A new beginning

For the last few years, I have created art under my personal alias- from prints, to fan art, to portrait commission for pets and people. There was not a strong cohesiveness to my art, and at times it was challenging creating a constant string that ties it all together. Deep down, I knew it was time to close this chapter and start a anew.

Running a small business has its challenges, especially on the engagement and finance front. That's where I leaned on my partner for support. Together, we became a small and mighty team.

We landed on the name, "Bad Egg". From our vision board exercise, we gravitated towards brands with a strong stand-alone mark, and can be transformative into the designs. We started sketching concepts of brand marks that embody the list of attritubes we aligned on: empowering, rebellious, edgy, and staying true to yourself.

Back to my roots

As part of the rebrand, I wanted to pay tribute back to my Chinese heritage. Bad Egg is a nod to the Chinese saying from our childhood, "坏蛋" (huài dàn), something adults would call kids that don't listen to their elders or follow the rules. 

We wanted a playful twist on the mark, while not being too obvious to the name. After a few concept sketches, we landed on an organic oval with spikes (坏蛋, edgy and rebellious), with a hidden egg shape in the middle (in the name), and two stars on the top and bottom (inner guide, two bunnies, two of us).

When we were brewing up Bad Egg, we walked by the paint aisle and decided to pick out a few swatches separately that drew our attention. What first started as a fun and random activity became the foundation of the brand colours.

We also noticed a lot of the bunny merch out there are on the innocent, sweet vibe. Bunnies have big personalities that are somehow packed into a small form. Our adopted bunnies, Waffles and Vanilla, are a big part of our lives and wanted our art to emulate their cute and chaotic behaviour.

With the arrival of Bad Egg, it was the perfect time to debut their evolved form as demon bunnies fuelled by all things 坏蛋.

The first hatch

Using our Bad Egg brand guide, we were able to create a collection for our first capsule that finally feels cohesive!

Extra bits

We also wanted the end-to-end experience feel intentional and on brand, and designed a set of packaging stickers. The designs are inspired by Asian grocery labels, oracles, sign boards, record labels and postal stamps. These stickers are randomly placed on each order for a small token of gratitude, and a fun moment when customers receive their order!

Connecting with our community

As part of our Bad Egg ethos, we wanted to collaborate with other artists in our community to create products of their specialty, and something that we are all proud of!

Our first collaboration was with Fiona Funhouse, a local jewlery artist based in Vancouver. It was such a fun experience learning about her process in creating the pendant for Bad Egg. Her attention to detail and care for our brand made it more special.

We also had a vision of having Bad Egg uniforms for that team spirit, and to feel a little extra at art markets (because why not?)!

We comissioned our friend @gaby.threads to embroider "bad egg" and the bun duo motif on the back with a chainstitch style for a vintage feel! We are over the moon with how they turned out, and can't wait to show them off at our future events!

If you've made it this far, we have some exciting news! We will be launching our second capsule late summer. Find us at our upcoming art markets in Seattle and Vancouver :)