About Michael Sullivan

NUS Musuem

About Michael Sullivan is a publication for the 60th anniversary lecture by T.K. Sabapathy on Michael Sullivan.Original lecture “About Michael Lecture, NUS Museum’s 60th Anniversary Lecture” delivered on 30th April 2015, University Cultural Centre, NUS Centre for the Arts. The modern typography reflects both the period and the museum’s development while the grain pattern across the book recalls the nature of the text as memory and recollection.

Project Information:

Year: 2016

Client: NUS Musuem

Filed Under:

Editorial Design / Typography / Uncategorized

Creative Team:

Editorial Design:
Melvin Tan
Kong Wen Da

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Singapore Art Book Fair 2019

Renée Ting

Singapore Art Book Fair (SGABF) is an independent annual multi-day festival specialising in contemporary art books & zines. Following the previous year’s successful strategy, this edition focused on providing a more content-centric, value-added experience for fairgoers. To facilitate a 6-month integrated campaign, a flexible and neutral identity system was set up to encompass a diverse range of marketing needs.

Project Information:

Project Title: Singapore Art Book Fair 2019

Year: 2019

Client: Renée Ting

Filed Under:

Posters / Print Design / Branding / Experience Design / Spatial Design / Editorial Design / Digital Media

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan

Design:
Ng Sheng Yong

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Stagecraft: Landscapes and Paradise

Ota Fine Arts

Stagecraft: Landscapes and Paradise is a solo exhibition featuring new work by Hilmi Johandi that expands his exploration on stagecraft — the technical aspect of theatrical production. The design approach also takes cues from elements of stagecraft.

Project Information:

Project Title: Stagecraft: Landscapes and Paradise

Year: 2019

Client: Ota Fine Arts

Filed Under:

Print Design / Editorial Design

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan

Design:
Charlie Allen

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Singapore Art Book Fair 2018

Renée Ting

Singapore Art Book Fair (SGABF) is an independent annual multi-day festival specialising in contemporary art books & zines. The 2018 edition of Singapore Art Book Fair saw the move to a fully independent operation for the first time. Currency was engaged from the outset in the ideation process, implementing a considered identity and strategic approach to achieving the project’s aims to recalibrate its focus and encouraging a growth and maturity in the audience’s cultural palette.

Project Information:

Project Title: Singapore Art Book Fair 2018

Year: 2018

Client: Renée Ting

Filed Under:

Posters / Print Design / Editorial Design / Branding / Experience Design / Spatial Design / Typography / Logomarks

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan

Design:
Charlie Allen
Ng Sheng Yong
Geraldine Peck
Damien Chong
Tan Zhuo Hui

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25 Years of Värde

Värde Partners

To commemorate its first 25 years, this book tells the story of the evolution from Värde’s beginning as a modest startup to what it is today. The book presents first as a story about investing and markets, but more significantly it is also a story of and about people. The approach balances financial infographics and graphs with stories and images of life at Värde, drawing readers into a rhythm that keeps them engaged throughout the book. The points arranged in a V shaped timeline against a deep blue cover take reference from constellations, chronicling significant events for the company over 25 years.

Project Information:

Project Title: 25 Years of Värde

Year: 2019

Client: Värde Partners

Filed Under:

Print Design / Editorial Design

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan

Design:
Charlie Allen
Ng Sheng Yong

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M1 Peer Pleasure Youth Theatre Festival 2019

ArtsWok Collaborative

M1 Peer Pleasure provided a platform for young people to develop and showcase original theatrical works to communicate their unique perspectives on 2019’s theme of poverty, culminating in creative and open exchanges through drama and dialogue. The festival required a strong identity system to be iterated across various formats while retaining cohesiveness and not be repetitive. Through substantial strategic analysis, the festival collaterals were steered to target the key audience, such as creating festival guides tuned for teachers and institutions, resulting in most programmes being sold out.

Project Information:

Project Title: M1 Peer Pleasure Youth Theatre Festival 2019

Year: 2018—2019

Client: ArtsWok Collaborative

Filed Under:

Print Design / Editorial Design / Art Direction / Spatial Design

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan

Design:
Charlie Allen
Ng Sheng Yong

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200: Points in Singapore’s Natural History

Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum

200: Points in Singapore’s Natural History is a book designed in conjunction with the launch of a new exhibition at Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum. As part of Singapore’s Bicentennial, the exhibition reflects upon 200 significant natural history events in the island’s past. Equipped with a navigational timeline on the spine, the thematically categorised book showcases a different year in every spread, each adopting a focal point with an array of specimens, ethnographic materials and illustrations to guide the readers through an expanded understanding of our own natural history and heritage.

