Singapore Design Society
Posted by: Tom Rieke
The new Singapore Design Society hosted its first design conference on Saturday, 23 January, in the Drama Theatre at the National Library.
I arrived while the second of six talks was in progress, and I almost walked out before it ended. It was a deeply theoretical discussion of the rhetoric of design, the social significance of symbology, etc. It included a few intriguing examples from North America and Asia, but I was falling asleep, hoping that my snores were not disturbing my neighbors in the packed auditorium. The speaker was Lim Chong Jin, who chairs Temasek Polytechnic’s Interactive Digital & Media Collaboratory. I’m sure he made some important points, but theory is mostly beyond me. So when he finished, I woke up and wandered down to the library plaza to see the society’s exhibit of iconic Singapore design. Back to reality:
The next talk was captivating: PHUNK STUDIO, four young hipsters who met at LASALLE College of the Arts, one of the most beautiful buildings in Singapore.
When they graduated in 1994, they decided to form a band, but they quickly realized that they had no musical talent, so they formed an “art and design collective” instead. They knew very little about design, and absolutely nothing about business. Their secret formula for success was to always say: “Yes, of course.”
So when one of their early clients asked them to produce a video, they never mentioned that they nothing about video. They said: “Yes, of course.” Since then, they have worked with a big-time list of clients all over the world, including Nike, MTV, Comme de Garçons, Levis, and Tiger Beer. In 2005, the Singapore History Museum celebrated PHUNK’s 10th anniversary with an exhibition called A Decade of Decadence. PHUNK’s work was not included in the Design Society’s show of Singapore icons.
My favorite speaker was Kelley Cheng, Creative Director of The [Press] Room, and not just because she was named (October 2009) one of the “Great Women of Our Time” by Singapore’s Women Weekly magazine in the Design and Style category. Her talk was entertaining, informative, inspiring, and hillarious.
When she graduated with honors from the National University of Singapore’s School of Architecture, she started a magazine about architecture and design. At first, it was a solo operation. She learned about publishing and business by making mistakes. She became a graphic designer because the magazine could not be produced without one. Eventually, she sold the magazine to a real publishing firm and worked there for eight years as an editorial director. Last year, she left that “secure” position to become an enterpreneur again.
Now she’s a designer, edtior, and consultant on publishing, branding, and environmental, interior, theater, lighting, and set design. Her clients in Singapore and around the world keep her busy enough for five people, but she’s still restless. So she’s constantly starting new ventures. Recently, she co-founded one of the coolest restaurants in Singapore and an art-filled bar that is already one of the most popular hangouts for Singapore’s fast-growing creative crowd.
When the University of Michigan School of Art and Design is ready to invite a guest speaker from Singapore for its Penny W. Stamps Distinguished Visitor Series, Kelley Cheng should be at the top of the list.
