SPRING Singapore organized a meeting between DAS and the Gifts Association Singapore (SGA) to discuss the possibilities of future collaborations between their members.

As both associations have their interests unanimously vested in the promotion of Singapore designs to international markets and the creation of more job opportunities for local designers and graduates, the meeting cumulated with SGA extending an invitation to us to attend this year’s Singapore Gifts & Stationery Show (SGSS) 2012 as guest speakers to touch on strengthening the local market by raising the value chain through the provision of quality goods and services.

We would like to extend our appreciation to Ms Charmian Choong from SPRING for linking us up with the genial members of SGA, and the council members for their warm reception and insights into their industry.

Cilicon Faytory’s quirky namesake is an amalgamation of its founders’ names (Cici Chen and Lui Honfay) and aptly enough, it embodies their fresh, playful and experimental approach towards furniture design. Founded in 2008, the company has grown from strength to strength and it has positioned itself as the producers of aesthetically coherent and commercially-viable designs. With a growing list of local and international clientele, Cici and Honfay share with us their experiences, creative applications in business and their personal design ethos.

We should start our story with a brief introduction to Cilicon Faytory.

Cilicon Faytory focuses on designing commercially available furniture and products for regional and European markets. As an industrial designer (Cici) and architect (Honfay) by training, our passion for furniture design was already well-established back in our school days in NUS. Apart from being frequent winners in the annual Furniture Design Award organized by Singapore Furniture Industry Council, we also bagged a number of international awards like iF design Award, Red Dot Award and Nagoya! Do Design Competition. Upon graduation, we both worked for a few years in the industry and decided to combine our knowledge of product and space to design furniture and lifestyle products.

Cilicon Faytory made its debut in the prestigious Salone Internazionale Del Mobile (Milan) and ever since then, our designs have been exhibited extensively in local (International Furniture Fair Singapore) and international furniture fairs such as imm Cologne (Germany), Habitare (Helsinki), Dwell On Design (Los Angeles). In terms of clientele, we have worked with top Singaporean and Malaysian furniture companies and we are currently collaborating with furniture design firms based in Germany, Finland and Belgium. So far, Cilicon Faytory has produced more than 200 designs, ranging from indoor to outdoor furniture for personal and commercial use and explored possibilities with different materials such as wood, rattan, metal, plastic and stone to suit different markets.

Right from the start, our focus was on designing beautiful products which are internationally marketable. While we understand that every designer wants to create something to set them apart from the pack, we believe that they have to touch more on the business aspect of design in order to stay relevant in the current industry instead of focusing on experimental, one-off projects. For example, in one of our collections, we tried various weaving patterns for our rattan furniture pieces to bring out the unique quality the material itself as well as to make it easier and cheaper for production.

As entrepreneurs ourselves, we often come face to face with the public, architects and even fellow designers who harbour misconceptions about local furniture design, writing them off as avant garde installation art pieces. This couldn’t be further from the truth and we hope that through our efforts, we will be able to alter this perception and see more local furniture designers step up and take on the industry more seriously.

We are really proud to be doing what we love while carrying the Singapore brand name, and we have a great sense of satisfaction seeing our products sold internationally and more importantly, used and loved by people around the world.

Awards

• Furniture Design Award 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 (organized by Singapore Furniture Industries Council), Singapore – Various prizes including Gold, Silver Award and Best Use of Wood, American Hardwood Award

• International Red Dot Concept Award for Product Design, Germany – Winner

• iF Design Concept Award 2008, Germany – Winner

• Nagoya Do! International Design Competition 2008, Japan – Astrid Klein’s Prize

• Incheon International Design Competition 2006, Korea – Winner for Product Design Category

• Society of American Registered Architects (SARA) Design Award 2006, United States – 1st prize

• Singapore Furniture Industry Awards (SFIA) 2010 – Silver Award for New Entrants Award

• President’s Design Award 2010, Fairies Series – Nominated for Design of the Year

• President’s Design Award 2011, Fin Pots – Nominated for Design of the Year

Cilicon Faytory Pte Ltd
No 7, Defu Lane 6
Singapore 539368
T: +65 6285 5215 F: +65 6285 5332
www.ciliconfaytory.com

Following the success of our mission trips to both Shenzhen and Shanghai in 2010, IE Singapore arranged for a meeting with representatives from Guangzhou ECHOM, China, to discuss the possibilities of future collaborative projects between the two organizations.

