16 Years of Honest Toil, Designed by Women

We often find ourselves talking about olive oil in terms of harvests and seasons. The rhythm of the grove shapes everything we do.

But Honest Toil hasn’t grown only from the trees. It has also grown from friendships, shared kitchens, and a creative community: people we’ve lived with, cooked with, travelled with, and made things alongside.

Looking back through our archives recently, we realised something special. Almost every Honest Toil label over the past 16 years has been designed by women.

With International Women’s Day just behind us and Mother’s Day ahead, it felt like the perfect moment to take a nostalgic trip through those years and say thank you to the artists who have helped shape the visual world of Honest Toil.

Here are some of the women whose creativity has travelled alongside our oil.

Tine Damgaard

There would be no Honest Toil without Tine.

Back in 2010 in Berlin, Tom’s roommate Tine was making playful paper cut-outs and collages. These experiments became the inspiration for the very first Honest Toil label.

After our first harvest, we hand-filled swing-top bottles and decorated them using Tine’s designs before taking them to flea markets around Berlin to sell.

Those early days were scrappy, improvised and full of excitement and Tine’s joyful, experimental approach to art still echoes through the Honest Toil visual world today.

Eszter Kiskovács

Eszti designed our very first 5L tin, as well as the 3L bag-in-box that many of you still have in your kitchens today.

Her illustrations capture something we care deeply about: the feeling of gathering around food. Friends leaning over a table, sharing dishes, passing plates.

That warmth and sense of community is at the heart of Honest Toil, and Eszti’s playful, expressive style helped bring that spirit to life.

Enikő Eged

Enikő is the artist behind our now-iconic “cat” or laiki can, along with our 2L cans.

The cat illustration takes inspiration from the weekly farmers’ market in nearby Kopanaki  a lively, colourful gathering of local growers and sellers, and where we buy much of the produce we cook with at home.

Her work has travelled far beyond olive oil tins too, appearing on rugs, scarves, dungarees and many other beautiful objects.

But for us, that colourful market scene will always feel like a small piece of home.

Dóra Berczi

Graphic designer and tattoo artist Dóra brought an entirely new visual language to Honest Toil. Both our 500ml bottles are designed by Dorka. 

Her illustrations feature mythical female figures: one younger woman with goat legs and another older yiayia (Greek for grandmother) with a mermaid tail.

Together they weave Greek mythology with local plants, animals and stories of place. Dorka's bold, tattoo-inspired line style gives these figures a powerful presence.

Using ink, she hand-painted not only the illustrations but also the lettering on our bottles, something that gives them their distinctive character.

Since then, Dorka has gone on to design many more Honest Toil pieces, from our mini cans to our squeeze bottles (coming soon).

Zena Kay

Zena created our first ever 1L can, along with two Honest Toil posters.

Her colourful still lifes depict everyday tables - plates, glasses, fruit, bread, oil. The kinds of quiet, ordinary scenes that make up daily life.

What might seem mundane at first glance is exactly what we celebrate.

Olive oil isn’t something reserved for special occasions. It’s an everyday ingredient that brings depth, flavour and joy to the simplest home-cooked meals.

Zena’s work captures that beautifully.

Ella Mittas

Chef and artist Ella Mittas created the woodcut that became one of our Honest Toil posters last Christmas.

Working across cooking, writing and visual art, Ella draws inspiration from her Mediterranean heritage and the rituals of food.

Her woodcut felt like a natural extension of that world, bold, tactile and deeply connected to the traditions that shape how we cook and eat.

A Creative Community

Looking back over the years, it’s clear that Honest Toil has never been built by just the two of us.

It has grown through collaboration, friendships and a shared love of food, art and storytelling.

To all the women who have brought their creativity into the Honest Toil world over the years  thank you.

Juli