THE DESIGN

Cheah and Derryah, the designers of the Style Damsel label, embrace the challenging curves of a woman’s body by creating streamlined garments that are as body-conscious as they are practical and playful.

Cheah about the design (above), ” The Midnight Blue Frills is made from premium classic midnight blue cotton voile, and it’s flattering silhouette highly compliments the womanly figure. The feminine cascading frills fuse with the primp Mandarin collar to inject a dose of elegance and sophistication into the soft, flowy dress. The V-shaped style-line, and matching sash that finishes off in a sweet bow brings any wearer from corporate-chic to a ladies’ nights out in a snap.”

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THE ART

Tuck’s vector work is peppered with images of fantastical, cute-oozing characters. About the inspiration behind his smiley monsters, Tuck says, “I enjoy illustrating weird characters that are strange but yet humorous or cute. I get inspiration from the web, MTV, music and vinyl toys. This illustration consists of different characters I designed by mixing and matching different elements together. You can see a van with a bunny head, a smoking robot with headphones, a green hairy creature with a helmet and goggles, a space helmet with a worm in it etc etc. It is really an awesome way to design strange hybrid characters that make no sense!”

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THE DESIGN

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CRISP designers, Brian Law and Tan Sixu, drew their inspiration for the INCONVERSATION floor loungers and low tables from traditional Asian culture, where daily routines of work and play were all performed on the floor.

Brian explains, “A living room should be as it suggests, a “living room”; a space within a home dedicated and faithful to the flow and movement of people and vibrant conversation. Regrettably, degrading social patterns of interaction and the emerging dissolution of the family cluster has effectuated increasing reclusion and disengagement among family members. By infusing emotive qualities and extracting silhouettes and curves from human postures to form different ‘characters‘, the series of floor loungers whimsically cast the impression of people in conversation with one another.”

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THE ART

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Visual Communications student and Freelance Illustrator, Julienne Tan, creates delicate illustrations that evoke a feeling of quiet storytelling, removed from its surrounding environment, occupying only one corner of the pictorial space.

“This illustration is part of the Whispered series, things I will never say. I draw straight on paper with a 0.1 point pen. I draw slowly and let the picture evolve line by line. It starts with a memory, that could be as faint as a facial expression or as abstract as a song. I draw a little at a time; rushing will only break the rhythm. Every drawing is embedded with personal stories and characters, sometimes words. The above illustration is about waiting and listening.”

Spotted! is a digest of fly work by fresh off creatives.

THE DESIGN

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Bacus Boo’s fascinating playtable can be appreciated as a sculptural object as well as an entirely functional piece of furniture. The design is inspired by Dakotsu Iida’s poem, Snowy Valleys:

“Dew on a leaf of taro. The mountains rectify their shadows.”

“In this poem, the eyes of the poet focus on the play of visual scale versus the distant views. He presents the imposing image of the mountains and the deep valley in a surrealistic way. The foregrounds such as “Dew on a leaf of taro” play secondary parts and decorate the distant views, making beautiful harmonies like the offering of flowers in front of an altar. My idea is to create a pseudo-perspective on this table by combining the distant view (the mountain and valleys) and the foreground (the objects). This predominant design theme encourages the relationship and interaction between nature (the table) and humankind (the user), which also emphasize that form and function are one. The name Asobu, in Japanese means “play”, and also means “amuse one-self” where my design concept adds an exciting dimension to this furniture. The spirit of “playfulness” weaves a sense of enjoyment, appreciation of the humble, acceptance of the ephemeral and acknowledgment of the greater life’s mysteries. It enables one to contemplate to reach the nature of things touching the deep recesses of one’s being and allowing peace and freedom to create.”

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THE ART

Zheng Tianyu Isaiah or Ty, is a graphic designer who is currently taking a ‘tour’ in the Photography program at NTU. He recently published “Untitled (System)-Textbook” which was on exhibit at The Best of ADM 2008.

Untitled (System) which started off as a school project, is a series of generative art based on a system designed by Ty. Twenty-six letters of the English alphabet are translated into angled lines indicating directions. As letters form words, and words form sentences, the output serves as a new way of displaying text, and for the viewer, to enjoy the line work as art.

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THE DESIGN

Blooming Pod pendant and Bud Pod pendant by Serene Wong.

I love t43’s first concoction of hand-fabricated, limited edition jewelry designs. The Art-Tea-Scent collection reflects three designers’ passion for tea, by offering three interpretations of the theme. Art by Szufen Huang (Taiwan) is a collection of sculptural forms carefully hand pleated in silk organza, with intricately painted motifs. Tea by Nana Akashi (Japan) is inspired by a box set of flavored teas in its familiar packaging. Scent (above) by local designer Serene Wong, combines the evocative scent of tea leaves with the modernity of plastic.

Of her design, Serene says,”Inspired by the scent of tea leaves, this collection interprets the intangible into a series of dramatic acrylic jewelry. Where a Chinese tea ball and delicate rose buds subtly perfume the air from within the hollow of a pod pendant; other pieces intuitively translate scent into sensuous, organic forms reminiscent of flowers blooming and layers of moistened leaves. You may choose to personalize the jewelry by varying the contents of the pod pendants to suit your preference. All the pieces are hand-pierced and formed to flow with the curves of the body.”

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From 9 May till 30 June, Club Street and Ann Siang Hill will play host to the Tiger Translate Museum, an initiative that brings art back to the people, and into the streets - literally.

Housed in the quaint shops in the Club Street precinct, the Museum will showcase works by Momorobo, fFurious, Andy Yang, Kuanth, eeshaun and Antz. All you have to do is pick up a program guide and walk into any of the participating outlets.

