02 | Once Bitter | Part 1 Branding Direction

Twice die die must try.

Logo for the Once Bitter brand.

The client:

Visionaries who wish to crown the bitter gourd as the king of veggies.

Today's task:

Bitter gourd is notorious for being disliked - what can we do to sway the public opinion and make bitter gourd the new 'in' thing?

Bitter gourd is the new Durian

Durian has a reputation for being the stinkiest fruit in the world, yet is commonly known as the king of fruits. People either hate it or love it. With tourists coming from all over the world to try out the world's most divisive fruit, this goes to show how much there is for the bitter gourd to learn from the durian.

Recently, I watched a video where a couple of foreigners who came to Singapore on vacation tried durian for the first time. They were pointed to a store called 99 Old Trees, and were told that it would be a good induction to durian before they try the actual fruit itself.

The store was a durian specialty cafe that carried items like durian swiss rolls, durian choux puffs and traditional chendol with fresh durian pulp. Thus inspired the bitter gourd specialty cafe - Once Bitter.

once bitter, twice die die must try.

Giving the gourd a face lift

It doesn't help that the bitter gourd is, well, not the prettiest vegetable to exist. To sow the powerful seeds of positive association, I take advantage of cute illustrations and bright colours to transform the gourd's image.

Also, happy to stumble upon the discovery that sliced bitter gourd can be reimagined as flowers (or, bitter blossoms!).

Sketches of bitter gourds.

What's on the menu

I can't cook. But I can do up imaginary menus. Does it only have appetisers, drinks and desserts? Yes, because anything beyond that will require culinary expertise that I do not possess. Still, this is bitter than nothing, amirite.

Finally, as a bitter gourd enthusiast - I need to know who's on my team.

Are you pro- or anti- bitter gourd?

• I love it!
• I hate it...

There's only one right answer.

what's new: exploring with illustrations i'm currently using adobe fresco as my drawing app since i'm subscribed to adobe, and am unsure if an investment in apps like procreate will be worth it for a casual illustrator like me. any tips or recommendations? am also reminded that i am horribly lazy with layers! most times if i'm working exclusively on adobe illustrator, i can get away with poor layer management - but when working on fresco or after effects, all i can do is cry and wail over milk that's spilled. before wiping it up with 1ply tissues (i.e. take a very long time to fix the problems that would not have existed if i had better layer management)

...it's past 1am, i bitter be going.