people

we love
design champions

He asserts: We have the talent; there are many

manufacturers in Asia, and the market here is
booming its really just ours to take.
Edwin, as a retailer who actively supports local
work, is just one of many individuals as well as
schools and organisations (both private and public)
trying to build a community that appreciates design,
specifically local design. We talk to the folks at the
forefront of Singapores design scene, from sectors
as varied as education, industry, business and
government, to learn their plans to that end.

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Working Together
Collaborations, be they across countries or
disciplines, are the way to go if Singapore were to
become a big brother in South-east Asia, says
Bacus Boo, an industry veteran who oversees the
design development department at the Singapore
Furniture Industries Council (SFIC). He is also behind
Singapores annual design festival, Singaplural.
Acknowledging the extremely limited pool of local
talent here, Bacus believes that Singapore can make
a bigger name for itself by providing a good platform

th
fu e
is tu
he re
re

Once upon a time, a designed-in-Singapore tag

didnt get much notice (or get noticed at all) it
might even been derided by consumers who feel
that an authentic designer piece could only
come from Europe or America. Now, it isnt a
daring assertion to say that Singapore is gearing
up to be the epicentre of regional design, and an
important player in Asia as a whole. What have we
done right and what needs to be done to further
our design ambitions and put our designers and
companies firmly on the global map?
Theres a lot of work we need to do in
terms of understanding our own culture, and
that would be a good point of departure for
our young designers. We need to leverage on
our multiculturalism to create new ideas, and
perhaps one day export it back to the West, says
Jeffrey Ho, the executive director of the Design
Singapore Council, the national agency tasked to
develop our design industries.
Giving local designs his strong vote of
confidence is Edwin Loh, the founder of design
incubator and retail business Supermama.

to nurture young talents from around the region

through grants or scholarships, and providing
them a stepping stone out of this region.
Experienced educator Sabrina Long, who
has taught at the Nanyang Academy of Fine
Arts (NAFA) for 15 years and heads the schools
3-D design department, agrees. She states that
designers tend to learn better from peers that are
from a culturally different background. We have
many students from neighbouring countries, and
we will continue to harness this diversity as it
creates a certain richness in the way our students
work, she says. By grooming both foreign and
local students, we can also project ourselves as a
country that sees design as international rather
than just purely Singaporean.
This cross-cultural interaction pays off in
other ways. Our designers are weak in creating
things with their hands, but theyre great at using
technology to design. We facilitate collaborations
so that we can introduce a contemporary language
to traditional South-east Asian craft, explains
Bacus. The council has run programmes such as

Edwin Low, 34,

owner of retail shop
Supermama
With a background in
industrial design, Edwin left
his teaching job at Singapore
Polytechnic some years
back, sold his house, and
used the funds to set up
Supermama. Influenced by
famous furniture and product
designer Toshiyuki Kita,
Edwin, who still lectures
on the side, pursues his
love of Japanese design
by linking up traditional
Japanese craftsmen with local
designers to manufacture
contemporary homeware.

Funding will
never be enough.

But just think:

If your project
is 100 per cent
funded, how much
effort will you put
in? You have to cut
out a bit of your
own flesh to take it
more seriously.


To grow our design
industry, we need world-

class designers. And to

attract them here, we need
to be very sophisticated
users of design.
jeffrey ho, 47,
executive director of
Design Singapore Council
Helming the national agency
for design, Jeffrey implements
national policies aimed at
developing the capabilities
of the design industry, and
also educating businesses
and the general public on the
importance of good design.
Jeffrey also established the
Asian Insights & Design
Innovation Programme, which
engages in in-depth research
about the region to create
more innovative products and
services for the market.

sabrina long, 43,

Head of Department and senior
lecturer at the Department of
3-D Design, NAFA

Futurecraft, where local, Swedish, and Indonesian

designers worked with craftsmen in Indonesia to
develop new products using traditional materials
such as rattan and bamboo.
But Bacus emphasises that promoting local
designers should still be the priority. Although
SFIC started out focusing on manufacturing
and distribution for the industry, we realise the
importance of promoting local designers as it can
elevate our furniture industry beyond the OEM
(Original Equipment Manufacturer) reputation.

