About
Year: 2024
Local Ferment Co. & Studio Sorted joined forces to bring you a tamarind shrub soda that tastes like bunked classes, Kurkure on paper plates, and summer holidays spent in front of the TV.
About the Collab 🧃
This isn’t our first rodeo with Local Ferment Co.
Back in 2022, we branded their original range of shrub sodas—fresh, clean, and full of fizz.
Two years later, we’re still jamming over flavour drops, branding chaos, and pop culture deep dives.Earlier this year, LFC came to us with a new brief: a desi flavour that hits like nostalgia. They’d just cracked the recipe for a tangy tamarind soda—a drink that reminded us of roadside candies, playground fights, and that puckered face you made after eating imli goli.
Over six months, Studio Sorted + Local Ferment Co. brewed something far bigger than a beverage. We built Imli Pop—a full-blown nostalgic soda brand, complete with comic-style characters, merch, and a 2000s-style birthday party to launch it all.
Back in 2022, we branded their original range of shrub sodas—fresh, clean, and full of fizz.
Two years later, we’re still jamming over flavour drops, branding chaos, and pop culture deep dives.Earlier this year, LFC came to us with a new brief: a desi flavour that hits like nostalgia. They’d just cracked the recipe for a tangy tamarind soda—a drink that reminded us of roadside candies, playground fights, and that puckered face you made after eating imli goli.
Over six months, Studio Sorted + Local Ferment Co. brewed something far bigger than a beverage. We built Imli Pop—a full-blown nostalgic soda brand, complete with comic-style characters, merch, and a 2000s-style birthday party to launch it all.
Branding that doesn’t behave.
Imli Pop is designed like your childhood memories—loud, expressive, and slightly unhinged.
The label draws heavily from Indian matchbox art, retro TV graphics, candy wrappers, and the overall visual chaos of growing up in the 90s and early 2000s. Bold colours, grainy textures, hand-drawn illustrations—every element is meant to feel familiar yet fresh.
At the heart of it all is a naughty parrot, proudly gripping the Imli Pop bottle. This isn’t your average mascot—it’s expressive, loud-mouthed, and full of flavour, just like the first sip of the drink itself.Standing beside the parrot—sometimes enemy, sometimes best friend—is Pehelwan: a bubblegum-pink, comic book-inspired bodybuilder, born straight out of Indian pulp comics and Sunday morning cartoons. Together, they form the emotional core of Imli Pop’s universe—a duo that’s sweet, sour, and always on the edge of chaos.
The color palette leans into Studio Sorted’s signature tones—punchy, vibrant, and instantly recognisable—building strong visual recall across shelf, social, and shirt.
The label draws heavily from Indian matchbox art, retro TV graphics, candy wrappers, and the overall visual chaos of growing up in the 90s and early 2000s. Bold colours, grainy textures, hand-drawn illustrations—every element is meant to feel familiar yet fresh.
At the heart of it all is a naughty parrot, proudly gripping the Imli Pop bottle. This isn’t your average mascot—it’s expressive, loud-mouthed, and full of flavour, just like the first sip of the drink itself.Standing beside the parrot—sometimes enemy, sometimes best friend—is Pehelwan: a bubblegum-pink, comic book-inspired bodybuilder, born straight out of Indian pulp comics and Sunday morning cartoons. Together, they form the emotional core of Imli Pop’s universe—a duo that’s sweet, sour, and always on the edge of chaos.
The color palette leans into Studio Sorted’s signature tones—punchy, vibrant, and instantly recognisable—building strong visual recall across shelf, social, and shirt.
The Launch Campaign:
Class Photo Day, But Make It Chaotic
Class Photo Day, But Make It Chaotic
To bring the world of Imli Pop to life, we staged a visual campaign inspired by old-school class photo shoots—the kind where students fidgeted in the back row while teachers tried to keep a straight face.
Shot on a school playground, the photos featured a cast of characters that looked like they stepped out of a mid-2000s comic strip. Uniforms, bottles, chaos—and the parrot and Pehelwan making an appearance throughout.
It wasn’t just a campaign.
It was a visual archive of the moments that made us:
Bunked classes. Handwritten love notes. PTA fear. Candy bartering. Friendships that lasted exactly until the last Frooti.
