Picture the following products: bird cage coasters, purring cat hangers and wiggly dog hooks cum mirrors. These eye-catching, pet inspired accessories represent the work of TRIBE, a new breed of design studio, that creates stylish home and lifestyle accessories with an extra finishing touch.

And although the designers in the team are grounded in graphic design, they yearn to explore the different realms of design outside of print graphics, and into the territories of product design. Wan Chin explains, “We are passionate about living and breathing design in everyday life, which is also a reason why we embark on this journey. We strongly believe in the value of, and set out to conceptualise, original designs. We also aim to produce our products locally wherever possible.” MORE »

Not that I’m a T-shirt maven, but when I heard that BooksActually was hosting an exhibition of the Japanese T-shirt project Shikisai (co-presented by Crop Design), I decided to pop by to check it out for myself.

The exhibition promised “different possibilities of T-shirt design under the restrictions of ‘the black print on a white T-shirt’”. This translated into a display of 10-12 white T-shirts, each one adorned with a pencil-like black sketch with an additional element hand-sewn onto the garment. For instance, the very first design in the series was the “meta T-shirt”: a white-T-shirt, carrying a sketch of a T-shirt, with a tiny size tag sewn onto the drawn T-shirt. MORE »

Photo: Qinyi Lim

Once depicted as a bastion of misfits and vandals in the mainstream media, Singapore street art has gradually become embraced by critics and curators as its own distinct genre of contemporary art. Evidence to this is Ephemural Space, an art show set in a very public gallery space located in a busy pedestrian walkway along the old Scotts Shopping Centre plot. Established street artist, Zul, who also goes by street name, ZERO, will be painting five murals over two months, leaving each mural to stay for only a couple of days before whitewashing them and recreating new artworks.

Not your regular art exhibition, Ephemural Space sets out to demystify the creation of art. “Art is normally seen as a commodity, I am showcasing it as a process,” Zul says, “I am bringing into the gallery the process of creating an artwork and its destruction.” And destroy he did. MORE »

It’s been about a month since the Graniph store opened at Bugis Junction and man, talk about being spoiled for choice.

T-shirts on hangers, T-shirts on shelves. Sure, there are duplicates because what you see on the hangers are also folded neatly and arranged by size on the wooden shelves. But the overall effect is still one of colour bursting out of every corner, not to mention the idiosyncratic art style Graniph has come to be known for, and smatterings of foreign languages (French and German predominate, though oddly enough the only Japanese to be seen is the text printed on the signs indicating the T-shirt prices). MORE »

Lily (inset) is the brainchild of digital artist Foon Foono, whose poignant illustrations have recently been bookmarked by Startdrawing and The Brooklyn Art Project.

His work is that tasty, character-driven digital illustration, that is full of emotion and raw sensuality, imbued with a sense of vulnerability and loneliness. ‘I enjoy being alone. The characters in my art often portray loneliness, but each time with a different feeling. Loneliness can make people grow stronger or weaker. I have experienced this, and that’s why I want to incorporate it in my art.’ MORE »

Singapore could well have become one of the world’s most prolific centers for contemporary graffiti. Its current public space is largely defined by the white walls surrounding the many construction sites, providing blank canvases ready for beautification by the local street artists. Alas, these canvases are already claimed by a more widely accepted form of graffiti; commercial advertising. Culturepush has a chat with ‘Fine’ (Street) Artist, SpeakCryptic, about street art in Singapore and …. MORE »

Andrew Tan, better known as Drewscape in the online illustration community, set up his company three years ago and creates artwork across a number of mediums and channels. His portfolio spans advertising illustration, posters, storyboard visuals, book illustrations and comics. Andrew has been active in the design game since 2004, working as an advertising Art Director at JWT and DDB. He now does most of his work for advertising agencies as a full-time illustrator. MORE »

A familiar lament among my musician and artist friends is the lack of public support for Singaporean creatives, a state of affairs which, I believe, isn’t so much a “problem” to be labelled and addressed as such, but a situation which requires some savvy handling from the ground up sans government reliance, i.e. creatives themselves.

Encapsulating that spirit, ilove.sg is the non-profit movement by the folks behind Sinema, Farm, Caffeine and Timbre which encourages Singaporeans to take a pledge to support our creatives and their work. You can read what the pledge entails over at the ilove.sg website.

If you’re reading this here, I am probably preaching to the converted, but here’s a suggestion anyway: watch Invisible City (the run has been extended to 19 Aug), check out the Singapore Art Show and catch the next gig at Home club.

It’s about taking a chance. Who knows, you just might like what you see — and how bad could that be?

As part of the Singapore Art Show 2007, Curating Lab presents You Are Not A Tourist, a platform for the public to re-memorise the city, stripping away it’s existing template and one’s personal associations to perceive it through new eyes. A series of “tours” conceptualised by artists, Kai Syng Tan and Tang Ling Nah, filmmaker, Charles Lim, and architect, Vince Ong, the guided walks encourage participants to re-think the uniqueness of our city or at the very least, a light workout through the streets of Singapore.

Fancying a little urban scavenger hunt, we chose Vince Ong’s The City Remembers at the Raffles City booth, using his pamphlet of unannotated images and a rough sketched map as our guide. Despite the rather unenthusiastic reception we got from the, we assume, volunteer manning the booth, we were armed with cameras (like tourists) and ready to go. Note that I will not be including any images of the walk in this post, and fully encourage you to explore the tour on your own. MORE »

A bit of mod, a dash of man-chic and a whole lot of indie! Singaporean label The STRAY creates the sort of menswear that naturally breathes the rebellious and bold spirit of indie rock ‘n’ roll through its sufficiently prominent colors and mischievous cuts.

Says founder, Arthur Chua, ‘The STRAY is not a fashion label, but a constant side project study of the various influences that shape my views in life.’ The influences that feed his collection range from his role as an Art and Film Director to his vision of infusing fashion, architecture, product design, philosophy, arts, music, poetry, film and even spirituality.

But Arthur also takes direct references from a certain personal fixation with characters from films; David Bowie in ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’ or the scene where Nick Cave performs in a Berlin Club in Wim Wenders’ ‘Wings of Desire’, wearing an ultra skinny 3-piece suit. MORE »

Tucked away in the quaint Emerald Hill neighbourhood, just minutes away from the mass-produced madness that is Orchard Road is Maki Squarepatch: hello eco!, a cosy and refreshing store cum gallery selling one of a kind clothing, toys and accessories.

The store is the brainchild of Enqi and Xin, the duo behind Maki Squarepatch. Since starting the label in 2006, the pair have rapidly earned their fair share of fans from around the world with their playful and eco-friendly creations. MORE »

Photographer, Tony Ting, takes candid portraits of strangers that he encounters on his travels. Nondescript and soft spoken, he can be recognised by the camera in his hand and the sheet of paper he carries, the latter for his subjects to scribble down their answers to thoughtful questions he poses such as “What is your biggest fear?” and “What is your lesson in life?”

Pass Them On is the mini-zine featuring a selection of portraits and personal philosophies from Tony’s collection which, as the title suggests, is meant to be passed on to anyone and everyone for no particular reason other than to be shared. MORE »