Everyone needs to be involved
With collaborations, exhibitions, and festivals
gaining momentum here, those behind them
are hoping for more public support, too. Design
Singapore Council is placing its bets on the
upcoming National Design Centre to serve as the
gathering point for all design-related activities.
We were very fortunate to have the support of the
ministry in making it happen, says Jeffrey. Our
design ecosystem needs awareness, promotion,
and marketing, and the National Design Centre will
be the one permanent place where the public can
view, understand, and appreciate local design. Its
also where enterprises can link up with designers.
But not every initiative needs to take place
on a grand scale to reach out to the public, says

Bacus. Local designers such as Farm and the

Little Thoughts Group have put together intimate
exhibitions of their work, held in public spaces like
the National Museum. The latest exhibition of the
latter featured functional objects inspired by local
food culture, something every Singaporean can
easily relate to.
Another independent project warmly received
by the public is the Democratic Societys
Singapore Icons series of ceramic dishes with
imagery by local designers. The pieces were
produced by Kihara, a Japanese ceramics
company, and were launched and sold to the
public at *Scape during Singaplural this year. They
are now sold at Supermama.
Partly funded by the Design Singapore Council,
this collaboration was led by Edwin, who feels
fortunate to have found manufacturers who are
willing to produce items in small batches. He
says it encourages more experimental objects to
be made (these Japanese manufacturers allow
production in numbers as low as 300, unlike
the industry standard of least 1,000). This
presents lower risks and more opportunities for
independent product designers and even students
to create and sell their own designs, says Sabrina.
She also has big hopes for the Object Design
course that Edwin teaches in NAFA; it educates

Sabrina graduated from

Singapores first product
design course at Baharuddin
Vocational Institute in 1991,
and studied in London before
dabbling in furniture design
and interiors before joining
the Nanyang Academy of Fine
Arts (NAFA) to teach. She is
known for her progressive
approach to design education,
and believes in continually
evolving her schools
curriculum to suit the
industrys needs.

We must
educate society

to give Asian
designers a
chance because
even though
we have great
talents, theyre
struggling to
make it big.

trade.
SFIC isnt just about
As a part-time

bacus boo, 46,

Head of design
development at SFIC
With wide-reaching networks
in the industry garnered
over 20 years in interior,
architectural, product, and
furniture design, Bacus pulled
out all the stops to establish
Singaplural last year, with
the backing of the Singapore
Furniture Industries Council
(SFIC). The annual design
festival, held in conjunction
with the International
Furniture Fair Singapore,
celebrates local design
through installations, talks,
and competitions.

National Design Centre

Slated to open at
the end of this
year, the 31,430sqf
National Design
Centre in Middle
Road will house
design galleries
to showcase local
works, a prototyping
lab for emerging
designers to test
out their concepts,
and commercial
spaces for design
companies. It aims
to be a designcentric destination
where local and
Asian designers, as
well as the general
public, can come
together to interact.

students on how to produce and market their

own work. This helps them to be enterprising
and not just wait for a manufacturer to
approach them. I want them to create their own
opportunities, she states.
Driven by a passion for what they do
and keeping their targets firmly in sight, all
these design champions really hope for at
the moment is for local consumers to give
as much support to local brands as they do
internationally renowned names. That support
for good homegrown design is crucial. With
an increasingly sophisticated pool of local
talents, and the support of high-quality Asian
manufacturers, Sabrina is optimistic that the
process that has been started will continue to
gain momentum: We just need to change the
prevalent mindset here that only Westerners can
do the job well. Designs by a Lee or a Tan can
be just as good!

text mavis ang photography winston chuang & jasper yu art direction nonie CHEN & Kaffy Tan

lecturer, my role is also

to form a bridge between
the designers, schools,
and associations with the
trade industry.