So 5-6 years ago, for a Christmas present for my family, I created a recipe book and everything started with this – the first time I illustrated food.

And at that point I realized… it was so obvious. If you love food, if food is your passion, try to create your business around that. Try to merge your passions and what you want to do as a creative. In my case, it was illustration.

It was the first moment that I realized that I was creating something that was really me – which can be the most challenging part as a creative. It's the key ingredient of the recipe to be successful. So for me, this project detonated everything.

Rocio Egio's family recipe book — The family recipe book that started it all.

Your style feels very consistent. Has it evolved over time?

I define my style like an endless process. You are always [learning and] connecting with yourself, so you are always developing your art.

It took me about four years before arriving at this point. I wasn't feeling secure with my voice or my style – I wasn't feeling like it was representing what I wanted to say 100%.

When I started working in the food industry, it was like a new beginning. This is something that I always recommend to people when I do one-to-ones and mentoring – find your niche, find that thing that you are really good at, that you are passionate about, that you are never going to get tired of working or talking about. So for me, it's food.

What does your creative process look like?

If I need to illustrate a recipe and if I have the time, I love to get the ingredients to cook the recipe… to have more information to be able to represent it later.

I take food really seriously. When I received the brief for a [smoothie book] project, and they sent me 40 recipes of smoothies… the first thing I did was to go to the supermarket, and buy a few ingredients to create them. It was really important for me to see the final color and texture. This is kind of my creative process.

You’re trained as an architect – tell us more about that. How does that influence your work?

I'm a trained architect – I studied architecture, I never studied art or design illustration. But since I was a kid, I always wanted to be an artist. I had this social pressure on me, "since you are smart, you should go for a serious path, you can't be an artist".

So I went through the architecture path, and it's true that now you can see that in my work. My representation of reality is the way that an architect sees the world… I don't work with volume, I don't represent perspective. Everything is flat – it's the way that I learned how to represent reality when I was studying architecture.

Is there a food that inspires you more than others?

Sandwiches. I love bread. Everything tastes better between two slices of bread.

So this was the 2025 calendar – it comes with 12 sandwich recipes so all of the sandwiches that we have here are either from my family heritage or some of the sandwiches that I have been trying on my trips that I really needed to recreate.

What advice would you give to someone just starting out as an artist?

Try to be honest with yourself. Try to find coherence in your work, in your values, in who you are. I think it's the only way to keep your energy and to keep working year by year without "tire la toalla" (throwing in the towel).