Project Information:

Project Title: 200: Points in Singapore’s Natural History

Year: 2019

Client: Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum

Filed Under:

Print Design / Editorial Design

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan

Design:
Charlie Allen
Ng Sheng Yong
Lai Wei Min

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The Honest Guide to Seeing Art

National Gallery Singapore

The Honest Guide to Seeing Art is the first of The Honest Guide series, written by the regular person to help other regular people navigate the murky depths of art appreciation. This first book tackles common questions that may come to mind when one is confronted with art. Illustrations, step-by-step guidelines, examples of how to see an artwork and a glossary of common art terms help the reader more confidently approach even the most incomprehensible works on display.

Project Information:

Project Title: The Honest Guide to Seeing Art

Year: 2019

Client: National Gallery Singapore

Filed Under:

Print Design / Editorial Design

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan

Design:
Charlie Allen

Illustrations:
Anngee Neo

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Things I Bought, Things I Threw Away, Things I Ate, Things I Saw, Things I Made, and Other Things

Lai Yu Tong

Assembling a series of phone pictures taken over the course of a year, dilated across a volume yet compressed in size, Lai Yu Tong asks: in an age where the world’s images are available to us at the flick of a thumb, is it possible to decelerate the consumption of images? How can we be prompted to look at images that do not immediately gratify or satiate? Has the digital image become indistinguishable from information?

In conjunction with Browsing Copy, we worked with Yu Tong to create a volume of images that are arduous to engage with, specifically ones that are randomly tucked near the inner gutter of the book. This difficulty prompts the reader to decelerate the pace at which they flip the pages.

Project Information:

Project Title: Things I Bought, Things I Threw Away, Things I Ate, Things I Saw, Things I Made, and Other Things

Year: 2019

Client: Lai Yu Tong

Filed Under:

Print Design / Editorial Design

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan

Design:
Lai Wei Min

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Dreamseeds Arts Festival 2018

Club Rainbow (Singapore)

With the theme “Me, Myself & You”, the 2018 edition of Dreamseeds Arts Festival embraces the uniqueness of each individual while seeking to inspire hope. It takes the @club.rainbow beneficiaries on a journey of self-discovery where they delve deeper to discover what makes them human and in the process, learn to embrace their quirks through visual and performing arts workshops. While this theme emphasises the uniqueness of ‘self’, it also explores how aspects of identity or personality can be shared. By capturing the beneficiaries’ names through stylistically different typography and employing various colour blocking combinations, the design approach hopes to showcase their own quirks and dynamic personalities, representing each of them for who they are while reinforcing a sense of individuality and uniqueness.

Project Information:

Project Title: Dreamseeds Arts Festival 2018

Year: 2018

Client: Club Rainbow (Singapore)

Filed Under:

Print Design / Editorial Design / Art Direction / Branding / Posters / Spatial Design / Typography / Illustration / Packaging

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan

Design:
Tan Zhuo Hui
Phoebe Zoe Ho
Damien Chong
Charlie Allen
Ng Sheng Yong

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Singapore Writers Festival 2018: Literary Pioneer

Arts House Limited

Singapore Writers Festival 2018 celebrated Yeng Pway Ngon, one of Singapore’s most distinguished Chinese-language writers. The design direction accompanies the exhibition concept, to immerse the audience in the fictional terrains constructed by the author in his works, by creating spaces that invite them into a physical manifestation of four key themes. Sectioned by colours, each theme features a key environment and interactive elements, each recalling literary devices the author employs in his books, allowing for an immersive and intimate experience.

Project Information:

Project Title: Singapore Writers Festival 2018: Literary Pioneer

Year: 2018

Client: Arts House Limited

Filed Under:

Spatial Design / Exhibition Design / Print Design / Editorial Design / Art Direction

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan

Design:
Ng Sheng Yong
Lai Wei Min
Charlie Allen

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Buy SingLit: A City of Books

OH! Open House

A City of Books is an exhibition at Bras Basah Complex for Buy SingLit, an industry-led movement to celebrate stories from Singapore. The book accompanying it is a compendium of indexes that also pays homage to the building’s reputation as a city of books. Embedded within these lists are the stories of three bookshops in the Complex, and three artists’ encounters with them. Indexes of images map the experience of each artist in the different stores.

Project Information:

Project Title: Buy SingLit: A City of Books

Year: 2018

Client: OH! Open House

Filed Under:

Print Design / Editorial Design / Logomarks / Illustration / Product Design / Digital Media / Spatial Design

Creative Team:

Content & Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan

Design:
Charlie Allen
Zhiwei Koh

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SingaPlural 2018: A State in Play

PRODUCE & Singapore Furniture Industries Council

With the theme A State In Play, SingaPlural 2018 is a celebration of the indeterminacy of process and the stage of experimentation and work even before design sets in. The design direction draws inspiration from the process of prototyping and experimentation. Line elements feature across the festival identity’s as a connective and adaptable visual device that is presented in different configurations.

