Category: Design

Look no further for the things that matter

Neighbourgoods is a new product label by six-year-old Singapore graphic design studio ampulets that seeks out the beauty and honesty of everyday life. I recently e-mailed co-founder James Teo to find out more about what this label started in May is all about, and its upcoming product launch at the end of November.

How did Neighbourgoods come about?
Every year towards the Christmas season, we try to make a little something to share with friends and clients of ampulets design. Over time, these independent projects became more and more ambitious… they went from T-shirts to a lamp, something involving an axe, origami turtles, to an embroidered handkerchief. That was when we realise that these projects and their stories can have a life of their own. Plus we wanted an excuse to make friends and collaborate with the many talented people around us! And so Neighbourgoods was born .

Tell us about how your first product, “Goodbyetime”, came about.
“Goodbyetime” << started as a short short story Yvonne (my wife) wrote many years ago. She had always wanted to make illustrations to go with it, but she finally asked me instead to come up with my own interpretation. And it is exactly as described on the “Goodbyetime” bellyband; the photographs that I took from my studio’s windows are my witness to time passing – but in contrast to the fast disappearing time in the story, they are a witness arising from slowing down to look and enjoy the world around us. We made it into a “calendar”, although there is no indication of days on it, only months – so if you wanted, you could very slowly savor the story, one page a month. And with the French fold and the newsprint, I kind of envision them like pages of a wall calendar flapping in the breeze, revealing images we otherwise would not see.

Even before Neighbourgoods, you’ve created “objects” annually under ampulets. Can you tell us a bit about each?
“Turtle Time” (2009) >> is like a companion piece to “Goodbyetime”, but about how time crawls. It is a poster made up of 12 illustrations by Yvonne on one side, and a typographical representation on the other. It came with instructions to fold your own giant origami turtle, either with the illustrations or the type as a pattern for the shell.

“Good Sweat” (2010) came about when a young man asked us for our advice on his career plans. He was torn between what seemed practical (what his parents wanted for him) and what he was passionate about. As we listened to him, the first thought that came to our minds was this phrase: “做甚麼都好，用心做就好” (‘It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you put your heart into it’). We decided to embroider this piece of advice on handkerchiefs, an object you would keep close to you to wipe away your sweat (or tears) as you work hard towards your dream.

ampulets_folded verseThe things we made were all somehow related to text, and they are sort of preachy. For example, a project we really liked was << “Folded Verse” (2009), a series of 10 T-shirts with each bearing a word from this Chinese couplet “所羅門的衣，不如百合花” (Solomon’s clothes are not more splendid than the beauty of lilies). We made two to three folds on each T-shirt before painting the Chinese character. For the wearer, the pattern is a puzzle of a Chinese character, yet even when you can decipher the character, its full significance is only realized in the context of the phrase. We wanted to mimic a parable, whose meaning is only revealed to the listener who seeks the truth. It is a reminder to not worry about what we eat or wear, but to trust in a God who created this beautiful earth.

It seems to me some of these earlier products can easily go under the Neighbourgoods label. There’s a common thread about honest values in life, e.g. hard work and enjoying a slower pace of life. Why do you want to communicate such values?
Because they are important! There’s a “get-rich-quick” and a “short-cut” mentality, not only in Singapore, but in any city where an oppressive materialism prevails and efficiency is mistaken as good. As a result, people often forget to take pride in what they do, the values they stand for, how we live.  Whatever is created from this kind of environment does not last. In contrast, the best things in life are created through time, by investing love and commitment. And the best things in life, what is beautiful and good, are also not far from us – the people we love, and the environments we choose to care for. We just have to slow down and appreciate them. We wanted to make things that will inspire and encourage the user with this simple fact. As you can see, we are preachy!

As primarily a graphic design studio, has it been challenging to create your own products? What are some of the issues?
Definitely challenging. As a graphic designer, we are not as familiar with people or companies in the manufacturing side of things. It’s especially difficult finding folks in somewhat lo-fi/craft areas, people who can or want to bend wood, weave fabric or sew a pocket square. Even if it can be done, cost and affordability for a small-scale production becomes an issue. We hope to ferret out more such crafts people in time and welcome any “lobang” that people may know of in Singapore.

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For example, for the first “Good Sweat” project, even after we finally gave up creating our own printed textile, it was some time before we found the right fabric and someone willing to go that extra mile to sew and embroider 100 handkerchiefs. He was an old friend who had made the radical switch from the bio-sciences industry to bespoke tailoring. Another friend in manufacturing had sourced factories in China, but we wanted to make it all in Singapore. We also wanted to be 100 per cent sure of the quality. Graphic designers are anal lah. Haha.

