Neighbourgoods

When a young man once asked him for career advice, ampulets co-founder James Teo thought of the Chinese phrase ‘做甚麼都好，用心做就好’, which literally translates as ‘It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you put your heart into it’.

That year, the Singaporean graphic designer embroidered this advice on handkerchiefs as his studio’s annual gift for friends and clients. Due to popular demand, this “Good Sweat” handkerchief – named after a literal translation of ‘好汗’, which sounds like ‘Hero’ in Chinese – is making a return as the latest collection for ampulets’ recently-launched product label Neighbourgoods.

➜ Read the rest at art4d.asia

Pause.

Half a year ago, I was invited to write a piece for  Me & My Shadow, a design project to encourage solitude in today’s hyper-social society. I’ve neglected this space since moving to New York City for my MFA in Design Criticism, but I’m in the midst of revamping it and blogging again. Consider this a pause, while I gather new adventures and thoughts.

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An astronaut.

A hacker.

A ninja.

A spy.

My childhood ambitions all revolved around becoming someone who is typically seen as a solo character — one who relies on his or her abilities and single-mindedness to complete seemingly impossible tasks.

Today, I am a writer. While this occupation has none of the excitement that I wished for as a child, it is certainly just as ‘solo’. The stereotypical image of a writer is one who is cooped up in front of his computer churning out words for a living; and this is how I would describe myself as I write this essay.

Writing is truly a solo activity, and I work best where I am all alone with myself. Even when working at a café or kopitiam, the people around me dissolve into the background as I need to hear myself in order to write. You could say that writing to me is a transcription of conversations with myself.

It is certainly not something everyone enjoys. Many people I meet are always amazed at how I much time I spend on my own, but for me, it is a source of strength to know that I can do so — that I do not need to rely on too many people and resources to get by.

One reward of having spent so much time alone is becoming very familiar with who I am. Away from the madding crowd, the cacophony of opinions, and endless distractions, I can hear my thoughts and I am sensitive to my feelings. This has helped me understand what my personal values and beliefs are, as well as how I function.

And it is being on my own that I have discovered the difficulties of being alone. One person can only achieve so much, it is easy to become insular and ignorant to the world outside if we simply keep to ourselves. The yearning to be part of something bigger than myself is also never too far in the background.

These reasons are why I find the image of a writer as a solo figure, a tad romantic, and even misleading. Most of my time is not spent in front of this computer, but out and about: whether it is attending meetings, seeing exhibitions or meeting friends. In order to write, I need to have something to write about, or at times, someone to write to.

In this context, the act of writing for me is akin to pressing the pause button in life. Momentarily, I shut out myself from the world to reflect. When I come out of my cocoon, I resume my life with an appreciation of the past and a clearer vision of my future.

To me, going solo is a state of mind rather than just a physical act. It is being able to recognise that it is the space in between words — the invisible pause — that are essential in establishing meaning. Just as being alone is not the same as a lone person, one should not be afraid to press pause to dictate the rhythm of your life.

Power Platforms: Raising SG Creativity

Just over a decade ago, Singapore unveiled the Creative Industries Development Strategy to build its creative economy. Today, this cluster consisting of the arts and culture, media and design has  grown and given the city a creative vibe. But while the  talents and their works draw the most attention, an important component are platforms that help to nurture these individuals and groups, raise their profile and support the design ecosystem. These range from the media, community-building initiatives, creation and collaboration programmes as well as institutions and shops. Over the next week, I will attempt to map out the platforms that underpin Singapore’s thriving design scene, starting today with the media.

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From blogs, websites, magazines to publications, the Singapore design media has grown substantially from a decade ago. Today, design is featured regularly in mainstream newspapers as well as lifestyle magazines, and there are many local publications dedicated to it. In the early 2000s, the advent of iSh (1999),  d+a (2000), CUBES (2001) and a smattering of other initiatives breathed new life into a scene where design magazines meant interior design and fashion rags or the academically-driven Singapore Architect.

Since then, the local design media scene has grown tremendously with websites like DesignTaxi (2003), THEARTISTANDHISMODEL (2005), Culturepush (2007) as well as indie print magazines kult (2009) and Bracket (2010). They are also joined by the Asian offices of international design magazines such as Surface Asia (2010) and Dwell Asia (2011) that a licensed by MPG Media Publishing, as well as Australian design media brand INDESIGNLIVE who acquired CUBES when it expanded into Asia in 2011.SG-Magazines

Besides a growing mass media, the design book publishing scene has also grown. While local design book publishers such as PageOne and Basheer Graphic Books might have published the occasional monograph for a Singapore design studio — such as :phunk studio’s Universality (2007) — they were more keen on earning from reprints of  popular titles from the West. That has changed in recent years as overseas publishers have started looking more closely at the design scene here. Singapore-based Patrick Bingham-Hall has done several monographs for Singapore architects such as WOHA under his Pesaro Publishing, ORO Editions put out Lekker Design’s Horror in Architecture, and international creative books publisher Laurence King recently published a book on the the works of the Design Incubation Centre in the National University of Singapore. Design studios themselves are also trying out self-publishing including DP Architects (The Dubai Mall: Sand to Spectacle), Ong & Ong (Conserving Domesticity) and Hjgher (Creative Cultures).SG-Books

Beyond the written word, an emerging medium is film. Local design studio Anonymous was the first in Asia to put together A Design Film Festival in 2010, creating a platform to screen design films from around the world. While the festival has yet to screen a Singapore design film, it has started work on one. There are also similar efforts such as an on-going interview series with local creatives by Design Says Hello as well as government-sponsored documentaries on Singapore’s design scene including City Lights (2006), More Than Meets The Eye (2004) and Design Superheroes (2011).

Despite more buzz and media, much of it has represented design as a lifestyle and consumer product and a business solutions provider. A lot of the media also looks at Singapore as just one part of the larger Asian scene, and while this raises the bar for assessing what is worthy of coverage, it also crowds out smaller but significant  developments for the local scene. Both these features are most probably because most of the media are commercially-driven and need to create a product that can appeal to a wide enough market. What is missing is critical coverage on design, including examining its role in popular culture and society. A lot of the media also lacks depth as they focus on what is trendy and the now, but Singapore design has a history that is finally surfacing the increasing number of monographs as well as historical overviews being published, such as Singapore Institute of Architect’s new Rumah — 50 Years of SIA 1963-2013 and my own work on the graphic design community.