Project Information:

Project Title: SingaPlural 2018: A State in Play

Year: 2018

Client: PRODUCE & Singapore Furniture Industries Council

Filed Under:

Spatial Design / Logomarks / Branding / Uncategorized / Information Design / Print Design

Creative Team:

Design Direction:
Melvin Tan
Charlie Allen
Sant Ruengjaruwatana
Chantal Tan

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OH! Emerald Hill

OH! Open House

OH! Emerald Hill is the eighth edition of art walks organised and curated by OH! Open House. Participants discovered the story of Emerald Hill through secret tours, art, and performances in homes and private spaces. The creative identity which featured various stylised frames and dioramas took cues from the colonial history of Emerald Hill and its double-edged past as a former nutmeg plantation which held colonial aspirations of success and riches but ultimately ended in tragedy and failure.

Project Information:

Project Title: OH! Emerald Hill

Year: 2018

Client: OH! Open House

Filed Under:

Branding / Editorial Design / Logomarks / Illustration / Print Design / Art Direction / Uncategorized / Product Design / Information Design / Pattern Design / Posters / Spatial Design

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan

Project Management:
Samantha Yap

Design:
Geraldine Peck
Charlie Allen
Zhiwei Koh

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Dreamseeds Arts Festival 2017: Finding Futurenova

Club Rainbow (Singapore)

Dreamseeds Arts Fest celebrates the creative pursuits and explorations of Club Rainbow (Singapore)’s brightest beneficiaries. This year’s theme of “Finding Futurenova” explores the powers of imagination and follows a group of intrepid explorers as they embark on a space journey and eventually reach Futurenova, the planet of dreams. The design extends from the narrative of the four protagonists and the landscapes of their journey featuring prominently across the festival collaterals. Fluorescent colours and pixellation were also employed to project vibrant dreamscapes that are futuristic, imaginative and engaging. The rendering of the animated characters and an accompanying video game following the storyline were also designed for additional interactivity.

Project Information:

Project Title: Dreamseeds Arts Festival 2017: Finding Futurenova

Year: 2017

Client: Club Rainbow (Singapore)

Filed Under:

Editorial Design / Spatial Design / Logomarks / Art Direction / Branding / Print Design / Packaging / Illustration / Uncategorized / Information Design / Product Design

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan

Design:
Geraldine Peck
Hannah Teo

Animation & Game Design:
Darryl Lim

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opening day

Cheng Jia Yun & Selene Yap

opening day is a four-part series of artistic interventions housed in the common space on the top floor of Upper Serangoon Shopping Centre featuring the responses of artists Chua Chye Teck, Lai Yu Tong, Susie Wong and Sookoon Ang. Following the format of the project, various colored pages featuring images of the artworks can also be collected and inserted into the booklet with each new iteration of the project.

 

Project Information:

Project Title: opening day

Year: 2018

Client: Cheng Jia Yun & Selene Yap

Filed Under:

Editorial Design / Uncategorized / Print Design / Digital Media

Creative Team:

Design:
Melvin Tan
Charlie Allen

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The Oceanic

NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore

The Oceanic is an exhibition focusing on large-scale human interventions in oceanic ecospheres with contributions by 12 artists, filmmakers, composers, and researchers who engage with both the long cultural histories of Pacific Ocean archipelagos and their current conditions. In keeping with NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore’s various collaterals, the exhibition identity uses the Centre’s house fonts to maintain a consistent look.

Project Information:

Project Title: The Oceanic

Year: 2018

Client: NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore

Filed Under:

Spatial Design / Logomarks / Editorial Design / Uncategorized / Information Design / Posters / Print Design

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan

Design:
Kong Wen Da
Charlie Allen
Geraldine Peck

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Rediscovering Forgotten Thai Masters of Photography

NUS Museum

Rediscovering Forgotten Thai Masters of Photography is presented by the NUS Museum and gathers images taken in Thailand during the 1950s to 1970s by seven photographers Buddhadasa Bhiku, Liang Ewe, S.H. Lim, Saengjun Limlohakul, Pornsak Sakdaenprai, ’Rong Wong-Savun and M.L. Toy Xoomsai. 

Project Information:

Project Title: Rediscovering Forgotten Thai Masters of Photography

Year: 2018

Client: NUS Museum

Filed Under:

Print Design / Editorial Design / Uncategorized

Creative Team:

Design:
Charlie Allen
Melvin Tan

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Altars for Four Silly Planets

Marcus Yee

Altars for Four Silly Planets is an exhibition by Marcus Yee at soft/WALL/studs. Drawing on the sense of lost sentiment evoked in the title and in this exhibition’s use of various forms of discarded, donated and unwanted trash or rubbish, the identity for Altars plays on the estrangement of the familiar, featuring a contrasting color scheme that reverses the seeming innocence of the childhood icons in the exhibition title. The exhibition catalog features writings from Shawn Chua, Luca Lum, Samantha Yap and Johann Yamin.