It seems part of the label’s mission is to revive craftsmanship in Singapore. Why the interest in this?
We are not so ambitious! But people who work with their hands need intelligence, perseverance, and character. It is humbling work. And we respect people who take pride in doing something well, however humble that work may seem.

There is a hyper-local ethos in the label: wanting to look at what is around us and choosing to work with people in the neighbourhood. This is in contrast to the more “international outlook” that many Singapore brands aspire for. Could you talk more about how this came about and why you are heading in this direction?
We live in Toa Payoh and even after 10 years, we are still discovering things about the place and our neighbours. But Neighbourgoods is not really about a specific local geography. We are not closed to working with people outside of Singapore, or promoting Neighbourgoods overseas. In fact, there are so many people in Taiwan and Japan we admire for how they take pride in their work, living, heritage and community. So I would say Neighbourgoods is not against an “international outlook”. It’s about taking the time to know, appreciate and make better your immediate environment and community, where you are or where you have come from, instead of constantly wanting to be someone or somewhere else.

There is also a very practical consideration. I am claustrophobic and really dislike plane rides!

Can you tell us more about the upcoming Good Sweat No. 2-6. What can we expect? How did you pick your collaborators?
We had positive response about “Good Sweat” (2010) and its message, including people who asked to buy it. So in the spirit of Neighbourgoods, we decided to bring back Good Sweat!

The goal is the same. “Good Sweat #2-6” aim to give a little encouragement and inspiration to people whenever they feel tired, lost or disillusioned in their daily lives.

But this time, we invited four creative individuals in Singapore to share something that they live by.  They are people who have inspired us with their values and attitudes towards work and life. So we thought it would be great if they could also encourage or inspire others through Good Sweat.

There are altogether five handkerchiefs (including one from ampulets, we couldn’t resist) made from high quality Egyptian cotton. Each design features an embroidered phrase, and is produced in a limited edition of 100 only.

 

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Look for the stories and five handkerchiefs featuring words from photographer Bob Lee; Rebecca Toh  (aka. Casual Poet); Yah-Leng Yu of Foreign Policy Design; Jackson Tan from Phunk/ Black Design; and ampulets. We won’t say too much – you can read about their inspiration and phrase on the website and on the packaging, when they are launched soon.

The handkerchiefs are available for $30 each starting 7 December, and $28 if you pre-order or purchase it at the 29 November launch. Write to us at info@ampulets.com if you are interested, and look out for the launch details on the Neighbourgoods Facebook and site. All of us involved agreed that after covering the cost for the fabrics and bespoke tailoring, we would donate the remaining proceeds to a worthy cause.

Lookback: Singapore Design Magazines

The media is often regarded as the first scribes of history, and is a resource in understanding what things looked like at a certain period of time. A friend recently shared Singapore Unleashed, a 2008 publication that prided itself as the “The first magazine featuring only local designers<artists<photographers”. In it, founders Remie Ng and Eric Wan lamented on the fact that there are “so many wonderful designers, artists and photographers in Singapore”, but most people could not name any. Its magazine would be “a platform for our creative people to showcase their works” and it was a firm believer in the ability of print to show graphics and photographs even though it recognised the power of the Internet. In its inaugural issue, the magazine conducted interviews with artists who were part of the Singapore Biennale 2008 that year,  design agency 19Blossom and also then a newly-opened 2902 Gallery.

This publication stands in contrast to another Singapore-based magazine, SPUNK UNITED, which showcases art and culture around the world. This annual online-only publication run by editor Max Hancock seems to have started around 2005, and featured interviews with local creatives such as fFurious, Daniel Koh, and Eeshaun, providing a fascinating insight to their beginnings.

Sadly, neither of these two magazines are still around today — it seems Singapore Unleashed never went on to its second issue, while SPUNK‘s last update was in 2009. There were perhaps two other Singapore-based design magazines that made a deeper impression and impact. iSh magazine was a forerunner when it first came out in 1999, featuring “fragments from an urbanscape” including architecture, interiors, design and art all in one publication, a rare view of design as multi-disciplinary and surrounding our everyday lives then. Kelley Cheng started this bi-monthly on her own and continued to run it for a decade, even after she joined the Page One Group, a Singapore publishing house, in 2001.

Covers of issues 1.1, 2.6, 6.6 and 9.1. Check out all the covers here.

 

Kelley was also involved in the founding of designer, which she co-published with the Designers Association Singapore (DAS) in 2001.

This non-profit quarterly publication aimed to be “a forum for discussion and the exploration of new ideas in design from Asia and further afield”. (Read DAS president Nigel Smith’s first editorial message here). Later on, local design pioneer Allein Moore tried to run designer as a commercial title, but it closed in 2008.

