Factory

🐲 Art Experience 🛝

FACTORY was commissioned by Singapore Management University to create FREE PLAY, a vibrant outdoor installation that celebrates the transformative power of play, as part of the SMU Arts Festival 2024. A nostalgic nod to a beloved Toa Payoh dragon playground, this installation invites everyone to rediscover the simple joys of playfulness and creativity in an interactive and collaborative space.

Participants are invited to interact with the dragon, greeted by a question: “What’s one way you unwind and play?” To answer, they select a colored acrylic piece that resonates with their PLAY persona. With their chosen piece, participants pen their response to the question and add it to a peg on the dragon’s body, contributing to an ever-evolving tapestry of playful expressions.

Accompanying this experience is a personality quiz that helps visitors discover their own PLAY persona:

1) Introspective and independent Swing Swing Serena
2) Sociable and fun CHirpy Charlie
3) Fitness-loving and ever moving Muscle Marley
4) Creative and hands-on Artsy Alex

Experience the PLAY persona quiz here:
https://artsfest.smu.edu.sg/freeplay/quiz/index.html

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🎨Exhibition Design 🎨

Colour is a powerful element that influences our perceptions and emotions. For artists with disabilities, exploring colour offers a deep, sensorial experience attuning us to the way in which they experience the world. This year, the ARTDIS Artist-In-Training programme has given emphasis to mastering colour theory—a challenging aspect of art that often remains underexplored curatorially due to its purportedly subjective nature. Titled Kaleidoscope, the artworks in this exhibition demonstrate a remarkable command of colour, reflecting extensive studies and thoughtful planning.

When conceptualising for it, we took a particular interest in emphasising vibrant colours that mirror the lively personalities of the featured artists. Utilising colourful ‘levelling up’ blocks placed as a main motif, we demonstrate the artists’ growth and transformation through this programme.

Stand-alone walls with coloured edges breaks the monotony of the space and creates a super-graphical coloured rhythm that stretches across the exhibition. A highlight wall of fame autographed by the artists is also featured prominently at the entrance to the exhibition, a source of pride for these young talents.

Curated by .fromthewoods

✏️ Winning 🖋️

Fresh wins in the DNA Paris Design Awards 2024 in the Graphic Design category!

1) ADM Undergraduate Prospectus 23/24 for NTU School of Art, Design and Media (ADM)

2) Esplanade Annual Report 2022/2023 for Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay

Thank you to our clients and partners for the opportunity to work on these!

📸: The Gentle Studio

More shots from our design and fit-out collaboration with .dis.singapore & .dis.studio for their pop-up store at !

The design concept we adopted centers around creating an inclusive, vibrant, and inviting space. The use of pop and fresh colours, combined with an open concept and breezy flow shapes an energetic environment and highlights the creativity of the artists.

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🌳 Exhibition Design 🧠

Yeo Boon Khim Mind Science Centre (YBK MSC) is a research centre of National University of Singapore (NUS) and National University Health Systems (NUHS). , the gallery arm of the centre is an innovative space that showcases seasonal curations of mental health themes. Visitors will be in for a visual and cognitive discovery of how art, mindfulness and various transdisciplinary research areas can give rise to creative and integrative interventions for the community.

Maelab’s third curation, titled Nature’s Embrace seeks to offer an immersive exploration of the profound connection between nature and mental well-being. Curated by MAELab with support from National Parks Board (NParks), this exhibition blends creative exhibits with the healing elements of nature, exploring the transformative link between mindfulness and the mind-body-nature connection.

In the design of the exhibition, our goal was to transport visitors into a natural setting where they are encouraged to reflect upon their relationship with the environment and this serves as a catalyst towards embracing nature as a vital resource for mental wellness. The entrance makes use of hanging vines to create a serene arrival experience, akin to entering a forest pathway. Divided into thematic zones(A Stronger Mind, Mindfulness in Action and Restorative Zones), the exhibition itself is filled with abundant greenery that highlight different aspects of the nature-mental well-being connection. Sensory pathways are also created within the exhibition through calming forest scents amid the sight of towering trees and the sounds of gentle water flowing, to encourage mindful breathing and relaxation.

