This month’s Singapore Design Festival is a must for design aficionados looking to check out the latest and brightest talent emerging from local and international creative realms. Two years old this autumn, the biennial offers a wide array of shows and public-exchange forums appealing to professionals and lay-people alike. The festival covers disciplines such as fashion, furniture, architecture, urban planning, graphics and computer design. First launched in 2005 by the DesignSingapore Council under the tutelage of the Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts (MICA), this year’s manifestation is bigger and more inclusive than its maiden incarnation. 

‘Good design is not about brands, exclusiveness or expensive products. Far from a luxury, good design is democratic and needs to grow organically to be understood and therefore [be] effective. By tailoring the festival to the wider public as well as specialists, organisers hope to involve many,’ says Jackson Tan, curator of one of the festival’s key exhibitions, ‘Utterubbish’. 

Singapore has come from nowhere to become a legitimate, leading design hub in a remarkably short time span. Very little raw material is indigenous to the island, so local designers’ creative energy comes from a combination of the city-state’s characteristic cultural hybridity, demand for design fuelled by affluent and well-travelled consumers, a slew of design students, and, of course, the most successful small-company culture in South-East Asia. ‘European creatives such as Ettore Sottsass, Philippe Starck or Norman Foster have grown up surrounded by iconic and historic architecture and art,’ Tan says. ‘Just think of the number of museums and monuments in Paris or London – we in Singapore must use other sources for inspiration. The unique cultural mix of the region is one, as is a growing confi dence to go out into the world, connect with global design concepts and return with our own ideas that fit our home context.’ 

Though not particularly sexy, this year’s theme (‘Always a better way’) encapsulates the essence of good design – that is, measurable by its simplicity, ability to ensure a product’s enduring aesthetic appeal, usefulness and environmental friendliness. Major events within the festival will either showcase design or offer opportunities for information exchange and networking within the fi eld. Two conferences, ‘Utterubbish’ at City Hall and ‘iamacreativeperson.com’ at the Supreme Court, will be particularly informative. Though the latter may only interest professionals, the festival exhibitions include enough visual candy to keep even the most avid design junkie content. But a pitstop at the festival’s information booth at the City Hall Level 2 Foyer is recommended for those seeking out more information about the festival at large. 

The star of the bunch is no doubt ‘Utterubbish, a collection of useless ideas’, around which a conference, a couple of publications and other activities have been organised. Based on both objects and ideas, the exhibition’s main tenet is ‘less is more’, a universally accepted canon of good design. Speaking to the environmentally conscious and politicised (yes, Singapore boasts a few of these), as well as to those who recognise that espresso spouting from a sleek machine tastes better, the show takes place at City Hall and includes the concepts of some 30 leading international and local creators. The manifestation, appropriate for kids as well as adults, aims to demonstrate how design can tangibly contribute to improving lives and societies beyond the purely aesthetic, as well as advocate the role of design in a sustainable future. International designers in this show include Maison Martin Margiela (with a series of clothing made from recycled material), MIT’s Media Lab and Treasured Trash from Japan, whose members utilise found objects and other detritus to create new works, like chandeliers made from used plastic detergent bottles. Locals participating include Air Design Group, WOHA architects and Kinetic Design. 

Other visually oriented events include the ‘President’s Design Award Ceremony and Exhibition’ on show at the City Hall, which offers Singaporeconceived creations from the worlds of communication, fashion, interior design and landscape design. ‘20/20’, displayed at the National Library Board Plaza, is an ongoing multidisciplinary showcase of local designers based in Singapore and beyond. And finally, probably the most engaging manifestation, ‘10TOUCHPOINTS’ – also at the National Library Board Plaza – highlights eight everyday objects or sites redesigned to better suit their respective function and enhance their visual appeal. The show is the culmination of a selection process that involved the polling of 17,000 Singapore residents, who chose ten items in the public domain that could benefit from better design. Prototypes for new and improved bus stops, drains and canals, playgrounds, estate mailboxes, bicycle-dismounting systems and recycling bins made the finals, and are now on view to the public. 

The Singapore Design Festival aims to nurture design culture in the city-state and highlight good design’s positive impact on accessibility. The festival also underscores the long-term importance of design beyond its role as a fashion statement, and as a means to social action and empowerment in the realm of resources and environmental protection. Though still young, the festival is testament to our city’s growing dynamism and confi dence, as its homegrown designers project new ideas rather than import them. 

The Singapore Design Festival makes its mark from 28 Nov to 8 Dec. See here for more information.