The Designer’s Love Letter
I had such a good laugh over this so I decided to share it on my blog (after editing alil) – Thanks Chris !
Before you came,
my life was as boring as the white Locked BackGround layer,
but now that I have known you,
you have added.. many Layers to my life..
Filters to allow me to see aspects of myself that I have never seen before..
You, have Masked away my flaws, marqueed away my bad habits,
I will head to the Photoshop, to print out as many happy memories as possible..You Illustrate my life with colour,
I have been Live-Traced by your fingertips.
Vectored into completionYour body, has more sexy curves than a Sans-serif Font.
I will make a font for you, and together we will attempt every letter.
We can call it the FONTASUTRA..You are my Lorem Ipsum, the one to fill the empty spaces with words when I have none to use..
I will make our HOME(page), an epitome of perfection,
no leaky sink pipes,
no broken links!
and a comfort to navigate around, even in the dark..
We can Flash each other in this personal space,
where it can be either a fast or slow interactive process,
with your choice of streaming music in the home!You are my Dreamweaver, even though you still give me the occasional nightmare.
Our home and email inbox will be Comletely Safe and Secure(CSS) from from thieves, burglars, spammers, hackers, nigerian money scammer and the like.
My Personal Hygiene Practices(PHP) means I will shave, never have bad breath or body odur..
and my knowledge of HTML(How To Make Love) will be a cup never filled,
and no table will be spared..(dining room table, kitchen table, living room coffee table..)You are my (adobe)Bridge that calms my entire extended family(Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, rebel RAWs and Deviant Jpegs)
My diamond ring to you, will only be of the Final Cut (Pro)..
My wedding vows will be lovingly Copywrited..
Our wedding Soundtrack, will not feature anything from Garageband, only Protools and Soundtrack Pro
You are my MacbookPro, we will spend many late nights, either doing absolutely nothing or creating something beautiful and useful.
I will touch you more than I touch my iPhone..
Even when we grow old and senile,
I will make endless podcasts to myself beforehand, so that I wont forget you..
because then this Really Senile Seniorcitizen(RSS) fears nothing, except the loss of happy memories with you,
and his xbox360..My life, My love indesign for you..
What’s Your City Of Dreams ?
Thanks to Amelia from Waggener Edstrom for the invite, I was at the spanking new mall Ion Orchard on Friday night for HP’s City of Dreams Blogger event. This is part of HP Digital Festival by the way, happening all the way till 13th August at Ion Orchard Basement 4 !
HP has always been part of my “design life” in a way since most of my internship work was for HP various projects, so it’s no surprise that HP is heavily involved with the arts and design. I’m quite happy that HP is taking the lead to produce work stations that are specially designed for designers/artists. Sure, Apple may still be more commonly found as the love of all design addicts but it is still easier to switch from softwares to softwares on a PC and once in awhile, you meet clients who do not know how to deal with MAC formats (which honestly, I don’t find it a problem till I met some people who really just don’t get it.)
Anyways, the event was pretty fun ! We sat through the prize presentation for the winning digital arts & animations from ‘HP Lightropolis’ competition. Then we were caught by surprise when we were divided into groups for a small design challenge ! (Thank God that my “artistically inclined” boyfriend isn’t on the same team..HAHA!) I have to comment on the HP workstations, perhaps it was because there were no other running applications, but the computers were really fast – even when we opened like 30+ vector graphics all at one go. I’d probably get the “blue screen of death” if I tried to do that at home ! Winning the challenge with our random-chunk-everything-together-and-change-color-”masterpiece” was a bonus for me and the 2 girls on my team that night ! (Though I wish it was a netbook or the workstation that I carried home instead, teehee!) Oh, we got to take pictures with Ben 10 too ! I’m sad that I didn’t manage to find out whether it was a guy behind the female character’s costume !
At the end of the day, I think it was not about winning the challenge or the workstations but how companies are taking a lead in encouraging the Arts scene in Singapore. I really appreciate how some organizations are putting in the effort and not just looking at making profits because one thing for sure, consumers are smarter than before. It’s not just about the price but how a brand leaves an impact on them or the society as a whole. At least for me, that’s the case. So 2 thumbs up for the HP people and of course thank you to the organizers+team behind this event ! (Just that I’d prefer to have less surprises or guess-what-will-be-coming-up-next in the future..haha!)
And what’s my city of dreams ? It’s white because it’s blank ! =P
note: can’t seem to get the pictures up from my cam..will try again tomorrow!
A Vision and Play Phantasy : Verner Panton
I was invited to view the Verner Panton exhibition at National Museum last Saturday, with a group of design enthusiasts. Despite being a museum junkie, the only museum tour I’ve gone on was in France (mainly because of how huge the Louvre is and how direction-blind I can be, I’ll probably take ages to find my way out.) I was rather skeptical about the tour itself since National Museum isn’t exactly “big” and how interesting can a curator’s tour be ? Oh boy, I was so wrong !
The group of 20 followed our curator (I’m sorry, didn’t quite catch her name) into this large room of Danish delights, I certainly made it sounds like some delicious snacks but no, welcome to a world full of color and futuristic style of 60s designs ! Verner Panton is known for his experimental designs and his wild usage of color that creates a 3D space/form. His designs encourage interaction between the user and the object, for example his “Phantasy Landscape” consists of various geometric shapes and textures. (You can even enter the area, hopefully you don’t have stinky feet because you gotta remove your shoes! *plastic feet wraps are provided*)
Phantasy Landscape
Even though I have taken alot of pictures, I shall not spoil the exhibition for those who wants to visit (you really should!). I thought the exhibition was well executed in the sense that the display was attractive and you feel almost like you’re in an IKEA showroom or Verner Panton’s villa itself. One thing that caught my attention was the interactive elements, such as the kiosks available at almost every other corner. 