In collaboration with

🌳 Branding 🗺️

OH! Kampong Gelam: Palimpsest (2024) is a guided art walk by OH! Open House that explores how maps have constantly rewritten the story of Kampong Gelam, also known as Singapore’s Muslim Quarter. Prior to colonisation by the British in 1819, the area was home to the Malay aristocracy of Singapore. 12 site-specific art installations leads visitors to understand and unearth stories within this neighbourhood.

Lines and boundaries, scraped and scratched into the surface over and over, until they blend into a palimpsest of fickle lines and faithless memories. For each road drawn, each building gazetted, each heritage plaque erected, there is a missing story that speaks of fractured spaces and communities long gone. This neighbourhood still holds its scars, scrapes and scratches, its dreams and tragedies.

The visual identity we’ve designed for this art walk centres around the concept of ‘palimpsest’, defined as something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form. The ‘patchwork map’ visuals draws references from the historical context of this neighbourhood, how maps, plans and blueprints have remade this place again and again, in spite of, and against the lived experiences of the community.

Along the road of Sultan Gate sites the ruins of Pondok Jawa, a former lodging house for the Javanese in Kampong Gelam. That was also the previous site of the famous Banyan tree, a community landmark which has since fallen. We’ve incorporated the cross section of a tree as a platform for storytelling, personifying the unfolding of the hidden narratives of these contested spaces and displaced communities. The visual language is applied across all key channels such as the field-kit, digital communication materials and way-finding prints.

The art walk runs till 12 May. Book your tickets on Klook now!

https://www.klook.com/en-SG/activity/106788-oh-kampong-gelam-art-walk-in-singapore/

🗯️ Branding 💬

The inaugural IMPACT 2023 x Design Research Forum, held in conjunction with the Singapore Design Week 2023, explores the profound impact of design research and fostering meaningful connections between design researchers and industry professionals. It is Singapore’s first gathering of design researchers from 13 Singapore esteemed design institutions of Higher Learning, helping to define the role and potential of design research in Singapore and beyond.

As the creative partners of this forum, we created an identity that symbolises the transformative and ever-evolving impact of design research across diverse fields and industries. The brightly coloured look and feel evokes the visual world of design and the excitement of progress that research brings. The branding introduces a new modular word mark that is constantly evolving between the stages of rationality(square) and innovation(circle). The powerful key visual is crafted through this networks of squares and circles; animated diagrams morphed in as containers of information and also to create additional layer of depths. Beyond digital mediums, the adaptive nature of the key visual is further flexed across a hyper-interesting die-cut brochure that takes on a non-conformist form, where custom layouts help create pacing, space and narrative for the content.

Thank you Assoc Prof for inviting us to collaborate on this meaningful forum!

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🍚 Film poster 🥢

Introducing the secondary posters we crafted for the scripted series 《味盡缘》Hungry Souls, produced by CJ ENM HK & Zhao Wei films!

Thankful to have the chance to design the film’s identity, key visuals and posters!

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🍚 Film poster 🥢

So pleased that the scripted series 《味盡缘》Hungry Souls, produced by CJ ENM HK & Zhao Wei films is out!

Thankful to worked on designing the film’s identity, key visuals and posters!

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Our HUAT cards and Write a Christmas Card series made it to the papers!

Thanks to Lianhe Zaobao (Lianhe Zaobao 联合早报)for the feature on our 12 year long festive cards project, and to for the moving article on our studio’s story and design philosophy.

Not forgetting Asiya for the PR support on this!

Read article here: https://zb.sg/g/wNNV

📸: 林明顺

👩‍💻 Exhibition design 🧑‍💻

The VH AWARD is Asia’s leading award platform for emerging media artists. Initiated in 2016, the VH AWARD has supported artists who have engaged with the context of Asia and its future. The award stems from Hyundai Motor Group’s commitment to activating the intersections of art and technology through cross-cultural research and interdisciplinary artistic expressions.

The 5th VH AWARD Exhibition held at presents the works by Grand Prix recipient Subash Thebe Limbu (b. 1981, Dharan), as well as award finalists Zike He (b. 1990, Guiyang), Riar Rizaldi (b. 1990, Bandung), Su Hui-Yu (b. 1976, Taipei) and zzyw (founded in 2017, based in New York).

The works examine novel approaches to human’s interaction with technology, encompassing a wide range of topics such as social and environmental concerns, the emergence of artificial intelligence, and the formation of identities that transcend historical boundaries. The artists explore speculative prospects for contemplating time, humanity, and cross-cultural collaboration, alongside unique perspectives on the future and the intersection of art and technology.

