Category: Design

May 24, 2010

NAFA Graduation Show — Be A Good Creative

Every year, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts stages a Design and Media Degree Show to showcase creative and energetic works created by graduates from the BA (Hons) Graphic Communication and Multimedia courses.

The theme for this year is Be a Good Creative – We may not be perfect, but we will absolutely not let you down. We believe it is what you give to the people, and the world; and we are just trying to be as good as we can be. Derived from Don’t try to be original. Just try to be good, by Paul Rand quoting Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, our graduating batch of design and media creatives aim to serve our society with humility and honesty.

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It’s the first time I’ve been approached to plug someone’s show. I agreed to because I think it’s great that students are putting themselves out there and it sounds like a great theme. I’ve been told that the show will be opened on the 26th by :phunk studio’s Jackson Tan. And on the evening of 28th May, Friday, Joseph Foo from 3nity Design will be speaking on the theme itself.

May 22, 2010

In Need of A Pioneering Design

Here’s a graphic design project I hope someone will take on in the years to come: A system of design guidelines to brand the public service.

The Singapore Public Service is a vast and diverse entity containing some 15 Ministries and over 50 organisations. They differ in terms of age, what they do, who they are made up of, and also who they serve. However, in recent years, the public service has been championing a “whole-of-government” approach to how it serves the public. To some extent, it has tried to brand itself this way too. Just today, they launched a coffee table book Pioneers Once More, “the first about the Singapore Public Service as a whole”.

Yet, the design of the book cover is disappointing. It is an abstract kueh lapis that doesn’t say much to me. It hides the interesting stories and photos inside, and lacks a stature that you would associate with history books. It looks like one of those diaries you may find at Popular bookstore. I’m guessing the design team faced the problem of who can be the face of the public service? How can we present the public service as one when the reality is that people don’t see it as that?

The final product is an lost opportunity to visually define the public service as one for the first time. So, the issue remains out there for our local designers to take on, and it’ll be interesting to see what solutions exist.

May 17, 2010

What is a book?

In the past few months, Borders Bookshop in Singapore has literally “cheapen” books with its seemingly never-ending weekly offers. It’s got me really curious about what is actually going on in Borders. Is it closing down? Is this a sign that people will no longer pay for good books? Are books going extinct?

While I have no idea if Borders is closing down (my guess: yes), I’ll suggest you attend a book art exhibition just a 5 minute walk from the Borders in Wheelock Place to find answers to my other two questions. In Centre to Periphery at the Japan Creative Centre, you will find no bookshelves. In fact, you might not even find books — those with a cover, spine, page and words on them. Instead, you find yourself lifting up an empty book to capture text projections…

Enlightenment (2009), Goh Qidi Jonathan

… staring into a pinhole camera made out of a book to find out its ending…

Shin Mitsu (2001), Miyuki Kido

… wondering how solid books can be…

The Ground Book (1998), Rie Takeuchi

… seeing a book scene come to life…

All About Her Story, Masako Kobayashi

… going through the “elements” of what makes a book’s character…

The Ele men tal In ter ludes (2009), Hazel Lim

… and contemplating how 10,000 years of life is so efficiently reduced to a tome you can carry home.

Byo-Koku-Tetsu-Cho (2002), Hirose Tsuyoshi

You won’t find any discounts for books at this exhibition organised by the Japan Creative Centre and La Liberia, but you will find, for free, that books are much more than just for your reading pleasure.