While it seems Singapore design magazines have struggled in the past to survive, more publications that focus on design in Asia and Singapore have emerged in recent years. This genre includes magazines that document and, to a certain extent, analyse the creative scene, rather than ‘sell design’ such as in consumer-oriented publications including Home and Decor (since 1987!), Lookbox Living, and more recently Dwell Asia. Instead, think of the Asian edition of Surface magazine (by New Media Investments (Asia) Pte Ltd, same company that brings in Dwell Asia), Cubes, (started by Concepts Asia Publishing Pte Ltd in 2001 and recently bought over by Australian-based Indesign Media. Also sister publication of Lookbox), Culturepush (since 2007), and Thailand-based magazine art4d’s latest regional offering online, art4d.asia.

What’s driving the emergence of these new titles? The expansion of design in this part of the world is possibly making it a very lucrative market financially. Whether these titles will still be around in the years to come and they kind of impact they will make in Asia’s design scene and designers — besides selling design — remains to be seen.

SG Design: Consumption or Culture Cultivation?

When I first began writing about design, an editor of an Asian design magazine categorised my essays as only interesting to designers. Instead, I needed to re-tune my writing for “design consumers” if I was to write for their magazine.

The remark gave me much clarity in what I sought to write about. I’ve never wanted to sell or promote the coolest or latest designs , but I’ve always seen design as a part of our everyday life, as well as a product of our culture and times . But such a view is rare amongst how many in Singapore view design. One of the most telling indicators for me is how design is often represented in the local mainstream media. When design gets coverage in newspapers like The Straits Times and Business Times, design is usually portrayed as a consumer product: designer furniture, stylish interiors, and dream homes. The same goes for many magazines about design that I find in Singapore.

Such a dominant view of design’s role in society probably explains why there was hardly a reaction from designers and architects over the fact that Singapore sat out of the Venice Architecture Biennale this year. As compared to local artists currently going brouhaha over the government’s decision to pull out of the contemporary art version of the Venice Biennale next year, the response has been rather muted except for some comments elicited for an article on The Straits Times over the weekend (Singapore skips architecture biennale. 1 September, 2012). After participating in every edition since 2004, building national pavilions around themes such as Second Nature (2004), Singapore Built and Unbuilt (2006), Singapore Supergarden (2008), and 1000 Singapores (2010), Singapore designers and architects will not be able to showcase their ideas, culture and work on an international platform this year.

While DesignSingapore Council has chosen to remain “tight-lipped about this year’s non-participation”, its executive director Jeffery Ho told the newspaper that the council was focusing on other events such as the Milan Furniture Fair, Maison et Objet in Paris and International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York. As Colin Seah from Ministry of Design pointed out in the report, this indicates the council’s direction to concentrate on “more commercial and trade events” — which supports my view that the council has become more interested simply promoting design for economic consumption. From what I understand, the Venice Architecture Biennale has always been an exhibition about ideas in design and its role in arts and culture as opposed to the business of selling design.

This latest pullout follows in the wake of the postponement of what was supposed to be the fourth Singapore Design Festival last year. There is still no news if the council will hold the festival this year, traditionally happening between October and November. What we can say for sure is that policymakers are reviewing their strategy of promoting and supporting design, perhaps aptly so since next year will be a decade since the council was set up.

A cue for the future of how the Singapore government will support and promote design can be found in the council’s plans for the upcoming National Design Centre due in 2013. It seems that government policies are shifting back to the view that design is for commerce and trade alone. This marks a shift in the original agenda set by the council’s late founding director, Dr. Milton Tan.

As one of his staff recalled in a eulogy for him that was published in The Design Society Journal No. 02, “Milton’s eventual vision for Singapore design was formed with the Ministry’s support… His research in design creativity also informed him that a healthy design strategy had to be integrated with culture, craft, and inspiration. This is why Dsg is in the ministry leading the creative industries, and not trade and industry. Though frequently challenged by MICA to deliver the economic numbers when formulating the design strategy for the next five years, Milton continued to push the cultural agenda.”

Could the time be up for the council and it finally needs to justify continued support for design with indicators of how it has benefitted Singapore economically? How will national design policies that ignore culture and affect the industry and community in Singapore?

This is a similar concern raised almost 15 years ago in a 1998 news report in the Business Times reviewing what was then the decade-old International Design Forum held in Singapore, another government initiative for design. The question was asked if the now defunct forum had become “too commercially oriented at the expense of highlighting design in its pure form”.

An optimistic view would be to say the council has laid a foundation and the growing community of designers and architects can continue cultivating the seeds of cultural evolution. But has the scene arrived at this point? It’ll be sad to see the council’s decade-long work of pushing design beyond the realm of business go to waste, but what is even more painful is to realise this is something that has happened before. And likely to happen all over again.