Where the idea started

I started with a few things that felt very Me-You Market.

Cats.

Aliens.

And a general love for things that are a little strange.

From there, I started playing around with how these could exist alongside the history of the Singapore River. Instead of treating the historical references as something serious and separate, I wanted to turn them into part of the story.

So the idea became a little world where cats, aliens and bits of Singapore's past could all exist together.

Bringing the story to life

I created a series of illustrations that could be used across the market's different touchpoints. The illustrations included references to the Singapore River and its history, but I mixed these with the more unexpected characters and details from the concept.

The idea was to give people little things to discover rather than having everything explained to them.

There are cats doing random things. There are aliens. There are little historical references hidden in the illustrations.

It was meant to feel like you had stumbled into a strange little corner of the Singapore River.

Working within the Pesta Raya identity

While the concept was playful, it still had to sit within the wider Pesta Raya campaign.

I worked with the official colour palette from Esplanade's poster designs and built the illustrations around it. This was probably one of the more interesting parts of the project. I had quite a lot of freedom with the illustrations, but they still needed to feel like they belonged to Pesta Raya.

So it was less about creating a completely separate visual identity and more about finding a way for the Me-You Market personality to live within the existing campaign.

And then there was Ayob

One of the cats from the illustrations ended up becoming a bit of a character of his own. People really liked him during the market, and he was eventually named Ayob. He has since continued to appear at Me-You Market events, which was something I definitely did not expect when I first drew him.

It's quite nice when a little illustration you make for one event ends up having a life beyond the original project!

The result

More than 6,000 people visited the market across four days. The event also received a positive response, with Ayob becoming one of the more recognisable parts of the experience.

For me, the best part was seeing the illustrations move beyond the screen and become part of the actual space.

People were walking around, taking photos with the visuals and interacting with the little details I had originally imagined while working on the concept.

What I took away

This was a very different kind of project from my product design work. There was no user flow to optimise or complicated product problem to solve.

It was more about finding a visual idea that felt right, then figuring out how to make that idea work across a real event.I also liked that the final direction did not need to be overly serious to have a connection to the place and the festival.

*All images are used solely for portfolio purposes and were provided by Red Tapes Productions.