Stories from Our Wardrobe
Stories from our Wardrobe is an action research project that asks, what does it take to develop the 21st Century Competent students, and how can we use stories and zine-making practices to build empathy and trust amongst students to enable collaboration?
Across a 14 week x 3 hr sessions, students were tasked to each create a zine about a single item from their wardrobe and come together to produce a collective publication. The project culminated into an one night only exhibition at Second Story @ Thryft, Peace Centre, where students shared and circulated their zines about their stories to a new audience.
Stories from our Wardrobe is an action research project that asks, what does it take to develop the 21st Century Competent students, and how can we use stories and zine-making practices to build empathy and trust amongst students to enable collaboration?
Across a 14 week x 3 hr sessions, students were tasked to each create a zine about a single item from their wardrobe and come together to produce a collective publication. The project culminated into an one night only exhibition at Second Story @ Thryft, Peace Centre, where students shared and circulated their zines about their stories to a new audience.
Research, Pedagogy
2023-2024
TO THE POWER OF
Adawia Bte Azman
Elmira Binte Mohammad Hizam
Fatimah Binte Abdul Razak
Nur Insyirah Binte Mohamad Aedey
Nurul Nabilah
Vu Thi Ha Phuong
Rahmat Bin Adnan, He Mengxue
Du Jingqi
Katherine Lim Balzomo Student Participants
Published in
(Upcoming) Fashion Studies Journal: Southeast Asia Issue, Guest edited by Fashion & Market
2023-2024
TO THE POWER OF
Adawia Bte Azman
Elmira Binte Mohammad Hizam
Fatimah Binte Abdul Razak
Nur Insyirah Binte Mohamad Aedey
Nurul Nabilah
Vu Thi Ha Phuong
Rahmat Bin Adnan, He Mengxue
Du Jingqi
Katherine Lim Balzomo Student Participants
Published in
(Upcoming) Fashion Studies Journal: Southeast Asia Issue, Guest edited by Fashion & Market
Don’t Mind If
As a creative that work fluidly in and out of Communication Design and Visual Arts, I found it incredibly difficult to find data about this industry. Unlike the arts industry, there was little support for this sector.
Out of curiosity and frustration, I co-founded the local research initiative, Don’t Mind If, and started a survey cheekily named “Don’t Mind If I Ask”, hoping to shed some light on the climate of Singapore’s Communication Design Industry and Community.
As a creative that work fluidly in and out of Communication Design and Visual Arts, I found it incredibly difficult to find data about this industry. Unlike the arts industry, there was little support for this sector.
Out of curiosity and frustration, I co-founded the local research initiative, Don’t Mind If, and started a survey cheekily named “Don’t Mind If I Ask”, hoping to shed some light on the climate of Singapore’s Communication Design Industry and Community.
Between 2019-2023, I volunteered to gather, analyse and synthesise 506 responses from Singapore’s communications design industry alongside my co-founder Ryan Tan.
A large part of the work is also sythesising the data into a format that was easy to refer to. This was done with the help of local design studio, OuterEdit.
Eventually, the data culminated into a 206-page publication containing illustrated data, insights and observations. It details the responses of students, fresh graduates, freelancers, and employees to business owners who work within the industry. Working closely with the community to accurately reflect its aspirations and anxieties, it also includes 15 opinion pieces by thought leaders and practitioners such as Justin Zhuang, Vanessa Ban, Adib Jalal, Danielle Ng and DesignSingapore Council.
500 copies were produced and have been distributed to buyers, collaborators, industry leaders and policy makers in & out of the graphic design industry.
Photographed by The Gentle Studio for OuterEdit.
A large part of the work is also sythesising the data into a format that was easy to refer to. This was done with the help of local design studio, OuterEdit.
Eventually, the data culminated into a 206-page publication containing illustrated data, insights and observations. It details the responses of students, fresh graduates, freelancers, and employees to business owners who work within the industry. Working closely with the community to accurately reflect its aspirations and anxieties, it also includes 15 opinion pieces by thought leaders and practitioners such as Justin Zhuang, Vanessa Ban, Adib Jalal, Danielle Ng and DesignSingapore Council.
500 copies were produced and have been distributed to buyers, collaborators, industry leaders and policy makers in & out of the graphic design industry.
Photographed by The Gentle Studio for OuterEdit.
“The survey’s personal and introspective approach can perhaps be seen as an act of “self-care”, a means for designers to look after one another in the community. The results are certainly not representative, but it does represent a lived reality and a common space for more discussions, debates and initiatives about the profession. As earlier initiatives by other designers have shown, the worth of a profession is not solely determined by who it serves. Those who choose graphic design as their calling are just as important in shaping its values and future too.”