We explored a novel approach to designing this exhibition identity, by extracting a single column of pixel from each digital piece to create expressive ‘digital patchworks’ which are applied across different digital applications, environmental graphics, social media posts and digital exhibition labels to unify the language celebrating the 5th edition of this award.

The outcome is a tactile celebration of colour and diversity which reflects on how the artworks blurs the boundaries through cross-cultural practices.

🎨 Exhibition design 🖌️

Turning Points chronicles the defining moments within the artistic practice of three artists with disabilities – Deaf photographer , mixed media artist with Down syndrome Fern Wong, and autistic artist Kenneth Lee. Organised by .dis.singapore and curated by .fromthewoods as part of 2024, the exhibition highlights a pivotal moment of change within their practices, marking the moment of critical development in their output. Beyond serving as a testimony to their commitment and adaptability in the face of personal and professional challenges, the artworks within the presentation convey a shared narrative of persistence, introspection, and growth.

FACTORY was engaged to design the exhibition and its marketing collaterals. Considering the narrative of the show, we designed a logo that symbolises metamorphosis through the motif of a rotating canvas. Paired with an elegant and accessible typographic system that prioritises readability, it conveys both the gravity of the moments showcased and the resilience of the artists.

A sophisticated and nuanced colour palette was also selected that reflects the themes of introspection, growth, transformation and the diversity of experiences and artistic practices within the exhibition.

🫦 Print design 🏛️

For the House; Against the House returned for the Singapore Art Week 2023 with two new motions up for debate. Through a unique debate format where art illustrates the arguments, OH! Open House worked with collectors to present selected works from their collections alongside new commissions from Singapore and international artists.

Set to _____ is Dead, the third iteration of the show presented a double bill explored the mortality of two cherished concepts The Museum is Dead and Desire is Dead conceptualised by Singaporean curators John Tung and Adele Tan respectively. Taking place within Tanglin Shopping Centre – a mall scheduled for enbloc – the exhibitions’ manifestation at the site went beyond their topics of inquiry, revealing the entanglements between Singapore’s ubiquitous shopping malls and our cultural identity.

We designed a bold neon-inspired brand identity system for the third iteration of this event to reflect the two curatorial experiences within the same show. Whilst dystopian, the system is actually highly palatable within the context of the soon-to-be torn down mall, legible amongst the corridors and transporting visitors back to a different time period.

Accompanying the exhibition is a catalogue we designed in hopes to create mindset shift from a print material existing simply being a passive catalogue, to an active capture of this inflection point in time. The cover design introduces the concept of dislocations, with the title balanced within a working LED panel in a careful composition against a powerful full black cover. The changing colour bars echo this transient narrative, putting the viewer on the outside looking through the curtains of time.

📸: Solomon Quek Jia Liang

Finally gotten down to document Factory’s branding work for SEA Focus 2024, our third year running as the official brand designers for this anchor event of the Singapore Art Week 2024.

S.E.A. Focus is a leading showcase and art market hub dedicated to Southeast Asian contemporary art. It aims to bring together a fine curation of established and emerging artistic talents to foster a deeper appreciation of contemporary art and artists in the region. Curated by John Tung, Serial and Massively Parallel presents a curated assembly of regional artworks, each offering profound insights into our intrinsic human identity in the midst of an impending technological confluence.

We are also pleased to have also helped the main sponsor Bank of Singapore, Asia's Global Private Bank to design a lounge for their guests to enjoy throughout the event.

Check out the full case study here: https://factory1611.com/projects/seafocus2024/

✨ Brand design ✨

S.E.A. Focus ( ) is a leading showcase and art market hub dedicated to Southeast Asian contemporary art. It aims to bring together a fine curation of established and emerging artistic talents to foster a deeper appreciation of contemporary art and artists in the region.

In the realm of information processing, the human brain stands unparalleled in its capacity for parallel multitasking, effortlessly synthesising colour, motion, and form. Conversely, computers, while exacting, operate in a methodical, stepwise manner. As automation continues its trajectory, the implications of Artificial Intelligence surpassing human cognition loom large. What implications arise in such a paradigm? And to what extent would this emergent technology embody our collective history and ethos?

