A Lesson on Keeping Things Simple

I’ve been meaning to dedicate a short post just for this part. Fun fact: the designs you’re looking at right now were almost entirely redrawn. The dozen or so previous sketches of the local dishes were based on my own personal feelings. It wasn't just about the food, but the beauty I saw in so many other details: the vibe of the eatery, the familiar look of the vendors, the clothes they wore, whether their earrings were interesting, the typical tables they used, whether the dish was meant for morning or late night, the shape of the bowl... so much more. I wanted to bring a little bit of that feeling into the artwork, despite the small canvas and a strict print limit of five or six colors. If you’re someone who loves hanging out at street food stalls, close your eyes for five to ten seconds and try to picture it, and please hold off on Googling what the dish looks like for a moment.

But the core focus of the project, right from the start, was always the local food. Figuring out how to capture all those details without cluttering the overall design was a real headache.

It wasn't until near the end of the illustration phase that we received some feedback from the Pepsi Global and Regional teams. They gave us practical advice on how a proper design system should work, and I truly appreciate and learned a lot from that input. Simply by giving the main dish its own dedicated space, and moving the condiment bowls and side dishes to another corner, we cleared away all the distracting elements. Thanks to that, our hometown dishes could truly shine and become the actual "main characters" of the artwork.

Read more from this journey:

🔗  Crafting the Localverse: Pepsi Meal Cans
🔗 Creative Dive: How Pepsi Packaging Paid Tribute to Vietnam’s Street Food Culture