SWAMP BAKERY

The Swamp Bakery is a short web design project where I give life to a fictional bakery, crafting a simple website and illustrating its logo and the items on the menu.

OVERVIEW

The Swamp Bakery is a fictional magical bakery located in the middle of a mystical swamp.

The use of custom pixel art illustrations blends retro gaming aesthetics with organic, food-focused imagery, ensuring a cohesive visual language that supports the mystical bakery narrative.

LOGO

The logo features a stylised lily pad rendered in pixel art technique, capturing the essence of wetland flora and the bakery's aquatic swamp setting. 

The design showcases the distinctive segmented leaf structure of a lily pad, with its characteristic central split. The logo employs a three-tone green palette that creates depth through careful pixel placement: darker pixels define the lily pad's outline and inner shadows, medium tones fill the main body, and lighter pixels suggest highlights and the natural dimensional curves of the floating leaf. 

The circular background uses concentric rings of varying green tones, creating a subtle gradient effect that evokes the rippling water surface on which lily pads naturally rest.

MENU ITEMS

The pixelated food items illustrate the website's menu, evoking classic adventure games where mystical food vendors might offer magical sustenance to weary travellers.

Moss Muffin: A traditional muffin topped with the bakery's signature "moss" frosting. The muffin features a classic domed shape rendered in earthy green tones, with the characteristic pleated paper wrapper shown in darker forest green at the base. The pixel art technique emphasises the muffin's rounded, appetising form, while the green colour palette maintains thematic consistency. The illustration balances familiar bakery aesthetics with the mystical swamp theme, making the item feel both magical and deliciously appealing.

Bog Croissant: A buttery croissant with mystical green colouring and cheese-herb filling. The croissant's characteristic flaky layers are suggested through careful pixel placement and subtle tonal variations, whilst the emerald colouring maintains the swamp theme. The overall shape retains the classic curved form that makes croissants instantly recognisable, ensuring the magical reinterpretation doesn't compromise visual clarity.

Swamp Latte: A hot drink made from a matcha-pistachio blend. The illustration features a classic rounded mug with a handle (carefully created to communicate a top-down angle), rendered in warm cream tones that suggest ceramic warmth and comfort. The most striking element is the vibrant green matcha foam that fills the cup's surface, complete with a delicate white heart-shaped foam art design at its centre, a touch that bridges the magical swamp theme with familiar coffee culture. The green tones range from deep forest to bright sage, capturing the rich matcha and pistachio blend described in the menu.

Swamp Butter: A magical spread made from wild swamp herbs and botanicals. The illustration presents a traditional butter pat reimagined in rich forest green tones that immediately distinguish it from conventional dairy butter. The colour palette progresses from deep moss greens in shadowed areas to lighter sage tones on highlighted surfaces, creating dimensional depth within pixel art constraints.

Bog Jam: A preserve made from wild bog berries. The illustration depicts a classic mason jar with a yellow cloth and a green band, rendered in the traditional preserving jar silhouette that immediately communicates homemade quality. The jar's body is filled with forest green tones representing the magical bog berry preserve, whilst a small golden label on the front. The pixel art technique emphasises the jar's geometric form through clean lines and defined edges, with the golden elements providing warm contrast against the deep green contents.

Marsh Honey: A golden wildflower honey harvested from mystical swamp blooms. The illustration features a classic honey pot with a green sprout emerging from it. The pot's rounded form is filled with rich yellow hues, suggesting the thick, viscous texture of premium wildflower honey. The green sprout crowns the composition, representing the wild plants from which this magical honey is gathered. The pixel art emphasises the organic, handcrafted quality through subtle tonal variations in the golden palette, whilst the sprout adds a mystical charm that reinforces the green magic of the item.

Swamp Tea: A mystical herbal brew made from wild swamp botanicals. The illustration features a classic rounded teacup with handle, rendered in warm cream tones that suggest delicate porcelain. The vibrant green tea fills the cup's surface, complete with subtle lighter green highlights that suggest light reflection on the liquid. The art emphasises the cup's elegant form through clean curves and defined edges, whilst the handle is carefully positioned to communicate the traditional teacup silhouette. The overall composition balances familiar tea culture aesthetics with the mystical swamp theme.

Lily Coffee: A unique espresso made from enchanted beans that grow in the swamp depths. The illustration features a classic espresso cup with handle, filled with a dark forest green coffee, representing the mystical beans that retain their green hue even after roasting. The dark liquid creates a striking contrast against the pale cup. The drawing emphasises the cup's compact espresso proportions through clean geometric forms. The dark green tones suggest the intense, concentrated nature of the espresso made from swamp-grown beans that defy conventional coffee expectations.

Bog Water: Water sourced from pristine swamp springs. The illustration features a simple, clear glass rendered in translucent blue tones that effectively communicate the crystal-clear quality of pure water. The glass has a classic curved form with subtle highlights and reflections created through careful pixel placement, suggesting the transparency and cleanliness of both the vessel and its contents. Light blue gradients progress from pale sky tones at the rim to slightly deeper blues toward the base, creating the illusion of depth.

CUSTOMERS

The pixelated customer portraits showcase a diverse cast of swamp dwellers who frequent the mystical bakery, each character carefully crafted to embody their animal origins through expressive pixel art techniques. These character illustrations demonstrate how limited pixel resolution can still convey personality and charm, with each portrait capturing distinctive features, from amphibian wisdom and mammalian tranquility to reptilian elegance. The goal was to make this small fictional community feel authentic and engaging.

Ribbert Swampington: A charming frog character render, with a green and beige colouration. The illustration captures the frog's prominent bulging eyes and characteristic mouth structure, with green tones covering the upper head and face transitioning to warm beige across the throat and lower facial area. The character sports a burgundy red shirt with a cream-coloured collar, adding personality and suggesting a distinguished, well-dressed member of the swamp community.

Chillbert Marshmeadow: A relaxed capybara character rendered in warm brown pixel art tones, capturing the serene and laid-back nature of these gentle rodents. The illustration features the capybara's characteristic rounded head and peaceful closed-eye expression, with rich chocolate brown fur covering the upper portions transitioning to a darker brown on the snout area. The character wears a bright golden-yellow shirt that reinforces the cheerful, easygoing personality. The character embodies the tranquil, zen-like qualities these animals are known for.

Sssylvia Slitherscale: An elegant snake character with a serpentine grace. The illustration features the snake's rounded head with a prominent white eye containing a vertical green pupil. There is a striking red forked tongue extending from the mouth area. A dark garment adorns the lower portion, adding sophistication.

Want to know even more about the Swamp Bakery?

Check out a page focused on its design, read more about my coding projects, or see the bakery's website on Codedex.

The Swamp Bakery is a part of Mistralshire, a web development and worldbuilding project.