Guerilla Mission on Nov 25, Wednesday
After 4PM/ ION Orchard
Uniqlo
MUJI
Coffee Bean
Basement Foodcourt
Basement Supermarket
After 5PM/ ISETAN Scotts
Basement Supermarket
After 5PM/ WHEELOCK PLACE
Borders
Starbucks
After 6PM/ TAKASHIMAYA
Kinokuniya
Basement Supermarket
We will be doing LIVE tweets and Facebook updates. Follow us on twitter or facebook or simply just follow us, physically and find the interventions. Feel free to tweet, facebook, flickr or even leave a comment here about the items you found. If you are tweeting, please tag #SDF09DD; if you are Flickring, please tag SDF2009DesignDefined.
Sign up on our FaceBook Events Page.
Good Luck!
“One-size-does-not-fit-all” T-shirt Printing
Finally, the day is here! Design Defined goes live…..
November 20th marks the start of the Singapore Design Festival and the launch of Design Defined. For the next 10 days keep a look out for various design messages that will be popping up around town. For our first installation, the DD team will be stocking the shelves in the National Library Building, Central Lending Library.
You have been watching the books being created, now you can have one. If you can find them!
Come down today, take a book and spread the word. There is a limited number so make sure not to wait…
HINT: Not ALL the books will be at the library. Don’t be surprised to see them in other book places, because design is everywhere…
DESIGN 101
Join us this Saturday, November 7, for a discussion about the fundamentals of a design process and how they are being fostered in Singapore today. As part of the National Library’s SG 101 series, one of our DD team members, Lawrence Abrahamson, will be giving his observations at the National Library Building, level 16, starting at 2pm. After his presentation, design professionals from the Singapore community will be joining in for a forum discussion.
Registration is required, please see here for more information. Add to the conversation. Spread the WORD.
We’re official!
Anyone perusing the SDF2009 event site will now come across the Define Design entry…
Note the tag info to include for any of your flickr photos (SDF2009DesignDefined) or tweets (#SDF09DD). Gotta spread the WORD….
Keep an eye out for this novel idea…
The define design team has started working on the materials for their first installation:
Make sure to visit the Central Lending Library at the National Library Building between November 20th – 24th if you want to know how the story ends.
Define Design | Design Defined
In March 2009, the Define Design website was launched to collect definitions of design from around the world. Visit www.definedesign.sg to add your own definition.
These definitions have formed the impetus for the second phase of this project, Design Defined, a series of guerilla interventions that will be popping up around town throughout the Singapore Design Festival, 20-30 November 2009. So, keep your eyes open and let us know what you see!
The first will take place at the Central Public Library in the National Library building. For hints on where to find other Design Defined interventions, visit us here as the Festival unfolds, follow us on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.
GoLibrary Singapore Design 101
For the National Library Board GoLibrary August Edition, Lawrence Abrahamson contributed his thoughts on the basics of design:
For the Singapore Design 101 program, I thought it would be good to roll back the curtain on the method of design itself and return to the basics, return to two essential lessons I have learned over the course of my experiences.
That first lesson is short, “Design is a process not a product.” Looking through the lens of the library, design is like a novel, a good story that develops over time, a journey that builds until the end. Just as we would never open to the last page of a long book expecting to be moved or to understand the final climax, design requires a complete process to make it successful and to achieve the intended impact of a great tale.
The second lesson builds on the first, and breaks the practice down into three parts: Process, Funding and Product, which deal directly with the basics elements of Time, Money and Quality. Similar to the way the five elements or phases are linked together in an interconnected endless cycle, one affecting the other, the design process contains this relationship as well. When beginning any project you have to choose two out of the three elements or attributes that you want to have in the end. The hard lesson to learn is one can’t have all three. Picking two elements means the third one will suffer. You can have something fast and cheap, but the quality will suffer. You can have a high level of quality fast but it will cost you. Or you can have high quality with a low cost but it will take a long time to create. This scenario reveals a simple equation, the science behind the design method where it is easy to see the fundamental rules and properties that are beyond our control.
If I proposed we take all the novels in the library and chop off the first ¾ of the chapters and return them to the shelves you would say I was crazy! Yet just as scandalous is a design method that tries to shortcut the process, or tries to achieve all three elements at the same level. The journey of a project is just as arduous as a great read, filled with twists and turns, packed with drama and suspense that ultimately all contribute to the end result. While shortcuts do exist, abridged versions and CliffsNotes readily available, something is always lost and left out of the picture.
Design is a great novel in the making. It is an intensive process that when done correctly can develop a fantastic story and change the way we perceive the everyday world. The next time you encounter a building, a product, magazine or show that does that to you, ask yourself what sort of journey took you there, what lead you to the moment of aha! Then ask yourself if that experience could have been cut or shortened.
A skilled comedian doesn’t just give his punch lines away. He leads you to the right moment and the best emotional state to make those last few words mean so much more. A good joke requires a set-up followed by the perfect punch line just as design needs a rigorous process to culminate in a strong project.
These lessons are my take on design. What is yours? As Singapore steps out onto the world design stage we are in the midst of creating a dialogue of what design is and what it can be. Join in that conversation and share with us your definition of design. You don’t have to be in the design profession as everyone interfaces with design everyday. A good story contains many characters; it is not full of only authors! Submit your definition and be part of an exhibition to be held at the National Library Building in November during the Singapore Design Festival. How would you define design? www.definedesign.sg
Submitted Definitions 51-60
51_Solving a problem with consideration to form, function, and the user (in regards to emotion, self expression, usability, etc…) (designer, USA)
52_An answer to a question (not always the right answer though…) (design research, USA)
53_Problem solving. (architect, USA)
54_An interpretation of what it means for something to be aesthetically beautiful and harmonious to the eye. (student, SINGAPORE)
55_Bringing to form, an idea through a series of aesthetic, functional and political compromises. (civil engineer, SINGAPORE)
56_Connecting to heart and mind. (corporate communications manager, SINGAPORE)
57_A way how human transform space into art. (landscape architect, SINGAPORE)
58_The moment before creation. (environmental designer, SINGAPORE)
59_About everything as we are designing for people. (environmental designer, SINGAPORE)
60_Creative is design. Design is creative. (environmental designer, SINGAPORE)
Submitted Definitions 41-50
41_A purposeful creation. It might be easily understood or completely incomprehensible with its intent revealed only after careful thought. (culinary artist, SINGAPORE)
42_About being. (designer + margaritas, SINGAPORE)
43_Communicating with surprise and delight. (designer, SINGAPORE)
44_The panorama of our creative variations that defines each man’s Van Gogh.(writer + doorman, USA)
45_The fusion of the mind with the complexity of one’s natural choices.(designer, USA)
46_The prism of distinctions forged in the vision of our reflections. (designer, USA)
47_Intentional arrangement of a process to acheive enhanced results. (cpa, USA)
48_The result of intention. (architect, USA)
49_What happens after something blocks your forward motion. (training & communications specialist, USA)
50_Something that is elegant yet practical. (librarian, USA)