Project Information:

Project Title: Altars for Four Silly Planets

Year: 2018

Client: Marcus Yee

Filed Under:

Logomarks / Digital Media / Print Design / Uncategorized / Typography / Editorial Design / Posters

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan

Design:
Charlie Allen

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Each Blade Of Grass, Each Shrub, Each Tree

The Substation

Each Blade of Grass, Each Shrub, Each Tree presented an exhibition and series of programming that considered representations of nature and Singapore’s landscape, in light of the MacRitchie Reservoir Cross Island Line discussions. Taking a cue from the programme’s ecological focus, we experimented with overprinting Each Blade’s collaterals on old printed material from past events that had been accumulated in excess but left unused.

Project Information:

Project Title: Each Blade Of Grass, Each Shrub, Each Tree

Year: 2016

Client: The Substation

Filed Under:

Branding / Posters / Print Design / Spatial Design

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan

Project Management:
Samantha Yap

Design:
Darius Ou

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Concerned Citizens Showcase

The Substation

The Concerned Citizens Showcase is the culmination of a mentorship programme for young creatives aged 18-30. Hosted at The Substation, the programme encouraged these participants to look into the ways that urban space is used and produced, as well as how inhabitants of the city can take initiative in conceptualising and/or effecting interventions in our city. Under the guidance of artist-mentor, Tan Guo-Liang, 12 participants undertook a six-month process of knowledge-building and research before proposing their own project in relation to issues pertaining to urban form and social life. The compact display font echoes the bold and exclamatory nature of a public service announcement that is associated as well with the sense of civic evoked by the title of “Concerned Citizens”. The idea of presenting the posters as separate pieces that are joint together at the title also echoes the collaborative nature of the event which hinges on various forms of exchanges.

Project Information:

Project Title: Concerned Citizens Showcase

Year: 2018

Client: The Substation

Filed Under:

Spatial Design / Branding / Print Design / Posters / Information Design / Uncategorized / Editorial Design

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan

Design:
Ng Sheng Yong

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Play Town: Discovering Our Heritage through Play

National Heritage Board

Home to the iconic dragon playground and the Games Village of the 1973 Southeast Asian Peninsular (SEAP) Games, Toa Payoh is where leisure, sports, and imagination resides. The Play Town: Discovering Our Heritage Through Play exhibition is a visual journey that brings alive the stories of the country’s oldest housing estate, offering a gateway into this heartland neighborhood that has shaped not just how Singaporeans’ live but have fun. The exhibition identity is articulated through playful recall of geometric shapes and colors inspired by the look of the 7th SEAP Games’ as well as the playgrounds made by Khor Ean Ghee. Hosted in a public atrium in Toa Payoh, the exhibition is also designed to stimulate and encourage visual interest and curiosity from passersby.

Project Information:

Project Title: Play Town: Discovering Our Heritage through Play

Year: 2018

Client: National Heritage Board

Filed Under:

Spatial Design / Uncategorized / Information Design / Print Design / Typography

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan

Copywriting & Content:
Justin Zhuang

Design:
Geraldine Peck

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State of Motion: Through Stranger Eyes

Asian Film Archive

Drawing from State of Motion’s thematic premise that zooms in on the perceptions of Singapore through cinema’s gaze, the design uses obscuration and light projections that cuts across the pavilion space and print collaterals that plays with the gesture of ‘looking’. The projection lines also intersect across some instances to form a visualisation of an eye. Echoing the exhibition pavilion by artist Randy Chan, the fencing was referenced to grid the deliverables.

Project Information:

Project Title: State of Motion: Through Stranger Eyes

Year: 2017

Client: Asian Film Archive

Filed Under:

Spatial Design / Branding / Logomarks / Packaging / Editorial Design / Information Design / Print Design / Posters / Product Design / Uncategorized / Website / Digital Media

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan
Dora Godfrey

Project Management & Copy-editing:
Samantha Yap

Design:
Ong Hanyu
Prakash Haridas

Web Development:
Faris Kassim

 

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East Side Open Studios

Peninsular

The accompanying visual for East Side Open Studios’ second edition. East Side Open Studios features various artist studios and project spaces in the East that opens their door to the public with special exhibitions, talks, and events for one afternoon.

