Into Saigon Market

_{Year
2023

Creative Team
Dung Ngo, Nhi Bui

Supervisor
Sweii Chong

Support
Tinh Truong, Bam Tran

Scope of Work
Visual Identity, 3D Concept, Interactive, Animation

Accolades}

Local traditional markets have been part and parcel of Vietnamese culture. While facing downsizing and disbandment, the Saigon traditional markets retain their role as gateways into the deeper layers of local culture.

In this context, 'Into Saigon Market' emerges as a multi-channel campaign that promotes tourism in lesser-known local markets. By integrating gamification mechanism and emerging technology throughout the touchpoints, the campaign creates an authentic and captivating experience for tourists.

By transforming lesser-known Saigon markets into tourist-driven attractions, the campaign supports the sustainable development and positioning them as invaluable cultural assets.

This project has been recognised with a Gold Award at WBDS Student Design Awards 2024/25↗ and a Bronze Award at Young Ones Student Awards 2025↗.

Full case study on Behance↗.

Promotional Video

Examine The Situation

This project emerges from our interests in cultural loss and social paradox. As the city goes through major developments, many local traditional markets are being disbanded, others moved and downsized.

After the pandemic, although socio-economic activities have returned, the trading situation in many markets such as Ba Chieu, Ben Thanh, An Dong... is still sluggish. Many small businesses continue to hang signs to transfer and rent stalls. This signaled the decline of the traditional market model.

Solution

The heart of the project is driven by the research question:
"How can a design project help preserve and promote cultural identity of traditional markets in Saigon?"

In the intersection of sustainability, cultural identity, and tourism, “Into Saigon Market” emerges as a multi-channel campaign that transforms the lesser-known Saigon markets into tourist-driven attractions.

Dynamic Branding

The logo is a playful combination of letter forms of sans serif and script typeface. By visually connecting the dots and resembling a trail, the logo effectively communicates the essence of the campaign, capturing the idea of transitioning from one market to another as part of the overall experience.

3D Assets

One of the key ideas of the project is to introduce curated route with different themes into Saigon local markets.

For the span of this course, we work with 3 themes which represent Saigon culture significantly: spiritual, fabric, and florist. For each of the route, 3D assets were created accordingly based on extensive research.

Spiritual Market

Fabric Market

Flower Market

Character Design

One unmissable trait of Saigon local markets are the vendors there. The way they dress and go on with daily activities offer a sight into local habits and lifestyle.

Spiritual Vendor

For the first character in spiritual market, Dũng wants to bring in a familiar image of local women and the way they dress. The vendors here are usually middle-aged women wearing the iconic Vietnamese pyjamas (also known as “đồ bộ” while flexing their gold bracelets (also known as “ximen”).

Fabric Vendor

In contrast to spiritual route, fabric market carries a more bustling atmosphere as the vendors constantly importing and exporting fabric and garments. The typical scene to see here is strong, young men carrying fabric rolls on 1 shoulder. Most of the time, they don’t even have time to take off their helmets since they are always on the go, ready to get on their motorbikes to deliver the next order.

Florist Vendor

In florist markets, oftentimes, you can see mostly the women being the breadwinner. Because of a busy lifestyle constantly exposed to the heat of Saigon, they are often seen wearing a loose shirt outside as a jacket. However, they still has an interesting way to take care of and beautify themselves in public by wearing hair rollers, which exudes their comfortable, casual, and rustic attitude.

Mascot Design

The AR Companion also serves as the mascot of the campaign. Inspired by Land Genie (ông Địa), a Vietnamese god who is knowledgeable about navigation and local neighbourhood, the character design aims to represent the local deity in a
contemporary lens.

There were many depictions of Vietnamese Land Genie; however, they share common characteristics: long ears and big belly. At the same time, Land Genie must be friendly and approachable; therefore, a stylized approach is introduced with rounded forms.

Campaign Breakdown

To demonstrate the user journey and how the touchpoints come into interactions with the tourists, we broke down the campaign into 3 main phases: Before-trip, On-site, and After-trip.

Before-Trip: First Touchpoint: Augmented Reality
Advertising (ARA)

The first touchpoint of the journey was designed to trigger the curiosity of the tourists. Augmented Reality Advertising (ARA) is integrated to digital billboards, posters, and social posts to approach the contemporary tourists - who are tech-savvy and spend lots of time online.

This approach allows the campaign to reach potential audience from all around the world. The goal for this stage is to preview the routes and download app.

Scenario for ARA

The ARA experience contains 2 components:
1. The advertising posters
2. Overlay 3D elements when scanning the QR code with your phone

AR Experience - How it works

1. Scan to link to AR Instagram Filter
2. Look for the poster as the trigger
3. Use 2 fingers to interact with the 3D object

On-site: App

Sitemap

Preview the themed routes

Once they download the app, they are welcomed by curated routes with different themes by interacting with 3D miniatures. This phase allows the tourists to preview the destination in advance to see what suits them.

AR Mode to Summon Land Genie

The app introduces an AR Mode that connects the tourists to our beloved Land Genie, the AR Companion and assistant. For now, you can tap the button to Summon Land Genie to help you navigate the way to the markets and have conversation with it through prompts and dialogue tree game mechanic.

After-Trip: Reward System

To maintain the tourists’ interest and encourage them to finish the routes, we introduce a rewards system consisting of digital badges and physical merchandise.

Digital Badges

Each route has a badge as a reward to users. As each route has 2 markets, we have a progressing circle for users to track their progress. This serves as a motivation to explore all markets.

Physical Rewards

While digital badges are automatically rewarded to users using location sensor
technology upon completing their visit to a local market, the physical merchandise require a certain number of badges to exchange at the checkpoints.