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The Raffles Design Institute recently announced 18-year old Vicky Zhu as the winner of Best Fashion Collection. Vicky, who finished her BA (Hons) in Fashion, presented half a dozen looks from her men’s collection, which was inspired by Arbosculpture.

Vicky explains: “Arborsculpture is the art and technique of growing and shaping woody trunks. By grafting, the tissues of one plant are affixed to the tissue of another plant. Although grafting usually refers to joining two plants, it may be a combination of several plants. Human power forces the plant to grow into ornamental shapes. My collection re-interprets the process of grafting, giving everyday outfits a new look.”

Chordata is a project by 22-year old Joanne Lin. The design is made up of four square polypropylene sheets and two customized clips, and is mainly a pendant lamp shielding a lightbulb. As Joanne states, “The lamp was conceptualized from a design brief that gave two limitations: using polypropylene (PP) sheets, and collapsible for flat-packing and/or mailing. The process was very experimental, playing around with the quality of the material and the quality of the light with different bulbs and shading. The outcome was a harmony of construction and completion. The combination creates a glowing luminaire, and the effect of the glow softens the quality of the material used. The unexpected flair created by the cuts and folds emanate a guarded space, enhancing the quality of light within.”

About herself: “As a designer, I am an idealist by nature. I am driven by intuition and meaning behind designs so that it connects to the user in a special way. I am inspired greatly by nature and enjoy the beauty it provides. This perhaps sparked my interest in especially Scandinavian design where design and nature is often merged harmoniously to create lasting, desirable products. My current goal is to one day pursue my studies in Scandinavia to learn, experience as well as grow as a designer. I enjoy the responsibility of being a designer, and I enjoy happy end-users… don’t you?”

U Le Chang which is Mandarin for The Playground, is the creative work of Zheng Renjie (RJ), Dominique Wong (Dom) and Ken Choo (Ken). Opening their minds to various concepts behind common daily occurrences, this digitally illustrated site stretches from one corner of the mind to the farthest regions of their imagination.

Hand-drawn entirely by RJ, the site was brought to life when Dom added a new dimension through scripting. Ken came aboard to help RJ convey his vision to the site visitors. “It was a labor of love that took many late nights, some mornings, and wore down one Wacom tablet pen nib,” says RJ. “It was a journey that stemmed from the simple definition of curiosity and where it led us.”

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A man, dissatisfied with a white cube for a head, decides to give it up immediately for a fanciful one in the name of self-improvement, only to find himself unwillingly dealing with the consequences. ‘White‘ is Wei Keong’s debut animated short film which earned him screenings at various international festivals, and won him a Special Achievement Award at the 2007 Singapore International Film Festival.

“White is done using stop motion under the mentorship of Eileen Reynolds, an American artist and a teacher at my school,” Wei Keong adds. “It brings across the message that while change is easy, changing back is harder. The short is currently touring some festivals, but you can take a look at an excerpt on my showreel.”

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THE ART

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For Lixian Lisa Teng, expression through Fashion Graphic Illustration is the most enjoyable process in the realm of creativity, mainly because it exposes the inspirational intent of the designer through familiar figures. The above illustration, was one of the nearly 1000 images that made it into Martin Dawber’s Big Book of Fashion Illustration, a bible for Fashion Illustrators and Graphic Designers.

“Originally, the illustration started off as an experiment for the figure I was working on. During the experiment, I started thinking of a relative of mine who is known to keep herself up with trends without affecting her dynamic personality. I’ve captured her persona through the energetic strokes of the figure and the contrast of the color tones. The color contrasts show that you don’t need vibrant colors to express how lively she is. The illustration also shows the style she would emerge in if she were to fully express her personality.”

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THE DESIGN

This original seating design is a project by 23-year old Yan Ling Tan. The design seamlessly integrates into its environs, sitting in the park like a friendly tree branch, softly forcing people to sit down and chat, even if they had not planned to.