Project Information:

Project Title: East Side Open Studios

Year: 2018

Client: Peninsular

Filed Under:

Posters / Uncategorized / Digital Media / Typography

Creative Team:

Design:
Melvin Tan

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ADM Show 2016

Nanyang Technological University, School of Art, Design and Media

The ADM Grad Show 2016 draws reference from the narrative of an interstellar voyage that was undertaken by the Voyager space probe when it was sent to explore the furthest reaches of our solar system. Recognising the affinities between this voyage and the journey of the graduating cohorts who will soon be forging their own paths outside of school, the branding and design application conveys a sense of travel into the unknown. It features various elements that hark back to the voyager’s narrative – with the key visual of the golden disc that takes after the Golden Voyager Record’s form, the secondary visuals of terrain rendering that allude to new landscapes and trajectories as well as the colour palette of gold/silver against the backdrop of black that is commonly associated with science-fiction and space operas. The ADM Grad Show encompassed of various facets such as a website and publication to feature the cohort’s portfolio and the event details, a virtual tour to document the exhibition long after its runtime, an interactive photo booth that captured real-time engagement and interaction, a publicity video, a photoshoot session of the graduating cohort as well as spatial and wayfinding elements.

Project Information:

Project Title: ADM Show 2016

Year: 2016

Client: Nanyang Technological University, School of Art, Design and Media

Filed Under:

Uncategorized / Logomarks / Packaging / Print Design / Branding / Posters / Product Design / Typography / Copywriting / Editorial Design / Art Direction / Information Design / Website / Digital Media / Spatial Design

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan
Darius Ou

Project Management:
Samantha Yap

Web Development:
Sim Boon Long

Design:
Jasmine Lee
Prakash Haridas

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Good OH! Holland Village

OH! Open House

The copy-driven approach of the design references that of travel tour agencies and plays on such catchy and trite brand of conviviality and hospitality. The zines relied on the typographic styles found on the 70s – 80s shop-signs in Lorong Mambong that have stood the test of time. The colours were picked from the changing coat of paint on the facade of Holland Road Shopping Centre through it’s different eras.

—Staff Pick, Fonts In Use Here

“Singapore studio Currency design one of the most stylish exhibition zines we’ve seen”
—Lucy Burton, It’s Nice That Read here

Project Information:

Project Title: Good OH! Holland Village

Year: 2017

Client: OH! Open House

Filed Under:

Branding / Packaging / Editorial Design / Logomarks / Posters / Illustration / Product Design / Uncategorized / Print Design / Information Design

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan

Copywriting & Curation:
Berny Tan

Design:
Ong Hanyu

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Left–Right

Geraldine Kang & Kenneth Tay

A book of writings and images by artists, curators and writers about lens-based images in Singapore. As an object, it takes after the form of a photo, with the size corresponding to the 4R photograph print size, and the front and back covers acting as spaces for photographs by Nguan. No text is discernable on the covers and instead the blurb and contributors list is runs across the spine and sides. Left–Right ends with a photo glossary, the result of running the book’s featured images into Google and Pinterest’s reverse image search and pooling together unexpected affinities based on the matches from algorithm detected similarities.

Project Information:

Project Title: Left–Right

Year: 2016

Client: Geraldine Kang & Kenneth Tay

Filed Under:

Editorial Design / Uncategorized

Creative Team:

Melvin Tan
Darius Ou
Nicole Tan

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Dreamseeds Arts Festival 2016

Club Rainbow (Singapore)

Dreamseeds Arts Fest is a celebration of the creative explorations undertaken by Club Rainbow Singapore’s beneficiaries. The inaugural edition of the festival uses the seedling as a symbol of empowerment and a mascot of growth. The design also allows an element of interaction with the beneficiaries, through the creation of abstract plant and cloud shapes that beneficiaries are encouraged to add their own touch to.

Project Information:

Project Title: Dreamseeds Arts Festival 2016

Year: 2016

Client: Club Rainbow (Singapore)

Filed Under:

Copywriting / Illustration / Print Design / Logomarks / Branding / Art Direction / Editorial Design / Digital Media / Product Design / Spatial Design

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan

Design:
Kong Wen Da

Social Media:
Rachel Chia

Project Management:
Samantha Yap

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Independent Market Packaging

Independent Market

An upcycling project in collaboration with Independent Market and various printers to produce different forms of retail packaging by reusing off-cuts and waste prints from printers.

Project Information:

Project Title: Independent Market Packaging

Year: 2016

Client: Independent Market

Filed Under:

Packaging / Pattern Design / Uncategorized

Creative Team:

Design direction:
Melvin Tan
Kong Wenda

Special thanks to KPP Packaging & First Printers

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ACCENT Musical Equipment

Accent Musical Equipment

An update and refresh of the identity for ACCENT that was founded in 1988 and has become a leading supplier of wind brand musical instruments and accessories in Singapore. The direction hopes to relay a sense of modernity and history given the store’s 30th year anniversary and its established reputation. The updated logo draws loose inspiration from the makeup of instruments that often feature its own unique system of interconnecting tubes.