Curated by .fromthewoods , Serial and Massively Parallel presents a curated assembly of regional artworks, each offering profound insights into our intrinsic human identity in the midst of an impending technological confluence.

We are proud to have been commissioned as the official brand designers for the third edition running, for this anchor event of the Singapore Art Week 2024.

To visually express the this year’s theme, we pulled motifs from the S.E.A. Focus’s existing logo mark to communicate the ideas of how rapid linear adaptations form networks and forge new multi-connections through the merging of systems. It is purposefully cinematic, meant to evoke the world of possibilities in art as a result of its co-existence with technology. For this edition, we also refreshed the vivid colour palette to reflect an expanding audience group with more youths being exposed to the world of Southeast Asian contemporary art. The brand identity is then further expanded to other expressive states across all print, digital, and environmental mediums.

We are pleased to have also helped the main sponsor to design a lounge for their guests to enjoy throughout the event.

🏠 Publication design 🌆

Shaping Singapore Through Urban Design

Urban design shapes Singapore’s urban fabric, developing distinctive and liveable areas–flat plots of land are developed into vibrant young towns, and mature estates are rejuvenated to add new vigour, industrial and innovation districts are reimagined with people-friendly accessible areas, while rivers are transformed from pollutive industrial areas into convivial live, work and play precincts.

As a contextual disciple, urban design evolves from and relies on close partnerships between the public, private and people sectors. Commissioned by the Centre for Liveable Cities Singapore, Shaping Singapore Through Urban Design highlights Singapore’s unique approach to urban design and its role in developing the cosmopolitan island nation that we see today through case studies on Bedok Town Centre, one-north and the Singapore River.

The publication’s design aims to provide readers with a compelling and keenly personal ‘Singaporean’ story through an informative experience that visually represents the dynamic transformation of urban spaces within the nation. This is reflected through the use of vibrant colours, dynamic layouts, and incorporating specific visual elements such as maps, photographs, or illustrations that highlight the key features of each case study.

Read e-publication here:https://www.clc.gov.sg/docs/default-source/books/shaping-singapore-through-urban-design.pdf

8 more days left to visit Factory's HUAT CARD exhibition at Main Street Commissary!

Thanks to adobo magazine and Marketingmagazine.Asia for the feature!!

1) https://www.adobomagazine.com/design/factory-showcases-11-years-of-the-art-of-handwritten-cards-in-huat-card-showcase-exhibition-in-singapore/

2) https://marketingmagazine.com.my/design-agency-factory-on-a-mission-to-revive-the-art-of-handwritten-cards/

Once again, shoutout to Asiya Bakht for the PR support!

Design agency, FACTORY, on a mission to revive the art of handwritten cards Design agency, FACTORY, on a mission to revive the art of handwritten cards

ʷᵒᵒ! Thank you adobo magazine for the feature!!

Our HUAT CARD Showcase runs till 29 Feb at Main Street Commissary !

11 years of handwritten cards by Factory – adobo Magazine In an attempt to bring more light into its mission of bringing back handwritten cards, FACTORY is showcasing every single card the agency has designed since 2013.

Thank you Campaign Brief Asia for the feature of our Festive cards project! Our HUAT CARD exhibition is now on at Main Street Commissary cafe at 81 Rowell Road till 29th Feb!

Design agency, FACTORY, on a mission to revive the art of handwritten cards
https://campaignbriefasia.com/2024/02/07/design-agency-factory-on-a-mission-to-revive-the-art-of-handwritten-cards/
In this age of digital communication, there is something beautiful about receiving a physical handwritten card. Roy Wang...

The most HUAT 🐲 钱龙驾到💰Money Dragon has Arrived 🐲 cards are now for sale! Gift it to your friends and family and HUAT this Chinese New Year!

1. Get it from our physical HUAT CARD exhibition at (81 Rowell Road)
2. Online purchase: https://www.etsy.com/sg-en/listing/1667900043/huat-card-chinese-new-year-2024
3. Email us at [email protected]
4. DM us!

❤️ Exhibition design ❤️

The Managed Heart: Art and Emotional Labour

Artworks are often analysed through the lenses of prevailing art historical or cultural discourses, mediums and techniques, and the themes and narratives they challenge or convey. Rarely do studies delve into the emotional labour invested by artists in their creations. In sociological circles, emotional labour has been described as the management of feelings and expressions to meet the emotional demands of a job. In the realm of artistic practice, creative emotional labour can refer to the hidden, internal and psychological efforts necessary to produce something new, or to navigate in a society that often prioritises the unspoken, sometimes at the cost of personal agency.