Yan Ling about her design: “Form and function go hand-in-hand in the design of ‘Our Branch’. The piece of furniture is designed to improve interaction and the overall experience of group users at the park. It allows everyone who is seated to be approached easily and opens up space for gesturing and visual contact among the users. Group users tend to split into sub-groups. With the branches, the furniture also helps to maintain a sense of cohesiveness in the group.”

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Lilia Yip recently received her MA in Fashion Womenswear from the Royal College of Art, and is currently based in London. She hopes to carry out a sustainable fashion practice that will balance aesthetics and ethics. “I am always interested in people- their faces, their feelings and stories. How can I understand them better and tell my own story in the process?”

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Joeel Lee has been a full-time illustrator since 2000, but prefers to stay low profile. Staying focused and fearless is his motto.

“I love drawing and storytelling and there is always a short story behind my artwork, mostly stories about life.” Joeel says. “I am not afraid of making mistakes, and I am constantly looking for new ways to present my work, which has helped me to become the versatile artist which I am today. My clients range from advertising to digital media companies.”

The featured painting was part of the recent Mood Swings exhibition at the Arts House, showcasing a series of mixed medium artworks of different human expressions.

“I spotted this teenage boy who was feeling lonely and dejected by the people on the street.” Joeel explains. “He shouted and screamed for attention, but not even his loved ones cared about him. To them he is ugly and useless … where on earth does this kid belong … nobody cares. One day he finds a toy gun on the floor and he happily waves it around. A police car drives by and thinks the kid is carrying a real gun, so they fire at him. The boy was lying on the ground motionless, at which point people started to take notice of him.”

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Industrial Designer Sky has earned various degrees related to her design practice while studying at Nanyang Polytechnic and Curtin University of Technology Australia.

“I have been working as a product designer, doing work for Hewlett-Packard HP, Osim, to name a few. Presently I am in Creative Technology. I am inspired by the work of Marc Newson, Naoto Fukasawa, Sam Hecht and Ora Ito. I love how things can be made complex but look very simple, or in other words, ’simplexity.’”

For her 2007 degree project, Sky designed a coffee table inspired by the Clark Quay Umbrella Shelter Architecture. “I simplified the design by using geometric shapes of just circles, which created the look of my coffee table,” Sky explains. “You can place your coffee cup on the small circles and magazines or books can be dumped on one of the bigger circles.”

THE DESIGN

Credits: KimberlynQ (Designer and Styling), David Lee (Photographer), Celine Tan (Art Direction and Styling), Taiki Ogawa and Etsuyo Nishida (Hair), Jenny Combs and Cat (Makeup), Lizzie (Model).

Kimberlyn Quek is an all-in-one fashion designer, trained in sketching, design, pattern-making, cutting, and sewing. In March 2005, she was awarded the First Prize (Pattern Cutter Category) at the TCT Teenage Cancer Trust (UK) Charity Fashion Show, while reading her course at the London College of Fashion.

“We were asked to incorporate the TCT logo (3 little men hand in hand) in our design. My idea was to deconstruct and reconstruct.” Kim explains. “The process of making this design, speaks about what the teenage cancer patients are going through. The fabric is a wool blend knit. First, I created the silhouette of the graphic irregularly by sandwiching the fabric with quilt. After that, I trimmed along the stitch lines for every single piece and hand stitched them together, one by one, to form a kimono gusset cropped jacket.”

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Kitty Cho recently graduated with a degree in Industrial Design from of the National University of Singapore. Design to Kitty is a tool to help improve the lives of others. “I also enjoy creating beautiful forms,” she adds. “The experience of creating something based on a feeling within myself, and the knowledge that a part of me exists in the product, is fascinating. I am really thankful that I am able to do that.”

