SURPA
MDes. Graphic Design
Final Degree Project
The Glasgow School of Art
Monkey’s Ladle is a small-batch pickle brand that retells the stories of women cast as villains in myth. Beginning with Surpanakha, whose desire is punished through disfigurement in the Ramayana, the project uses food as a form of counter-narrative.
Guiding these stories is an old, wise, and irreverent monkey — a witty storyteller who has watched these myths unfold for centuries. Through his voice, Monkey’s Ladle asks what changes when the “monster” gets to tell her own story.
Earlier this year, I began exploring the retelling of mythological women as the subject of my final project. I started with familiar figures like Medusa and Andromeda, but soon realised their stories had already been widely retold. This pushed me towards lesser-known narratives, particularly from the East. I found Surpanakha, a woman from the Ramayana whose story is shaped by her punishment for expressing desire.
When I was building my project around Surpanakha, I started thinking about how her story could exist beyond a publication.
The challenge wasn’t really the design itself. It was figuring out what form made sense for a story that had already been preserved and told for centuries.
So my personal brief became to create a vessel that people would actually encounter, interact with and take home.
That became Monkey’s Ladle.
A small-batch pickle brand built around the counter-telling of wronged mythological women, beginning with Surpanakha.
The monkey is the parent voice of the brand, bringing different stories, women and flavours under one recognisable identity. Inspired by India’s wise and witty animal storytellers, he is old enough to have witnessed these stories being retold, yet playful enough to question them.