Justin Zhuang
Design Writer
As part of Don’t Mind If commitment to engaging the community, I worked closely with DesignSingapore Council to organise Alter-Native, a panel discussion on the future of our ever-evolving communication design industry. Moderated by Sean Kelvin Khoo, the programme leader at Temasek Polytechnic, Diploma for Communication Design, the panel included speakers of different backgrounds, from UX designers, architecture branding, publication design and experiential design, as an alternative way to imagine a shared future.
It was also great to share our process with students at NAFA Degree in Design Practice and at Library@Orchard’s Your Design Space Event.
At the moment, I am also excited to be working on a series of articles alongside Stella from Tender Deeds to document and share the creative process and lives of those who labour within this industry.
Follow us on the journey here.
Follow us on the journey here.
Annual Review
As part of Singapore Art Week 2024, long term collaborators Chong and I revisited the projects we have pursued together and apart since 2018.
Exhibition
2024
2024
Stranger(’s) Touch @ The Red Bus
The second iteration of Stranger(’s) Touch was a month-long takeover of the Red Bus at Somerset Youth Park.
A new series of household objects was commissioned by Singaporean designers and artists Jenevieve Woon, Moses Tan, Teo Huey Ling, Tiffany Loy, and Weixin Quek Chong challenging the idea of touch in unfamiliar ways.
Referencing the visual language of lifestyle stores and magazines, the campaign images featured the items in a home environment. The social media posts were also designed to mimic trendy lifestore stores.
The second iteration of Stranger(’s) Touch was a month-long takeover of the Red Bus at Somerset Youth Park.
A new series of household objects was commissioned by Singaporean designers and artists Jenevieve Woon, Moses Tan, Teo Huey Ling, Tiffany Loy, and Weixin Quek Chong challenging the idea of touch in unfamiliar ways.
Referencing the visual language of lifestyle stores and magazines, the campaign images featured the items in a home environment. The social media posts were also designed to mimic trendy lifestore stores.
TO THE POWER OF
Daniel Chong Co-Founder
Crop.sg Designers
Chong Ng Photographer
Phoebe Zoe Ho Spatial designer
Daniel Chong Co-Founder
Crop.sg Designers
Chong Ng Photographer
Phoebe Zoe Ho Spatial designer
Art Director
Visit Stranger(’s) Touch website here
Supported by:
National Youth Council’s Realise Your Somerset belt Project Fund
Featured on:
Plural Art Mag
Visit Stranger(’s) Touch website here
Supported by:
National Youth Council’s Realise Your Somerset belt Project Fund
Featured on:
Plural Art Mag
The bus was reimagined as a concept store and visitors were encouraged to touch, hold and interact with the objects as if it was a store. All items were also for sale, with customised packaging, ready for gifting during the christmas holidays.
Over 850 visitors saw the show, many of which complemented the seamlessness of the art experience as the retail format allowed them to interact with the works in an unexpected way.
Over 850 visitors saw the show, many of which complemented the seamlessness of the art experience as the retail format allowed them to interact with the works in an unexpected way.
The Precariat Self-Help Assembly Site
Using the format of a degree show as a starting point, where both time and attention is limited and precariats are rampant, 200 copies of The Precariat Self Help Handbook were printed (mostly self-funded by working at a cafe along with some kind donation of paper by staffs and students at London College of Communications) and distributed via an assembly line. Short descriptions were used to help visitors understand the content of each chapter to faciliate the building of their own handbook.
Using the format of a degree show as a starting point, where both time and attention is limited and precariats are rampant, 200 copies of The Precariat Self Help Handbook were printed (mostly self-funded by working at a cafe along with some kind donation of paper by staffs and students at London College of Communications) and distributed via an assembly line. Short descriptions were used to help visitors understand the content of each chapter to faciliate the building of their own handbook.
Art Direction, Installation Design
2018, 2019
Exhibited:
2018, London
London College of Communication Degree Show
2019, London
London Design Festival 2019, Funded by London College of Communications as part of Emergence: Service/Social/Sustainable Design
2018, 2019
Exhibited:
2018, London
London College of Communication Degree Show
2019, London
London Design Festival 2019, Funded by London College of Communications as part of Emergence: Service/Social/Sustainable Design
The Assembly Site made a second appearance, this time at London Design Festival 2019, with fresh new chapters from Issue 2. Funded by London College of Communications as part of Emergence: Service/Social/Sustainable Design, visitors and students were able to to put together their own handbook to defend themselves from precarious work.