Shot on a school playground, the photos featured a cast of characters that looked like they stepped out of a mid-2000s comic strip. Uniforms, bottles, chaos—and the parrot and Pehelwan making an appearance throughout.
It wasn’t just a campaign.
It was a visual archive of the moments that made us:
Bunked classes. Handwritten love notes. PTA fear. Candy bartering. Friendships that lasted exactly until the last Frooti.
Panic Pop: The Launch Party
No press releases. No showroom tastings.
We launched Imli Pop the only way it made sense: with a full-blown 2000s-style birthday party.
Hosted at our studio in Bangalore, Panic Pop brought back every forgotten ritual of childhood birthdays. There were samosas and birthday cake served on paper plates, plastic spoons, throwaway tablecloths, masala chips in mixing bowls, and Vada Pavs wrapped in foil. Guests sipped on Imli Pop-themed cocktails next to open soda crates while Panic Press ran a live screen printing setup in the corner.
A life-size cutout of Sabu (aka Pehelwan) towered over the room, silently judging everyone’s outfit choices.
The parrot made appearances everywhere-on walls, shirts, cups, even bathroom mirrors.
The whole night felt warm, weird, and wildly personal.More than just a product launch, Panic Pop became a cultural reset, a celebration of every Indian kid who still dreams in comic panels and drinks soda like it’s stolen candy.
We launched Imli Pop the only way it made sense: with a full-blown 2000s-style birthday party.
Hosted at our studio in Bangalore, Panic Pop brought back every forgotten ritual of childhood birthdays. There were samosas and birthday cake served on paper plates, plastic spoons, throwaway tablecloths, masala chips in mixing bowls, and Vada Pavs wrapped in foil. Guests sipped on Imli Pop-themed cocktails next to open soda crates while Panic Press ran a live screen printing setup in the corner.
A life-size cutout of Sabu (aka Pehelwan) towered over the room, silently judging everyone’s outfit choices.
The parrot made appearances everywhere-on walls, shirts, cups, even bathroom mirrors.
The whole night felt warm, weird, and wildly personal.More than just a product launch, Panic Pop became a cultural reset, a celebration of every Indian kid who still dreams in comic panels and drinks soda like it’s stolen candy.
Panic Press x Imli Pop
The Panic Press x Imli Pop merch drop was an extension of the soda’s universe.
Oversized, screen-printed tees in beige and black carried the same visual language as the label—comic-style icons and classic childhood symbols reinterpreted through a design-forward lens.
The characters didn’t just stay on the bottle.
Pehelwan and the parrot became recurring motifs—hand-printed, and even turned into artwork. The tees were released as a limited drop, printed by hand, and sold both online and at the launch party.
Oversized, screen-printed tees in beige and black carried the same visual language as the label—comic-style icons and classic childhood symbols reinterpreted through a design-forward lens.
The characters didn’t just stay on the bottle.
Pehelwan and the parrot became recurring motifs—hand-printed, and even turned into artwork. The tees were released as a limited drop, printed by hand, and sold both online and at the launch party.
So what IS Imli Pop?
It’s not just a drink.
It’s memory, mischief, and masala in a bottle.
A tangy tamarind shrub soda made with real ingredients, zero preservatives, and 100% chaos.
Inspired by imli candy and built for a new generation of desi soda lovers.If you know, you know.
It’s memory, mischief, and masala in a bottle.
A tangy tamarind shrub soda made with real ingredients, zero preservatives, and 100% chaos.
Inspired by imli candy and built for a new generation of desi soda lovers.If you know, you know.
TRY IT NOW!
Team
Design team: Afeef Khan, Tanmay Acharya, Abhishek Durani
Team LFC: Noopur Porwal, Akash Devaraju, Tarini Thakur
Cheerleaders: Netra Ajjampur, Jayanth Rao, Vrinda Gupta, Anshul Gupta, Murtaza Dhilawala, Aishwarya Patil, Riya Waykar, Ridhi Kishore
Team LFC: Noopur Porwal, Akash Devaraju, Tarini Thakur
Cheerleaders: Netra Ajjampur, Jayanth Rao, Vrinda Gupta, Anshul Gupta, Murtaza Dhilawala, Aishwarya Patil, Riya Waykar, Ridhi Kishore
Not Done Yet!
Here’s Some More
Here’s Some More