Project Director Mr Edward Li and Vice-President Mr Gabriel Ho drew parallels between Guangdong Design Valley and DAS as both sought to provide a professional level of design, manufacture and service to the business community, while Lawrence and Lee Siang invited them to participate in the Singapore Design Awards 2012.

After the meeting, Mr Ho presented Lawrence with a token of goodwill – a perfect miniature reproduction of a traditional Chinese junk.

Venue: 11B Mt Sophia, Singapore 228466

Contact’s Email: admgradshow2012@gmail.com

Website: www.admgradshow.com

Organizer: School of Art, Design & Media, Nanyang Technological University

Opening Night: 27/04/2012, 06:30pm

Exhibition Date: 28/04/2012 – 06/05/2012, 10.30am- 9.00pm

Nearest MRT: Dhoby Ghaut Station

You can keep in touch or submit your entries through our dedicated website for it at

www.singaporedesignawards.com

Dr. Tony Tan

Your Excellency,

On behalf of 200 design firms and designers in the Design Business Chamber Singapore, I would like to congratulate you on your election as the 7th President of the Republic of Singapore. With your past experience in various capacities in the government and in the business world, we are confident that you will be able to represent the interests of the private sector for the design industry. As Singapore’s only multi-disciplinary professional design business chamber with leading design businesses such as Ong&Ong, Yolk, Epigram, Kingsmen and Consulus, we pledge to be your partner in this endeavor.

Your predecessor, President S R Nathan has been a strong supporter of the design industry and it was during his tenure that he initiated the President’s Design Award. During his term, we had hoped to engage him by providing an insight into the thoughts of the private sector but unfortunately it did not materialize. We hope to build a closer relationship with you and provide an update of the trends of the industry and how our design firms are doing in the region. It is therefore our honour to invite you to a get-together with various business leaders in the design community at a time of your choosing.

We have just celebrated our 25th anniversary in 2010 and we are keen to continue our legacy of being essential to the Singapore economy. From the International Design Forum to the Singapore Design Awards, we have kept these initiatives alive on our own so as to nurture a unique Singapore contribution to the international design scene. And in 2011, we have decided to rebrand ourselves as the Design Business Chamber Singapore in order to best reflect the interests of our members.

The chamber will take on the following objectives:

Enhance the collaboration of local professional designers and provide multi-disciplinary design solutions for the world
Help local design firms penetrate into overseas markets
Promote a higher value proposition of Singapore as a place where we are good at bringing together business and design in Asia

We will be keen to share this latest development with you when we meet.We wish you every success in your leadership as our President, and we pledge our full support to your office and the good work that you do.

Sincerely yours
Lawrence Chong

President
Designers Association Singapore
(To be renamed Design Business Chamber Singapore)
EXCO 2011 – 2013

On behalf of our network partner Singapore Insititute of Landscape Architects, we are presenting to you SILA’s inaugural Conference & Awards Gala
Dinner at The Regent Singapore. As a network partner in the DesignS, all DAS members are entitled to preferred rates.

Please proceed to their event webpage for more information:
http://www.sila.org.sg/website/nexusinmotion.php

Below is some of the event information for your reference.

Event Information

SILA Conference 2011
Date – 13 & 14 October 2011
Time – 13 (Full day) & 14 (half day)
Venue – The Regent Singapore
Address – One Cuscaden Road, Singapore 249715

Awards Gala Dinner 2011
Date – 14 October 2011
Time – 1900hrs
Venue – The Regent Singapore
Address – One Cuscaden Road, Singapore 249715

EARLY BIRD RATE – 14 September 2011, 5PM. (payment must be received no later than stated date & time)

Mr. Tai Lee Siang presenting on why Business by Design is important.

