Gold Star Chili commissioned nationally prominent artist-illustrator Chris Fox Payne, most commonly known as C.F. Payne, to create an original illustration depicting the Gold Star and “Cincinnati-style chili” experience. The illustration will not only feature imagery of Cincinnati-style chili dishes and scenes from Gold Star Chili restaurants, but it will showcase illustrations of real Cincinnati residents and Gold Star Chili fans.

To find these local faces for its “Cincinnati-style chili” tribute, Gold Star Chili is calling for local residents to audition as potential models. Interested men, women, and children can e-mail a photo of themselves, their children, parents, grandparents, or friends to the chain to be considered. The submitted photo must showcase the potential model in a Gold Star Chili restaurant eating a Cheese Coney, 3, 4, or 5-Way, or bowl of chili to be eligible. Gold Star Chili will select 12 to 18 people for inclusion as models in the illustration.

The completed illustration will be reproduced and installed as a wall mural in select Gold Star Chili restaurant locations throughout the Greater Cincinnati area in 2010. Additionally, five to six close-up outtakes from the illustration will be framed and installed in Gold Star Chili restaurants to help provide an in-store ambiance that visually depicts Gold Star Chili’s brand position as “The Flavor of Cincinnati.” Gold Star Chili will also use the illustration and outtakes in future advertising and marketing initiatives.

“C.F. Payne was the natural choice for a project like this for the brand that is known as ‘The Flavor of Cincinnati,’” says Charlie Howard, Gold Star Chili director of marketing. “Mr. Payne is a life-long resident of Cincinnati neighborhoods and a Cincinnati-style chili fan. And even though he is best known for his illustrations of famous personalities, the heart of his work is the depiction of everyday people; the kind regular, hard-working individuals and families who have been Gold Star’s core customers for the past 45 years. This illustration is really a tribute to them.”