Kitty’s motivation for her BOO design (above) was to bridge the gap between the traditional, outdated bamboo crafts and the contemporary designs which lack the quality of bamboo. Kitty explains, “Bamboo has a deep meaning in traditional Chinese culture; the roots of the plant denote resoluteness, the tall straight stems represent honorability, its hollow interior modesty and its clean and spartan exterior exemplifies chastity. Contemporary versions of bamboo products however, lose this richness of the material.”

The result is a contemporary lounge chair that captures the beauty and essence of bamboo, or in Kitty’s words “The design has a craft quality without being a craft product. “The bamboo pieces are tall and tower over the person,” she explains. “As someone rests on the bamboo, it moves and clatters, mimicking the effect of being in a bamboo grove. By resting on the backing, you can experience the material’s unique combination of flexibility and rigidity. Through the use of a material application, the need for complex mechanisms used to make a flexible backrest can be eliminated. To give a light and free feeling to the bamboo, the base of the chair is reduced to a fluid sheet of material, so as not to weigh the bamboo down.”

In case you still haven’t read our ‘about’ section, I like T-shirts. 24-year old graphic designer, Budi Satria Kwan, provides people like me, with a nice line up of some sharp and aesthetically deft designs. He just came out with a powerful new print entitled Perversion of Paranoid Populace, which looks nothing short of rad.

“I like putting out T-shirt designs,” Budi beams. “I have a set of buttons in front of me which I push repeatedly to create drawings. Books help too, but mostly it is about the buttons. The PPP design (above) is inspired by a blog I read earlier, written by a woman who lives in the USA. She made a point about how much privacy is left after satellite imaging programs like google streetviews enable people from around the world to watch every single thing which is happening on the face of the earth. In a way it is cool, but on the other hand, we all have a defined line where we prefer things to be undisclosed.”

Take a look at more solid designs on Budi’s site.

Opening on 11 September, The Days from director Boi Kwong is based on a true story and tells the tale of Singapore’s young street gangs between 1989 and 1990.

The trailers and tie-in promos for the movie come packed with frenetic creativity, kicking off with an online release of a series of one-of-a-kind comic stories by local illustrators Josef Lee, Fleecircus, Sam Lay and Kenfoo.

Read on as we chat with Randy Ang -one of the producers- about the combination of film, illustration and music, and what it takes to make it all come together. Ernest Chua, Guitarist and Vocalist of Blackforest, talks about working on the soundtrack. And to give you some insight into the process of developing motion graphics for a movie, we also speak to Motion Graphics Director and Designer, Josef Lee, who tells us how he approached the project.

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Low Lin Kiat turns 26 this year and is a fresh-off graduate from NUS with a degree in Industrial design. “I am trying my hands on different design disciplines,” he says, “from making figurines, to sculpting fiberglass furniture, to mural paintings. I am currently tackling design challenges of a different kind, working in the RND department for Shimano, a bicycle components maker.”

Come Fly With Me (above) is Low’s successful interpretation of the 2006 Furniture Design competition theme, FLY. “I wanted to create something I could relax in,” Low explains, “with a lot of cushions, for one person or more, something that was great to look at, and fun to sit in. At the same time I wanted to to create a freedom of form not often seen in furniture archtypes. And it worked well. That was for me the best part. Having made a prototype that was genuinely fun and welcomed by a wide age group and … well … even by other species.”

Make sure to check out Low’s other designs in his Coroflot portfolio.

Affectionately known by his friends as HAO, Soh Jun Hao likes to dabble with drawings and illustrations and fuse them into contemporary art. HAO’s alter ego in the graphic universe is a metamorphic creature, in search of discovering and creating a dialogue with his audience.

PHILOSOPHY

I am a self-proclaimed geek.
I try to induce humor and laughter.
I like to keep things simple, clean and neat.
I like to sleep but unfortunately that is not a privilege I have.
I am always in the process of discovering and creating a dialogue with my audience.
I gain inspiration from everyday people and life, and today’s urban culture influences most of my artwork.

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