Project Information:

Project Title: ACCENT Musical Equipment

Year: 2017

Client: Accent Musical Equipment

Filed Under:

Uncategorized / Logomarks / Branding / Print Design / Illustration / Packaging

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan

Design:
Geraldine Peck

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Motherhood

SPRMRKT

Motherhood is an on-going project by Patricia Lee and Quek Sue-Shan that gives a voice to the diverse yet shared experiences of motherhood. Envisioned as an on-going project, this first edition was inspired by fashion entrepreneur Nin Choong-Wilkins, former lawyer and competitive speed-skater Sui Chin Han-McKeand, veteran educator Carmee Lim and established artist Kumari Nahappan. The masthead uses a modern and robust serif title font that is not overtly feminine or embellished but maintains a strong and enduring presence.

Project Information:

Project Title: Motherhood

Year: 2018

Client: SPRMRKT

Filed Under:

Editorial Design / Uncategorized / Information Design

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan

Design:
Geraldine Peck

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State of Motion: Cathay Keris

Asian Film Archive

Like the event name, the identity for the inaugural edition of State of Motion is inspired by the moiré effect: a visual perception of motion that occurs when viewing a set of lines superimposed on another set of lines. This sense of movement also reflects the event’s (re)imagination of films and their locations through art while also capturing the condition of Singapore as one in constant motion.

Project Information:

Project Title: State of Motion: Cathay Keris

Year: 2016

Client: Asian Film Archive

Filed Under:

Branding / Print Design / Editorial Design / Logomarks / Spatial Design / Illustration / Information Design / Uncategorized / Product Design

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan
Darius Ou

Design:
Nicole Tan

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William Willetts and the Practice of Asian Art History

NUS Museum

As part of the NUS Museum Anniversary Lecture Series, Kwa Chong Guan will deliver a lecture on William Willetts, his contributions to scholarship, museum practice and the broader regard for cultures in Southeast Asia in Singapore, through which perspectives into the roles of the museum and the curator lodged within a university institution may be drawn, and prospected across periods and contexts. The design approach focuses on Willett’s influence and lasting legacy, suggested through the shadow behind Willett’s photograph.

Project Information:

Project Title: William Willetts and the Practice of Asian Art History

Year: 2018

Client: NUS Museum

Filed Under:

Print Design / Uncategorized

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan

Design:
Geraldine Peck

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視線 , 之間 Sightlines

Wei Leng Tay & Michelle Wong

「視線 , 之間 」Sightlines is a response to the Umbrella Movement in 2014, treating the mass protests as a departure point to reflect on how creative practices can inform each other, and how they can productively harness the energy from a moment of political rupture. With the introduction and inclusion of a 360-degree camera, it became the integral tool that opened the artists to a new way of seeing, a new vision.” 

The design follows the undulating distortions from the images from the 360-degree camera, giving the text a sense of movement. The book cover relies on the slight translucency of the ledger paper to reveal the “sight-lines” that constellate the otherwise, minimalist cover page.

Project Information:

Project Title: 視線 , 之間 Sightlines

Year: 2017

Client: Wei Leng Tay & Michelle Wong

Filed Under:

Print Design / Logomarks / Uncategorized

Creative Team:

Designed by Currency

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Charles Lim, SEA STATE

National Arts Council & Future Perfect Gallery

SEA STATE is a series of nine projects initiated in 2005 by artist and former Olympian sailor Charles Lim, with the premise of inverting perceptions of sea and land in the island city-state of Singapore. The work by Charles Lim is exhibited at the Singapore Pavilion, as part of the 56th International Art Exhibition — La Biennale Di Venezia.

Project Information:

Project Title: Charles Lim, SEA STATE

Year: 2015

Client: National Arts Council & Future Perfect Gallery

Filed Under:

Posters / Print Design / Product Design

Creative Team:

Design by currency
Merchandise design in collaboration with A Craft Initiative

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Klaus

Yeo Workshop

Catalogue design or Yeo Workshop on the occasion of the group exhibition Klaus by Hayama Projects. The catalogue unfolds up to more than a metre in length, holds Luca Lam’s take on a familiar folktale ‘Hansel and Gretel’ by the Brothers Grimm as inspiration. Graphically, it is designed to look like crackers from the folktale afar, and on close inspection, the texture appear as a blurred overlay of the wingdings used in the narrative. Klaus embodies a figure of idiosyncrasy, misinterpretation and misappropriation. It’s exploration of themes pertaining to memory, landscape, and labyrinth is expressed typographically with the wind-swept playful typesetting throughout the catalogue.