Tiger Translate is throwing a Museum launch party on 9 May from 6pm till 11pm, at the Park connector junction of Club Street and Ann Siang Hill. There will be “live” art by Tiger AKA, Translate Museum tours, music by popular DJs and many more exciting street happenings. Sounds fun? RSVP here.

THE DESIGN

Mozzy is a room divider as conceived by Page Tan together with Ross Faulianna and Xu Bin, three final year Furniture Design students at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. Made of red oak and yellow poplar, the design has many fluid curves inspired by the continuous movement of fabric.

“The fluidity of fabric has fascinated us in more ways than one. We wanted to achieve a similar characteristic using wood. The sinuous pattern is essential for it to stand on its own. We can hence relate this to the softness of fabric; the way fabric flows and the subtle curves that it produces. The difference in height within the Mozzy partition, hopes to pull off a sense of excitement and at the same time give the user some privacy. But the details don’t stop there. Cast light onto Mozzy and a beautiful silhouette can be seen.”

Spotted! is a digest of fly work by fresh off creatives.

Only a couple of years old (2003), HEADLINE is somewhat of a sensation with the local underground community. Founded by Calvin Yang, Edric Wong and Urica Sin, HDLN carries a selection of limited edition tees, shirts, shorts, pants and a sweet line up of hoodies.

Says Calvin, “The concept for our street label was drawn from Japanese and American (specifically New York) influences. Especially the big leading street labels and cultural trivia ranging from pop culture references, movies, music, art to comic books, porn and many many more. In keeping with our image of being exclusive, we have created a multitude of limited print design tees.”

“The Headline Zip Up Hoodies carry our very own signature monogram logo of the words HDLN, aka HEADLINE, and the repeating pattern of sparkling stars thats reflects on the sparkling path that we are heading in.”

Spotted! is a digest of fly work by fresh off creatives.

When Rayson Tan and Joanne Lee graduated from LASALLE they went their separate ways. Rayson earns a living as a full time designer for a magazine and is working on his own fashion label in his spare time. Joanne decided to pursue her career as an illustrator. They recently decided to hook up and work on a new accessory line dubbed RibbonRabbit.

PHILOSOPHY

“RibbonRabbit inspires from the adorable critters skittering about in Mother Nature’s embrace. We pick on the structure of the animal kingdom and turn the fauna into playacting characters. Our accessories are a translation of this concept, and we mean it literally when we say RibbonRabbit creates conversation pieces. Our ‘faunal’ characters do talk, after all.”

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THE DESIGN

PY Chong’s Flaw or Flow chair, with its aluminum leg, carries an important message: “We should learn to accept the beauty of disability and deformity and appreciate how it can build a better personality and quality.” PY’s design received an honorable mention in the Student category at this year’s Furniture Design Awards (FDA).

“Flaw or Flow is not only a chair, it is also a piece of sculpture that speaks for a special group of people. There is a tension in human lives which results in the birth of a new life which is less fortunate, disabled or even deformed. I twisted and distorted the silhouette of a normal chair which results in producing a form which is visually unproportioned and unbalanced. By doing so, I created tension to the form but also an emotion. The chair now looks deformed and tired. I believe, I also gave the chair life and feeling. The introduction of the aluminum leg, which is designed to be more stable and conventional, causes contradiction in our perception. Visually, the aluminum leg is an artificial part, but emotionally it gives viewers a sense of confidence to sit on this deformed chair. We should not judge an object or a person by its superficial appearance. If we initiate to explore deeper, things may not turn out what we perceive them to be. The elegant lady’s chair is to test the perception of the viewers. A piece of sculpture should be speaking for itself. Perception has no certainty, you can choose to look at it’s flaw or it’s flow, or even it’s flaw and flow. My quote: ‘If flaw is an imperfection, let flow be the acceptance of the situation.’”

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There You Go! is an independent effort by nine designers and fine artists, showcasing works that probe the relationship between good and evil; beauty and ugliness; love and hate; friendship and animosity. The artists will tour the facade of a shophouse at 21 Haji Lane and will offer an insightful exhibition that will strip bare life’s saintly disguise with a touch of dark humor.

“A distress signal from a mind-numbing year of robotic routines to make ends meet had declared May 1st as an official day of nationwide slacking. A group of optimistic, and sometimes eccentric, creative individuals were perfectly clean on what they did not like: too much work and too little fun. So they each worked under their own pseudonym and one shared face, and very seriously made fun art for the love of life.”

Participating artists: Kilas, Mohamad Fadzel, Ngojerk, OneTwoDelta, PrettyFreakyFantasy, Princess Gai, Sadistk, Kyun and Zig.

1st May at 21 Haji Lane from 10 am onwards. Admission is free.

THE DESIGN

Clean, cool and contemporary, this eye-catching, “knot” shaped light provides instant visual appeal and is a nice change from the standard stale, lifeless and boring table lamps. On show at the Singapore Expo last month at the Furniture Design Awards (FDA) exhibit, the lamp, designed by Kenne Cheong, received an Honorable Mention in the Young Designer Category.

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THE DESIGN

Vice and Vanity, is known for taking jewelry to new places, by creating idiosyncratic, industrial-chic pieces. Former Club21 employee, Vivi Masturah Lim and Fine Arts graduate, Aaron Kao are the designers behind the label.

Says Aaron, “We always try to originate new ideas, never restricting ourselves to a certain style or look. Our style is a work in progress and may or may not surface so quickly over a few collections. It takes time to develop a style. For every collection we always ensure that the quality is there and we want people to pay for something that has a lot of thought and effort put into the creation.”

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