Slithering into the Year of the Snake with Foreign Policy Design

Singapore-based design studio Foreign Policy Design is back with some serpentine goodies to celebrate this lunar new year. Foreign Policy Design regularly creates something every Lunar New Year, with last year's dragon claw red packets, jelly bag, and temporary tattoos as well as 2023's carrot angbaos for the year of the rabbit. This year’s nostalgia-packed bundle includes a set of 90s phone angbaos and a fully playable Pocket Pal for a full 90s kick.

Designing something for the Lunar New Year is somewhat a tradition for the Foreign Policy team. “From the get-go, we knew we did not want to do something conventional or predictable,” Yah-Leng Yu, founding Creative Director of Foreign Policy Design, began to explain. “Something out of the ordinary. Something extra. We were just brainstorming casually talking & building silly ideas upon one another when someone said ‘NOKIA SNAKE GAME! Everyone resonated and then ideas just started building and expanding organically. What if we can re-create the phone to just play the game. What if, what if, what ifs…” Yah-Leng continued to explain that they initially  wanted to paper-engineer the 90s-phone money packet so that the snake on the screen would move when the packet is opened or closed. “We made several mockups. Many. Then we got busy and left it. When we came back to it, it didn’t feel as compelling or that exciting.”

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It all came back to a head when Foreign Policy alumni Huinee Lim visited FP headquarters during her holiday. She was asked to help code the game and Huinee agreed. “We worked together on figuring out the hardware and software and how we could work remotely since she is based in Japan. From there, we decided the game can be on a device much like a tamagotchi, it does not need to be on the phone itself. So the Tamagotchi was also a source of inspiration. The next thing is to figure out the casing to house the screen and battery and we fortunately have a product designer friend who does 3D printing. He was awesome in helping to figure out the detailing of the case.”

Many will recognize the fully playable snake game in Foreign Policy’s Pocket Pal. The Foreign Policy team also designed a pixelated custom typeface for the Pocket Pal game. “The cool thing is also to be able to design the interface (then seeing it come alive!). We didn’t want to make it necessarily perfect but with a little of the kinks of the 90s with our own twist to it. A pixel font, Snake Bit, was designed for this project. The last bit is to put everything together and showcasing the design and function with the help of The Gentle Studio,” Yah-Leng explained.


According to Yah-leng, the development of this snake lunar new year bundle came with its own set of challenges. “As usual, even though every year we promised ourselves that we will start early, usually it’s still down to the last two months before Chinese New Year when we think we hit on a really solid idea. This year was particularly challenging since a few of us were off for vacation in December and Chinese New Year this year is in January!” Yah-Leng continued to explain that the team went back and forth on the 90s phone idea, even spending some time on other ideas and testing through mockups and even researching materials and costs. “Financially, we needed to be prudent, though generally this annual project is budgeted for. With costs escalating with all the global inflation happening, we needed to be extra smart about getting the right maker and ensuring that the printed matter and items can be produced in time. Our team is particularly strong in sourcing, especially the Gen Z designers. They are able to jump through hoops to get the items produced in time without blowing the budget. Really kudos to them! You know who you are!” she chuckled.

The snake lunar new year bundle was done by a large team of helping hands. They worked remotely with a tight deadline. “We navigated the December holidays with some of our collaborators and colleagues away. Finally fitting into the work schedule of every one of the collaborators. We worked with several collaborators and makers this time round. Our Foreign Policy alumni who is based in Japan helped us with the Arduino coding while a product designer worked on 3D-printing the casing of the Pocket Pal. Finally, the documentation of the kit was done by our long time collaborator and friend The Gentle Studio,” Yah-Leng explained. The snake lunar new year bundle is such a refreshing take on designs for Lunar New Year. We can’t wait to see what Foreign Policy has in store for the years ahead.

Creative Director: Yah-Leng Yu
Art Director: Sylvester Tan
Designers: Yingxuan Loh, YunXuan Lee
Arduino Engineer: Huinee Lim
Pocket Pal Casing Fabrication: Justin Neo
Documentation: Samuel Wong, The Gentle Studio

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About the Author

Kireina Masri

Kireina Masri has had their nose stuck in a book since they could remember. Majoring in Illustration, they now write of all things visual—pouring their love of the arts into the written word. They aspire to be their neighborhood's quirky cat lady in their later years.