THE DESIGN

Hans Tan was one of the participating designers in Droog’s 2007 Master Pieces exhibit. His design, Vitrine of a Vase (above) is a derivative from his research on ‘The Imaginary Mass of Things’, a search for lightness in the metaphysical weight of things …

“Material objects seductively cram our lives not only physically but also mentally, masquerading as stability and meaning. In fact, this immaterial component, which may be described as the idea or the image of an object, so often overwhelms us without the actual presence of its object. Design has always been much more of an idealist discipline than a material discipline, and objects have always been seen as a secondary, material shadows of something non-material.

The vitrine is effectively an imaging device - the intrinsic function of the object is abandoned, while the image representing the object is preserved. In that sense, a vase in the glass vitrine of a museum is synonymous to one that is left decoratively empty in the living room. As a wry response to this observation, ‘Vitrine of a Vase’ floats in indistinct acknowledgment by being an object between a vase and the display of itself.”

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THE DESIGN

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Graniph , one of my favorite T-shirt stores, started accepting entries for their second installment of the Graniph Design Awards. Last year’s edition saw them receive 25.000 works from 46 countries. Amongst the winners, was design-savvy Mark Tsi, who hyped up his tee with a solid looking ’skullskape’ print.

“Skullskape was born in January 2007, from the fusion of random vector lines and bright digital paints. A fellow designer inspired me to take part in the Graniph Design Awards. My design stems from a series of drawings based on skulls and many nights of depression. This was the only piece that did not require my pen or the scanner, and thankfully with a little help from my friends, which gave me that edge to visualize and create. So along with many other designs which I had submitted to last year’s competition, this one earned me a bronze award. And Graniph was sweet enough to brighten my day by sending me a box full of Graniph tees with Skullskape on it in four different sizes! Having said that, a little bit of sadness works for me too.”

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It may sound crazy, but it’s a rally of good intentions, it’s local, and it will be one of the more intimate events of the year!

I am talking about Singapore’s pioneering four-day concept festival which is part of a movement that promoters hope, will raise awareness about environmental, human and animal rights issues amongst Singapore’s youth.

Organized by Rockstar Collective, Halide Pictures and supported by HOME Club, the festival will kick off on Thursday, May 1 with a free-entrance Block Party on Haji Lane. Running from 10 am till 10 pm, it will be a day of interlinked music performances, a fashion showcase by up and coming local designers, stand-up poetry recitals and more. Fans can pick from well-known bands to fresh up-starts, playing on two stages, or take on all ten bands and go right through until 10pm. A selection of well-known HOME Club mix-masters on a third stage in Bali Lane, will get you rocking.

I talk with co-organizer Chrissie Choo about the motivation, the issues and the rockstar party.

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THE ART

Ray Toh’s illustration is the visualisation of an outlandish remedy for my monumental hangover this morning. But Ray’s piece titled Fractured Thoughts is about a different type of sentiment.

“The creation of Fractured Thoughts is based on frustrations, on reaching a point in time where I feel like shooting my head off and letting my ideas run wild. You can explore so many things, at the right time and under the right circumstances, and play with the creative bulbs in your head. I don’t think there is commercial value in the theme of Fractured Thoughts, so it’s part of my personal portfolio, and I execute new ideas when time permits. The whole piece is painted in Photoshop and the name Fractured Thoughts comes from a mistake I made when I was looking for Neil Gaimen’s novel “Fragile Things”. The name got stuck in my head ever since.”

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Core 77 have announced the winners of their Greener Gadgets design competition, which challenged participants to come up with new and innovative solutions for consumer electronics, addressing issues of energy, health and toxicity, new materials, product life-cycle and social development.

Final year NUS Industrial Design students, Cheong Yian Ling, Cindy Liew , Joanne Lin and Lionel Wong received a notable entry with their design dubbed Bottle of M, which is not just a Message in a bottle, but above all, a Motivation to save the world.

“Water consumption from PET bottles creates a worldwide environmental problem of ineffective plastic disposal and accumulation. People are usually aware of plastic recycling possibilities and methods. However, more often than not, the follow-through with this practise is a different matter. Our design is inspired by a student exchange experience in Europe where most of the homes do not have potable water readily available from taps, and where we joined in the experience of purchasing bottled water from supermarkets and disposing of the bottles in separate bins weekly. The “culture shock” left a deep impression on us and thus the inspiration for our design.”

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The Pepper Project is a self–initiated artbook project by Stanley Lau aka Artgerm and Imaginary Friends Studios, and revolves around the sexy and enigmatic muse, Pepper and her friend Wanda.

Pepper was created five years ago as a recurring subject for Artgerm, to experiment with drawing and illustration styles; from Nagel-esque vectors to Ashley Wood-ish brush strokes to cartoony two dimensional Peppers and photorealistic Peppers. As Artgerm continued to experiment, he noticed that his character had gained a few fans who provided a spin on the original Pepper. These fan variations were as versatile as the fans themselves, sometimes with the only common elements being Pepper’s fiery red palette and her headphones.

The Pepper Project book will spotlight Artgerm’s original Pepper character with the addition of never before seen work. It will also showcase an exciting collection of Pepper and Wanda art by some of the industry’s top artists as well as pieces done by fans and friends.

The project’s deviantART gallery is chock full of fabulous Pepper illustrations from all over the world. I chose three entries from Singapore to run with this post.

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No, I hadn’t heard of d-lab™ either, but it just goes to show how surfing the net can lead to discoveries. Of course I know of designer Patrick Chia, but I had no idea of his affiliation with the Design Incubation Centre, until I stumbled across his range of Objects Around The Tablescape, which he presented at the Maison et Objet fair in Paris last month.