Project Information:

Project Title: Klaus

Year: 2016

Client: Yeo Workshop

Filed Under:

Print Design / Spatial Design / Uncategorized

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan

Design:
Kong Wen Da

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Symposium: The Geopolitical and the Biophysical 2015 & 2016

NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore

A Public Conversation on the occasion of the 56th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, The Geopolitical and the Biophysical: a structured conversation on Art and Southeast Asia in context is conceived as an extension to Charles Lim’s SEA STATE project presented at the Singapore Pavilion, and is in response to Okwui Enwezor’s curatorial theme for the 56th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia: All the World’s Futures. The brochure’s design is conceived as an extension to Charles Lim’s SEA STATE project and presented at the Singapore Pavilion. The fan shape is an abstraction of the hull of a kolek boat, as well as a practical solution for attendees to use it as a hand-held fan.

Project Information:

Project Title: Symposium: The Geopolitical and the Biophysical 2015 & 2016

Year: 2015

Client: NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore

Filed Under:

Posters / Print Design / Product Design / Uncategorized / Editorial Design

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan
Darius Ou

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CESSPOOL

Chan Hampe Galleries

The typography of the zine cover plays with the contrast between the weighty black typeface with the sinuous light “CESSPOOL” type in pink over it. The overall design coagulates, drips and flows, in many ways. The formats are coupled with soft touch coating with perma-liquid scodix effect for zines, posters and postcards, harking back to the work of artist, Jennifer Mehigan.

Project Information:

Project Title: CESSPOOL

Year: 2016

Client: Chan Hampe Galleries

Filed Under:

Print Design / Branding / Posters / Editorial Design / Uncategorized

Creative Team:

Melvin Tan
Darius Ou

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Peninsular Sessions

Tan Guo-Liang & Cheong Kah Kit

Peninsular Sessions is an ongoing series of artist presentations at Peninsular in collaboration with The Art Incubator. The booklets are designed to serve as documentation of the sessions involving different pairs of artists, writers and/or curators.

Similar to the program, the booklets are designed with no title. The layout is functional and occasionally contextualised to capture what is discussed and framed through the period of the exhibition. The booklet serves to extend the open reading of new relations.

Project Information:

Project Title: Peninsular Sessions

Year: 2017

Client: Tan Guo-Liang & Cheong Kah Kit

Filed Under:

Design Maintenance

Creative Team:

Editorial Design:
Melvin Tan
Charlie Allen
Kong Wen Da

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NUS Museum Catalogues

NUS Museum

An ongoing engagement in maintaining the institutional branding through its printed communications. The approach takes on a fixed grid that is focused on legibility and can be adapted to accommodate different types of content. The layout does not espouse any strict hierarchy between titles, text and footnotes that also reflects the prevalence of text in the museum’s curatorial approaches. The layout also allows for permutations and columning, with ease to adding footnotes and images. For more information about Design Maintenance, click here.

Project Information:

Project Title: NUS Museum Catalogues

Year: 2016

Client: NUS Museum

Filed Under:

Design Maintenance / Editorial Design / Uncategorized

Creative Team:

Designed by currency

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Design Piracy Institute

Justin Zhuang

Design Piracy Institute (DPI) is an applied thesis project developed at the School of Visual Arts’ MFA in Design Criticism (D-Crit)—now known as the MA Design Research, Writing & Criticism, by Justin Zhuang on piracy and industrial design. DPI’s design identity is inspired by traditional forms and perceptions of piracy. It uses the imperfect and awkward English form of the MS Gothic/Mincho family, a versatile and interchangeable Japanese typeface, as a nod to the amateur, the wrong, and the illegal — a homage to how this freely available Microsoft Office typeface is often used on the design of pirated products as well. The idea is further explored with the intentional untampered kerning (default tracking) of the wordmark, challenging the traditional notions of ‘good’ design.

This type-based system is accompanied by a graphical element in the form of a yellow ‘X’, which recalls watermark symbols and also the cross found on the stereotypical skull and bones ☠  logo of the pirate flag. Unlike watermarks that protect, however, this symbol dissolves when documents marked with DPI’s identity is photocopied.

Project Information:

Project Title: Design Piracy Institute

Year: 2015

Client: Justin Zhuang

Filed Under:

Branding / Posters / Logomarks / Print Design / Illustration / Information Design / Uncategorized

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan
Darius Ou

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EXODUS

Yllis

EXODUS album cover is a post-futurist interpretation of 80s mandarin vinyl album covers such as Teresa Teng and Faye Wong. The album is a sonic imagining or a “夢” (dream) of a dystopian post-apocalyptic tableau. The cover features a tableau of a woman lying in a pool of her own blood, awashed in neon colors, reminiscent of the popularised Hong Kong neon cityscape in visual culture.

Project Information:

Project Title: EXODUS

Year: 2016

Client: Yllis

Filed Under:

Illustration / Typography / Uncategorized

Creative Team:

Design by Currency

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Horizon99

Collaboration

Visuals for the first iteration of Horizon99 party held at soft/WALL/studs. Horizon99 is a broadcast series using the party as form, the club as situation, music as binder. These inherently hold the potential for collective being, coalescing towards horizons beyond capitalist realism.