Emotional labour can also be viewed as a driving force in socially-engaged art, where artists use social relationships and structures as the focal point of their work.

Curated by Michelle Ho, the exhibition delves into the possibilities of viewing emotion as a creative force in art-making. By reevaluating how artworks can emerge from the intricate relationship between task and temperament, we may begin to see how emotion – muted, subtle or overt – can challenge preconceptions about artistic expression, identity, intimacy, as well as the profound impact of history.

The exhibition branding features a sensitive handwritten typography overlay that is juxtaposed with the bold formalist title, to visually represent the intricate interplay between the emotional and the structured aspects of artistic expression.

Exhibition runs from 16 Jan — 15 Mar 2024 at the ADM Gallery, 81 Nanyang Drive, NTU School of Art, Design and Media (ADM), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

📸: Solomon Quek Jia Liang

🐙 Exhibition design 🐙

Guided by and departing from the ideas of Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook and Mieke Bal, The Unfaithful Octopus, held at ADM gallery and curated by reckons with artmaking as a practice of thinking. How does art think about other art? And about narrative? And about time?

The artworks in this exhibition are like essays: playful and partial, intelligent and inquisitive, attentive as they make their experiments and attempts. These artists are (in Araya’s words) “occupied by the lengthy, persistent need to revisit stories that can’t easily be discarded.” Visitors are invited to take a seat, and to participate in the image-thinking endeavour.

The visual identity for the exhibition features a graphic representation of a literal unfaithful octopus with seven legs instead of the usual eight. The playful form serves as a container for information on artwork labels and various promotional collaterals. Expanding on that concept, the cover of the catalogue is uniquely designed using a die-cut shape resembling the octopus. The artist names are presented via blue-foil onto its twisting tentacles which intentionally obscure the catalogue title; representing the complex and tangled narratives explored by the artworks within the show.

Gallery Director:

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🐙 Print 🐙

Guided by and departing from the ideas of Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook and Mieke Bal, The Unfaithful Octopus, held at ADM gallery and curated by reckons with artmaking as a practice of thinking. How does art think about other art? And about narrative? And about time?

The artworks in this exhibition are like essays: playful and partial, intelligent and inquisitive, attentive as they make their experiments and attempts. These artists are (in Araya’s words) “occupied by the lengthy, persistent need to revisit stories that can’t easily be discarded.” Visitors are invited to take a seat, and to participate in the image-thinking endeavour.

The visual identity for the exhibition features a graphic representation of a literal unfaithful octopus with seven legs instead of the usual eight. The playful form serves as a container for information on artwork labels and various promotional collaterals. Expanding on that concept, the cover of the catalogue is uniquely designed using a die-cut shape resembling the octopus. The artist names are presented via blue-foil onto its twisting tentacles which intentionally obscure the catalogue title; representing the complex and tangled narratives explored by the artworks within the show.

Gallery Director:

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☁️ Print ☁️

The latest title in the Ng Teng Fong Roof Garden Commission book series from presents Indian artist Shilpa Gupta’s monumental inflatable sculpture, Untitled (2023). The sculpture depicts the dualities of our innermost struggles and the externalities around us. This book includes a curatorial essay that situates Gupta’s new work in relation to her art practice and other global sociopolitical forces as well as a full colour photo documentation of the sculpture against the backdrop of Singapore’s skyline. It also features a guest essay written by a well-known mental health professional who engages with the artist’s take on the human condition.

Accompanying the catalogue is a book titled Artivities: Exploring Inner & Outer Worlds through Art, filled with illustrated “artivity” sheets. These sheets, collaboratively developed by the artist and a therapist, assist both children and adults in navigating their emotions and responses towards conflict and other challenging issues.

We was commissioned to design this 2-part catalogue. A key identifying coral colour was chosen for this edition which lends a poignant, yet balanced contrast with the selected key image of the sculpture against the blue sky. As the bold rainbow foiled title flexes across the cover, it provokes thoughts and challenges readers on the topic presented. The modular layout carries across both parts of the catalogue, providing a strong but neutral framework, whilst the custom illustrations within the Activities book help create pacing, interest and engagement for the content.