30 interested participants were present at the Design a Business Advantage Seminar hosted by Design for Enterprises to hear what Mr Tai Lee Siang, Vice President of Designers Association Singapore (DAS) & Group Managing Director of ONG&ONG Pte Ltd, and Mr Lawrence Chong, President of DAS & CEO of Consulus Pte Ltd have to say about how design can help their businesses.

Mr. Lawrence Chong sharing about what the DAS does.

This seminar was organised in partnership with Designers Association Singapore, and it provides insights on the importance of Design as a main business driver and as an ignition to sustainable purpose-led innovation in Business Design. 

Mr. Tai shared about Ong & Ong’s approach to offering integrated building solutions, while Mr. Chong shared about his company’s approach of helping companies innovate by designing purpose-centered organisational cultures.   
 
Design for Enterprises also introduced their grants that can help business adopt a design based strategy for their business, which would help interested parties with the funding of going into a design approach.

For more information, please see the below links:
Ong & Ong: www.ong-ong.com
Consulus: www.consulus.com
Design for Enterprises: http://designforenterprises.sg

Our first Designers Nite of 2011 at Ong & Ong was an enjoyable night with people with a passion for design coming together to network and share their experiences. Mr. Tai Lee Siang also introduced Ong & Ong to all those present.

During the EGM held before the Designers Nite, the Exco announced the name change of DAS to Design Business Chamber (Singapore).

We look forward to seeing you at our next Designers Nite, which will be coming up soon. Check out this space for updates.

Here are some photos of the event below.

LAWRENCE CHONG

PRESIDENT 2011 – 2013(2ND AND FINAL TERM)

Lawrence Chong is the Chief Executive of Consulus (DBCS Corporate Member), a business design & design for business consultancy, operating in 8 cities globally . Lawrence has been involved in the DBCS(formally known as DAS) since 2002 and was elected into the EXCO since 2005. As Exco member, he was involved in the ‘Designers against SARS’ initiative. In 2005, he became the Chairman for the Young Asian Designers Award taking the 15-year old award regionally with the support of BMW and DesignSingapore. As Chairman of the Industry committee, he initiated an industry-wide survey on design companies with the assistance of NUS in 2007. On behalf of the DBCS, he has worked with government agencies such as IE Singapore, MICA to secure funding support. Lawrence served as Vice-President from 2007 – 2009 and was responsible for developing the long-term business plan to sustain DBCS activities.

Since he became president in 2009, he initiated the Design Business forum which saw 50 business leaders come together. He also initiated designers nite, a monthly get together for designers. Lawrence also revived the Singapore Design awards which gave out 63 awards in 2010. He has served as co-chair of the nascent DesignS network to help promote Singapore design in China. In 2010, Lawrence drafted the update of the constitution to establish it as a more institutional body.  Nov 2010, he signed the first MOU with SIDA, a creative association in Shenzhen China to promote DBCS. In 2011, he organised a dialogue session for members with Minister Lui Tuck Yew.

To date, Lawrence’s initiatives and plans in 2010 have achieved the following:

Total participants from DBCS events: 474 people
Total participants from events DBCS participated: 664 people
Total exposures of members’ works: more than 350,000 people
Number of design firms featured: over 90 design firms
Number of design works featured: over 150 unique works

TAI LEE SIANG

1ST VICE-PRESIDENT 2011 – 2013(PRESIDENT-ELECT 2013 – 2015)

Lee Siang is the Managing Director of ONG&ONG (DBCS corporate member), an integrated cross-disciplinary creative practice. He graduated with honours from NUS in 1987 and has practiced as architect and urban planner since 1990.  His key projects won both local and international award and was featured in a URA exhibition “20 under 45” in March 2004.He held the position as President of Singapore Institute of Architects from 2007 to 2009.  He consolidated the institute’s “Blue Print” to establish numerous firsts. On the Design front, he led the inauguration of ARCHIFEST – a festival that promotes architecture excellence among the professionals and general public.  He then pioneered the first Practice Convention 2009 – a strategic forum to address practice concerns of Singapore architects.  In the same year, Mr Tai also initiated the establishment of Architecture Professional Course; preparing young graduates to sit for Professional Practice Examination.  In 2010, Mr Tai chairs the formation of DesignS – an alliance comprising of 8 Design-centric Associations to promote Singapore Design Brands. On sustainability front, Mr Tai was appointed as Chairman of REACH, Environmental Sustainability Committee in 2008 – a committee to provide feedback to the Inter-Ministry Committee on Sustainability Development.  Mr Tai formed the SIA Green Committee leading to the first collaboration on Green product exhibition with BEX Asia 2009 and International Green Building Convention with BCA.  Currently, he is elected as the President of Singapore Green Building Council.

