top of page
Graphic Designer & Illustrator
Who Stole the Blueberry Muffins?!
​
In May 2023, I joined the first ever Kuala Lumpur Illustration Fair as an exhibitor. This international commercial illustration fair provided a canvas for storytellers of all mediums to share their stories, showcase their work, and also connect with the public in a singular platform. We were advised to create more interactive artworks and I took up the challenge. After many sleepless nights and brainstorming sessions, I made a simple detective game that was a in a Wimmelbuch Where's Waldo style.
The idea was for the viewer to pick through clues on the crime board and figure out who was the blueberry muffin thief. They would then have to go through the large map and point out the thief. Through this set up, I wanted to showcase my passion for story telling and that I had the ability to create children's illustrations and character design.
​
Throughout the 3 day fair, I have received a lot of positive feedback and that it was a charming and engaging art piece.
The crime board was quite challenging to plan. I initially wanted to display different suspects on the wall for the viewers to vote which character was the thief. But in the end, to emphasis the crime, I went for a crime board design with clues littered around and additional notes and strings for aesthetic purposes.
Here are some initial sketches for the character design of the baker, Ms Muriel.
As seen below, are the rough sketches of the town map. I played around with different shapes for the map as it not only needed to look good but had to also fit the wall I was assigned to for the fair. The town had to have a school, market, bakery, teashop, post office and other dwellings. I also added a sleeping maiden to act as the town's guardian to give it a more magical vibe. The rough sketches took me about a month complete.
As shown here are some of my favourite snapshots. I wanted the buildings to be able to tell their own story, like a bread shaped bakery, pencil and book looking school buildings, teapot shaped teashop and so on. The hardest part was creating fun characters that interacted with one another and that also had their own little story in the big picture.
My favourite character is the Lake Monster that climbed up from his side of the lake, leaving a trail of water behind
and also the seagull on top of the hatter's tent snacking on some stolen pastries.
I wanted the viewers to take their time combing through all the details and laughing at the silly scenarios.
This has been a super fun and challenging project!
Even though it was super stressful, I still enjoyed every second of it.
I hope to be back next year with even better work!
bottom of page