It was a great way to engage the crowd instead of getting them to read the usual boring descriptions you can find on the wall (of course you can still find those on the wall). In fact, there are many workshops and additional programmes that comes with the exhibition. For example, on the 27th June, Jonas Ericsson of STYLE:NORDIC will be conducting this workshop called “Keeping it Real: The Art of Collecting Furniture”.
My personal favourite would be the “Flying Chair” as you can see in the picture. 
Verner Panton’s ideas are definitely beyond words (at his time,that is) and few designers can really capture the diversity of designs and contribute significantly to the history itself. I think this exhibition is indeed inspiring and a really fun experience for me. Although I have to say that I wish there’s a chance to really “feel” and touch the chairs, that’s probably gonna cost more than $6 admission fee ! HAHA (there’s discounts for NSF/Students/Senior Citizens/Family !)
Oh, one thing that really caught our eyes was this “how to undress in front of your husband” with the Panton Chair. (Raging Hormones? HAHA) It is a pictorial step-by-step how to guide…be sure not to miss it ! =)
Venue: |
Exhibition Gallery 2, National Museum of Singapore |
Date: |
FRI 15 MAY 2009 – SUN 12 JUL 2009 10:00am – 6:00pm |
Bravo,Christian Lacroix the Costumier !
Ping, the boyfriend and I headed over to the National Museum of Singapore to check out the Christian Lacroix the Costumier exhibition. The museum was rather empty, probably due to the H1N1 outbreak or the fact that the museum closes at 6pm. We got our complimentary tickets at around 5.30pm (on the dot for last entry) and we had the whole exhibition hall to ourselves ! 
I was really looking forward to immerse myself in this whole charming French fashion history – the amazing costumes and sketches by the genius designer Christian Lacroix (which the boyfriend laughed and called me a “Fake French” because I have no idea how to pronounce his last name properly. haha) The exhibition was alot smaller than I imagined it would be but the decor sets the mood and I have to admit (randomly) that I really liked the chairs in that display hall. I wish I have one of those at home ! If I’m not wrong, the museum decorated the display to look as though you’re in a theatre blackbox with the red lighting and moving mannequins.
Design wise, you will definitely be impressed by the details and depth of his work. His sketches were stunning to begin with and I love his dramatic use of color and fabric. In case you have no idea, he first began with ready-to-wear designs to the displays you see in National Museum which are his works for operas, theatre and dance. For example, you will probably know “Carmen” and Shakespeare’s “Othello”. I think it is quite a rare opportunity for Singaporeans to be in touch with this aspect of the Arts since Opera is not a very “hip” thing in town.
It was quite spectacular if you enjoy fashion or you’re someone like me, who thinks “anything French is awesome” (HAHA). I had fun at the hands-on area where the museum provided paper (of really good quality, to my surprise) for sketches and paper dolls for dress-up games. There are 4 wooden dolls for you to place fabric over and create your own masterpieces as well ! The boyfriend and I had a go at it and there’s a reason why we’re both from a management university ! (hur)
So what do you think ? Who do you think have a better sense of fashion (HAHA) ! If you think you can do a better job, go down to the gallery and snap a picture of your magnificent costume for me to see ! 
This gotta be one of the biggest fashion event of the year, so don’t miss it ! The ticket is priced at $8 but you get to enter FREE if you’re wearing RED from 9-10th May ! 
Design Ignites Change : Greater Than 60
Worldstudio launched a new project “Design Ignites Change” which is a self-guided mentoring programme for high school/college students to produce creative works that address to the theme of fostering positive social change. (Click on the screencap to find them on Facebook)
Since they are teaming up with Adobe Youth Voices, I think it will be a really good breakthrough learning experience for the students using interactive media tools. 1) It allows students to showcase their talent on a open platform. 2) The projects are meaningful and more visible and beneficial. 3) There are more public/professional’s input. 4) The works are recognized based on the designer’s ideas and not client’s. 5) Potential job opportunities open up for these students.
Although “Design Ignites Change” is not a local project, we do have something similar here in Singapore. >60 Design Centre (read as Greater Than 60) is probably the first local design project that promotes positive social change. It targets the ageing population here in Singapore and encourages young designers (mainly those who are pursuing their diplomas in Temasek Design School,TDS) to provide design ideas and solutions to meet the needs. It is also the Singapore’s National Design Centre for Ageing. (click here to view facebook group – When Silver Turns to Gold)
I participated in one of the project ” A Generation of Ideas” while I was still in TDS, we submitted 3 design proposals each which address the needs of the elderly and we students generated 824 designs altogether. Of course, only 101 ideas were featured in the book (sadly not mine,haha) . Let me know if any of you are interested to take a look ! 
Being a TDS graduate and current Social Sciences student, I think such projects should gain more publicity and support from the public. Afterall, these projects are beneficial to the society and most of them are non-profit making. It is not easy to make a living in the creative industry, not to mention in Singapore. But I feel that to be a good designer, it doesn’t require alot of award-winning ideas but sometimes all it takes to make a difference, is to value-add your designs and contribute back to the society. It applies to everyone – money and value, which would you choose ?
