Tag: Do Not Design

Singapore Art Books

Self-publishing seems to be on the rise in Singapore of late. The secondSingapore Art Book Fair will be held this November, there are now two local Risograph presses — Push—Press and Knuckles & Notch — offering economical means of producing zines and publications, and more artists putting out books as works via events (Print Lab and The Yum and Dangerous) and through organizations like La Libreria. I’m curious as to what’s driving this trend of “art books”, which encompasses publications from artist books to catalogues and zines. For a start, here’s a list of some recent works, and who’s behind them…

A Guide to the Flora and Fauna of the World (2013)
BY: Institute of Critical Zoologists
DESIGN: H55 STUDIO
NOTES: A photo book of artist Robert Zhao’s works.

Rubbish Famzine 02 (2014)
BY: HOLYCRAP
DESIGN: HOLYCRAP
NOTES: A magazine by this family art collective made up of Claire, Renn, Aira and Pann.

Being Together (2013)
BY: John Clang
DESIGN: DO NOT DESIGN
NOTES: A catalogue created for photographer John Clang’s exhibition of the same name in the National Museum of Singapore.

Light From Within (2012)
BY: Melisa Teo
DESIGN: Asylum
NOTES: A book of photographer Melisa Teo’s four-year journey through the spiritual worlds of Buddhism, Hinduism and Shamanism.

Science of the Secondary (2013)
BY: HOKO
DESIGN: HOKO
NOTES: In this on-going series by design duo HOKO, each booklet dives deep into one object to look at how humans interact with it so as to uncover the science behind its “design”.

ARTiculate (2013) (Part of the TwentyFifteen.SG; Since 2013)
BY: Tan Ngiap Heng
DESIGN: Roots
NOTES: TwentyFifteen.SG is an initiative by photography group PLATFORM to publish 20 photo folios by Singapore photographers to commemorate Singapore’s 50th anniversary in 2015. They will all be designed by Roots.

WERK No. 22: Dover Street Market Beautiful Chaos (2014) (Since 2000)
BY: WORK
DESIGN: WORK
NOTES: WERK magazine has attained a cult following for how it takes fashion into the plane of art through the print and production experiments of founder Theseus Chan. The magazine regularly works with fashion brands such as COMME des GARÇONS and artists like Joe Magee and John Clang.

Stranger to my room (2013)
BY: Sonicbrat
DESIGN: Kitchen.
NOTES: A music CD and art book package published by Kitchen Label. Founders April Lee and Ricks Ang have built a music label well-known for its “quiet music” and well-designed packaging. Each of the labels’ albums come with a photo art book that complements the listening experience.

Kult Magazine: Read (2014) (Since 2009)
BY: Kult
DESIGN: Kult
NOTES: A quarterly showcasing illustrations and visuals from around the world that respond to each issue’s theme.

Books of Haresh Sharma’s plays  (2011-2012)
BY: The Necessary Stage
DESIGN: The Bureau
NOTES: Playwright Haresh Sharma’s plays for theatre group The Necessary Stage have been compiled into various publications all designed by The Bureau.

The Model Behind this Artist

It may have become a popular art and design blog for many, but founder Yanda says his Singapore-based THEARTISTANDHISMODEL remains a personal diary that has helped the self-taught designer learn more his craft for close to a decade.

Designer Yanda trained his eye for design by starting a blog to catalogue creative work from around the world in 2005. | SHENTONISTA
Designer Yanda trained his eye for design by starting a blog to catalogue creative work from around the world in 2005. | SHENTONISTA

“I started my blog nine years ago with a course mate in Ngee Ann Polytechnic where we were both studying Multimedia Computing . We wanted to learn about art and design, but couldn’t afford art or design books, so we started an online gallery to force ourselves to read these books and blogs about fashion, art and street wear.

Back then, I flipped a lot of books at the library and bookstores such as Kinokuniya and Basheer Graphic Books. If I found a work I like — from masters such as Picasso to fashion designers like Jun Takahashi — I’ll take down their name and go online to do more research. Initially, I wrote my opinions about the works, but it became a hassle, so now I cut and paste information instead.

I wanted to learn more about art and design after an internship interview. At that point, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I had emailed a few studios without a portfolio and Manic Design was kind enough to ask me in. Obviously, I did not get it because I had nothing to show. After I left, I felt like a failure, but I wanted the experience of working in a creative agency so much. I told myself I needed to learn more about art and design, so I started the website.

The name, ‘THEARTISTANDHISMODEL,’ points to the fact that behind every artist is some model — be it subject matter, business model, mentor, or someone you really want to impress. It wasn’t meant to be a serious website, but I wanted to learn more so I kept blogging even after my partner left when he became busy with National Service.

I’ve learnt how to design by looking and commenting and critiquing via my blog. When I see something nice, I will find out what is nice about the work and what are the thought processes behind it. I will go deep down into the construction and materials of things I like. I learn a lot about design through this process, and I also find out more about myself from what I like. I can’t rationalize what I like — probably things that have more ideas and are more visual.

There wasn’t any clear transition from blogging to starting my design studio DONOTDESIGN, but the blog has helped me become a curator, giving me an eye to pick out stuff for exhibitions and for the Showcase section in The Design Society Journal.

While the website has become very popular today, I wasn’t assured that my blog was nice or good until a few people pointed it out — even Theseus Chan of WORK commented that I now had an authority to comment on what was nice or not. When I visited studios in London last year, many of them also said that I had good posts.

But I don’t care about all this. I still blog the same way. Up till today, I only blog about the things I like. I don’t blog for other people, I blog for myself. It’s become such a huge personal diary that it is my online archive whenever I need to reference something for my own designs.”