Project Information:

Project Title: Horizon99

Year: 2017

Client: Collaboration

Filed Under:

Branding / Digital Media / Illustration / Packaging / Logomarks / Posters / Print Design

Creative Team:

Collaborators:
currency
lhttt
wares

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Island—01 EP

Yllis

Island–01 is the first EP by Yllis. The album is a re-imagination of the artist’s visage, a look and sound transpired from a personal search for identity between his own heritage as a chinese Singaporean amidst the more globalized experimental music scene he has grown to be a part of.

Project Information:

Project Title: Island—01 EP

Year: 2016

Client: Yllis

Filed Under:

Branding / Illustration

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan
Norman Orro
Darius Ou

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Karaoke Court

The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) Singapore

Inspired by the lights and colours of KTV and getai traditions, the design uses bursts of colour and lines, expressing the conflict between participating litigants. Karaoke Court is a work of performance art by artist Jack Tan as part of his solo exhibition, How to do things with rules, at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) Singapore, from 13 August to 29 September 2015.

Karaoke Court is a work of art and performance inspired by the Arctic Eskimo and Inuit tradition of ‘song duels’. Taking place within festive occasions, litigants present grievances to the entire community for judgment in the form of humorous and satirical songs. Due to the necessities of survival in the Arctic, the aim of the Eskimo or Inuit litigation is to restore relationships and to dissipate the build up of community tension, as much as it is to determine the winner.

Project Information:

Project Title: Karaoke Court

Year: 2015

Client: The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) Singapore

Filed Under:

Print Design / Logomarks / Art Direction / Branding / Illustration / Posters / Spatial Design / Uncategorized

Creative Team:

Creative Direction:
Melvin Tan
Darius Ou

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NTU CCA Systems

NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore

An ongoing engagement in maintaining the institutional branding through its printed communications. Brochure designs are constantly improved in collaboration with the communications team, adapting systems that evolve with the needs of the institution. For more information about Design Maintenance, click here.

Project Information:

Project Title: NTU CCA Systems

Year: 2017

Client: NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore

Filed Under:

Design Maintenance / Print Design / Posters

Creative Team:

Design Maintenance & Direction
Melvin Tan
Geraldine Peck
Nicole Tan

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NTU CCA Educational Outreach

NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore

The posters and postcards are used to publicise curator-led tours and workshops for teachers & educators. The illustrations were made using lino-cut carvings of hands doing craft, representing workshops, and anthropomorphic figures, representing tours, that join up when put side by side.

Project Information:

Project Title: NTU CCA Educational Outreach

Year: 2017

Client: NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore

Filed Under:

Print Design / Uncategorized / Illustration / Posters

Creative Team:

Melvin Tan

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A Home for the Arts

The Substation

“Oddly enough, people thought we had that look but actually it was to save money!” – Chris from Brainhook, on The Substation’s early designs. (Source: The Design Society Journal)

A Home for the Arts recalls older visuals of the Substation from the 90’s through collaborations with the Substation team to arrive at xerox printed brochures for their programmes with gaffer tape, any sans serif available and their xerox machine.

Project Information:

Project Title: A Home for the Arts

Year: 2016

Client: The Substation

Filed Under:

Posters / Website

Creative Team:

Design by Currency

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Mythologies

Yeo Workshop

Mythologies is a work of art by Jack Tan that explores various day-to-day Singaporean obsessions or concerns through a series of mythological characters based on the idea of the Japanese Yōkai (妖怪), or supernatural monsters. Exploring myth-making as a spatial, visual, performative and pedagogical activity, Jack Tan presents eight new mythological creatures through a choreographed children’s lantern parade, and public installations of flags and lanterns at Singapore Art Week 2016.

Project Information:

Project Title: Mythologies

Year: 2016

Client: Yeo Workshop

Filed Under:

Illustration / Packaging / Editorial Design

Creative Team:

Artwork by Jack Tan

Yeo Workshop for Art After Dark

Gillman Barracks

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House of Fred

Fred Perry Singapore/Malaysia

The brand presents the House of Fred which is a unique space curating the best of lifestyle and street cultures in ways and manner that reflects the Fred Perry brand. It was Malaysia’s first-ever Laurel Wreath Collection pop-up which carries the premium line from Fred Perry, and coveted collaborations projects with designers like Raf Simons and Nigel Cabourn. 

Project Information:

Project Title: House of Fred

Year: 2015

Client: Fred Perry Singapore/Malaysia

Filed Under:

Spatial Design / Packaging / Logomarks / Design Maintenance / Editorial Design / Posters / Product Design

Creative Team:

Designed by Currency

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