The National Design Centre proudly presents the #designspottingsg online series, where we invite you to discover design inspirations and spaces in Singapore through the eyes of local design professionals and celebrate how design is everywhere. We hope this will inspire you to create your own design trail in Singapore – feel free to share it with us! #designspottingsg on Facebook and Instagram.
In August and September, we celebrate our local designers right here in Singapore: Our Home. Explore their favourite spots, peek into their houses or work spaces, and uncover how design can be everywhere, in our everyday lives!
Episode 1: Tan Jiahui of Fable
What do you see when you walk around your neighbourhood? Jiahui is inspired by the fonts on hawker stall signboards and even parking lot numbers. In the first episode of #designspottingsg, check out what inspires Jiahui in his design journey and what advice he has for young designers.
Destinations featured in the video:
- Sing See Soon
5 Simei Lane, Singapore 528710
- Basheer Graphic Books
Bras Basah Complex, 231 Bain St #04-19, Singapore 180231
- Lola’s Café
5 Simon Road, Singapore 545893
Share your design trail with us! Tag us @designsingapore and use #designspottingsg on Facebook or Instagram.
About Jiahui
Jiahui Tan is the Founder and Creative Director of Fable, a multi-disciplinary design agency that has worked on regional projects for Google, Rolex, EDB Singapore, Deloitte, Far East Organisation, and also a slew of clients from the food and beverage, hospitality, fintech, lifestyle industries. He has won a couple of D&AD pencils, and was also invited back to be D&AD’s jury panel in London. Fable’s work has been featured across 200 international and local platforms such as Monocle, It’s Nice That, AIGA, The Straits Times, Singapore Design Week, and more. Most recently, Fable started the Fable Type Foundry – committed to making design more available and driving businesses and culture forward via a slew of typefaces they are launching.
Episode 2: Keat Ong of Keat Ong Design
Which hawker center is the best designed in Singapore? Keat Ong tells us more about his favourite hawker centre, and also shares a lot of other personal and professional anecdotes. Keat is the Founder/Design Principal of Keat Ong Design, President of Society of Interior Designers Singapore, and Vice President of Asia-Pacific Space Designers Association.
Destinations and brands featured in the video:
- Tan Boon Liat Building
315 Outram Rd, Singapore 169074
- Sam & Sara (IpseIpsaIpsum)
Tan Boon Liat Building, 315 Outram Road #11-02, Singapore 169074
- Serangoon Garden Market & Food Centre
49A Serangoon Garden Way, Singapore 555945
- Holland Village
Holland Avenue, Singapore 278995
- 2am: dessertbar
21A Lorong Liput, Singapore 277733
- Azimuth Watch
M38 Building, 38 Jalan Pemimpin #06-01, Singapore 577178
Share your design trail with us! Tag us @designsingapore and use #designspottingsg on Facebook or Instagram.
About Keat
Architect by training and multidisciplinary designer by profession, Prof. Keat Ong is a celebrated, award-winning designer in Asia. He is the founder of Nota Design Group and Keat Ong Design as well as the current president of Society of Interior Designers, Singapore (SIDS). Keat has been named one of Asia’s Top Designers in Singapore Design Awards 2014 and as Designers of the Year 2016/2017 from the famed INTERIOR DESIGN Magazine. He is also Visiting Professors to many universities in Asia.
Episode 3: Hanson Ho of H55
Why do people work in offices? Would the workspace influence the work produced? There’s been a lot of talk lately about how the workplace of the future is changing, but for two-time recipient of the President*s Design Award Hanson Ho, he started asking these questions early on. In this video, Hanson shares his inspiration for his home and workspace. He takes us through his favourite spots in Singapore and shows us how design is everywhere. We can see how the little design elements all around us help shape Singapore into a city and home we love, and how it inspires our local designers in their work.
Destinations featured in the video:
1. Lower Peirce Trail
Along Old Upper Thomson Road
2. Memory Lane
The Adelphi, 1 Coleman Street #B1-17, Singapore 179803
3. Spitfire Skate
Peninsula Shopping Centre, 3 Coleman Street #02-23, Singapore 179804
4. Xtreme SkatePark
East Coast Park (near Car Park F1)
Share your design trail with us! Tag us @designsingapore and use #designspottingsg on Facebook or Instagram.
About Hanson
Hanson Ho is the Creative Director of H55. He is a two-time recipient of Singapore’s highest design accolade, the President*s Design Award: having been conferred ‘Designer of the Year’ in 2012 and subsequently winning ‘Design of the Year’ in 2014. Since 2001, his work has received international recognition and awards from D&AD (London), New York Art Directors Club, New York One Show Design, Creative Circle Awards, and Tokyo Type Directors Club. Hanson wears many hats. He has judged the D&AD Awards in London, played the role of Curator for the Singapore Land Transport Authority’s Art-in-Transit Programme for the MRT Downtown Line, written a book titled ‘Word by Word, We Built Ourselves – 55 Commonly Used Words in the Design Office of H55’ (distributed by BooksActually), and has created a series of huge permanent artworks for Sungei Bedok MRT Station on the upcoming Thomson–East Coast Line.
Hunn Wai of Lanzavecchia + Wai Design Studio
In this 4th episode of #designspotting, we feature Hunn Wai, Creative Director and Co-founder of Lanzavecchia + Wai Design Studio, based in both Singapore and Italy. Hunn Wai takes us through his favourite running routes and shares how his passion for running impacts his experience of Singapore and how he draws inspiration from the things he sees around him. “The design journey is a marathon, not a sprint”, he says.
Destinations featured in the video:
1. Pandan Valley
1 Pandan Valley, Singapore 697625
2. Green Corridor
Holland Road
3. Gardens by the Bay
18 Marina Gardens Drive, Singapore 018953
4. Dancing Char Kway Teow
Circuit Road Food Centre, Blk 79 Circuit Road #01-19, Singapore 370079
5. Wine RVLT
38 Carpenter Road, #01-01, Singapore 059917
6. Red House Seafood
Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel (Level 2), 392 Havelock Rd, Singapore 169663
7. Lyf Funan Singapore
67 Hill Street, Funan Mall (Level 4), Singapore 179370
Share your design trail with us! Tag us @designsingapore and use #designspottingsg on Facebook or Instagram.
About Hunn Wai and Lanzavecchia + Wai
Lanzavecchia + Wai is an award-winning industrial design studio based between Italy and Singapore established in 2010. To them, being designers means being researchers, engineers, craftsmen and story-tellers all at the same time. Having hailed from two very different countries and cultures, they attempt to feed each other’s backgrounds, knowledge and skillsets to fuel lateral thinking and agile tangible application. Their work spans from limited editions to mass products for brands like Zanotta, FIAM, Living Divani, Cappellini, De Castelli, Gallotti&Radice, Mirage to special commissions for major brands like Hermès, MAXXI, Antolini, Tod’s, AgustaWestland Aviation.