The collection includes beautifully made trays, bowls, plates and lights. I particularly fell for the decorative ‘Idea of A Vase’ (above) and the fluid lines of the ‘Long Centerpiece Fruit Bowl’ (after the jump).

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THE DESIGN

Mike Foo aka Moof is the designer behind this spiffy handmade plush. Mike has created several other characters, all in the same family for sure, but with each an own visual personality. If you like what you see, you should absolutely check out Mike’s flickr gallery, where he posts photos of his plushes, his illustrations and sketches. Lovely stuff!

“I started making plush toys after joining MAAD’s plush exhibition last year, and also as a gift for my loved one. My first piece was Mr. Imagine. I wanted to see my illustrations come alive, and plush toys are the way to go. Recently, somebody commissioned me to produce a ninja with only one request, to make him look a bit freaky … the rest was free play. That’s how I came up with Monj (above). The toy making process is spontaneous and depends on the material I select … there’s no fixed set of rules.”

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THE DESIGN

Designer Larry Peh brings fun and innovation to everyday items. For his Take It Away lamp, Larry was inspired by the disposable take-out cups from neighborhood coffee shops. Made out of carefully selected fabrics and lined with satin, these stylish lamps can be hung from ceilings, on walls or even stand freely on the floor.

“Local coffee shop culture has inspired us through the brilliant and economical ‘take-out handles’ used with disposable cups. The Take It Away lamp makes the humble ‘take-away’ cups worthy of a second look,” says Larry.

THE DESIGNER

A graphic design graduate from Temasek Polytechnic, Larry had previously worked at Men’s Folio magazine and Design Asylum, co-founded Neighbor Studio before setting up his own creative studio &Larry in November 2005.

“The formation of &Larry is the culmination of a dream for greater collaboration with people who, regardless of the fields they may be in, wish to pursue and realise designs that are honest and functional in nature, and not merely artifacts made simply to impress and thrill.”

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

Next Friday, Le Monde Est A Nous will open its sixth exhibition titled ‘Pixelmunky in Gardensilly’, featuring works by Chia Aik Beng and eeshaun. Both illustrators teamed up to unite their worlds in a delightful collision of pop art, graphics and surrealism.

“The world is ours, but we’d like it to be yours too,” says eeshaun.

An art-director by day, Pixelmunky spends his time tripping and pushing the envelope creating dreamscapes and filling them with his imaginary surreal friends.

Eeshaun, a facilitator with the School of Technology for the Arts in Republic Polytechnic, is a self-taught illustrator who enjoys the immediacy of spontaneous and whimsical drawings. To date, eeshaun has been busy working on commissioned illustrations for Nike, onedotzero, Play Imaginative and Zouk among many others. He was also recently featured in 20/20, an exhibition celebrating 20 of Singapore’s most creative talents, under the Singapore Design Festival 2007.

“Often, I try to challenge logic and perspective in my artwork, as a response to the way society is largely shaped through systematic research and planning. It is the unexpected twists and surprises in the drawing and narratives within the illustration that brings on endless amusement for me.”

Pixelmunky in Gardensilly will be on display at Night & Day gallery from 23 February until 21 March.

THE DESIGN

“The Droplet design is inspired by the natural process of condensation, the sight of morning dew forming overnight and gliding off the tip of a leaf onto the greens beneath. The purpose and poetry seen in the humble process of condensation is simply beautiful, giving life to nature through its natural procedure,” says David Tham about his design.

The Droplet allows condensation on its surface through the saturating dew point of the environment, harnessing the moisture in the atmosphere as a source of watering. The droplet is surfaced with a layer of super hydrophobic coating that allows condensed water beads to congregate and glide off its surface promptly. Droplet is made of glass or steel that reacts sensitively to temperature.

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THE DESIGN

The curvature, the simplicity and the line of the Kouzou Coffee Table work well in most environments and add a calming ambiance to any living space. The table was designed by four students from the Raffles Design Institute; Chew Kor Han, Try Budi Harso, Leo Saputre and Nicolas Relando Santoso, and received a merit award at last year’s FLIP Challenge, where participants were asked to create original furniture of artistic value using two different types of wood.

When questioned about the design, Han replies, “Our design is a combination of two architecture movements; Blobism and Modernism. The concept is a fusion of their design ethics and our inspiration for the 2007 FLIP Challenge theme, Eclecticity. Creating an interlocking of organic and geometric forms shows the simplified detail in the form and construction. The form is derived by using two different American woods interlocking each other, one creating the structure and the other creating the surface for the coffee table. Using a Chinese furniture construction philosophy, the exposed interlock joints use no fixtures, expressing similarities in thinking with Modernism styles. The interlocking joinery for the two hardwoods, results in a pure and clean style with the focus being on the form of a piece, the beauty and the texture of the wood itself.”

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

THE ART

Pencils and watercolour typify Kristal Raelene Melson’s work. Her illustration, ‘J’adore La Nuit’, is entirely done in digital colouring, but is equally beautiful to behold.

“The name of my drawing is “J’adore La Nuit”, meaning I adore the night … which i do. I wrote it in French to make it sound pretty and fancy schmancy and also because it is extra cool to speak French … but I don’t. I created this drawing after a lovely night out with some insane friends …. enjoyed rolling around in the grass, so I felt happy drawing this. A good way to remember good times.”

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Foon Foono’s illustrations always send tingles up my spine. He really likes to draw clown noses and bunny ears. But just as well, since they’ve become a trademark feature of his work.

PHILOSOPHY

“Alone … no pretending, no hiding, the only moment that we are who we really are. I like to remember things or feelings my own way. How I remember things is more important than remembering the way things really happened. I portray my own reality into my art.”

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