ULRICH SCHRAUDOLPH

2ND VICE-PRESIDENT & HONORARY TREASURER 2011 – 2013

Ulrich Schraudolph is Design Director at XentiQ(DBCS Corporate member), a Singaporean product design firm in which he is a partner, and practices in this function since over 10 years in Singapore. XentiQ is corporate DBCS member since 1999 and Ulrich was elected as auditor in 2003, Exco committee member in 2005 and honorary secretary in 2007. Ulrich participated in the launch and editorial committee of designer magazine, he was a judge in the YADA competition, participated in the initiative ‘Designers against SARS’ and represented DBCS in presentations to the local design schools. Representing DBCS, Ulrich sits in the organizing committee of the 2009 ICSID conference in Singapore. He is also very involved in design education in Singapore, as tutor and lecturer, as well as committee member in in various bodies in charge of curriculum or industry relations of local design schools.Ulrich has served has Vice-president of DBCS since 2009. Under his leadership, DBCS produced the widely praised Singapore Design Class standard which will be rolled out in 2011. The standard has already been endorsed by the 8 creative association as the way forward and will be adopted.

ALEXANDER LAU

HONORARY SECRETARY 2011 – 2013

Alexander Lau is the Principal Design Consultant / Managing Director of Ideaspark International Pte Ltd a corporate member of DBCS.

He acquired his Industrial Design training at Queensland University of Technology, Australia. He began his career in design promotion, working with a government agency on policies to promote design to Singapore companies. He then joined a multi-disciplinary international design firm, honing his skills in design and management.

In 1998, Alexander founded a N d studio, a design consultancy which focussed on Strategic Branding and Industrial Design. His clients included local SMEs, as well as international conglomerates such as Sony, McDonaldʼs, Thales and ST Electronics. In 2008, a N d studio became Ideaspark International Pte Ltd with participation of consultant advisor, Peer Sathikh. Alexander has accumulated over 14 years of experience in the design, implementation and project management of various military, medical, industrial, commercial and transportation products. Alexander has a good understanding of the stringent requirements concerning security-related products and system, allowing him to design products such as the Ruggedised Military Grade computer input devices, Vehicular Signage and Control Systems for Taxis, and Security Access Control Systems for many installations around the region.

Alexander worked on a couple of MRT projects such as the Half Height Platform Screen doors being implemented across the existing lines, and the Platform Screen Doors for the new Downtown Line. Besides his full-time professional practice, Alexander is a keen supporter of Design Education in Singapore. He was a part-time tutor at the Industrial Design Course at the National University of Singapore and he was an External Examiner for Temasek Polytechnicʼs Industrial Design Course. Currently, Alexander is serving as a Committee Member of the Advisory Committee to the Product Design and Innovation Course at Ngee Ann Polytechnic. Alexander has been an Executive Committee Member of the Designers Association Singapore since 1997. He is currently serving as the Associationʼs Honorary Secretary.

ALEX MUCHA

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBER 2011 – 2013

With over 25 years industry experience, Alex is one of the founding partners in Equus DesignConsultants Pte Ltd (DBCS Corporate member), a Singapore-based branding and design agency which works with clients from Singapore and the region on projects covering brand development and brand communications.

His responsibilities in Equus cover liaising with regional clients, development of brand strategy, andspecial responsibility for online and interactive projects. He is accredited as a Practicing ManagementConsultant (PMC).

Alex has lived in Singapore for 20 years. Prior to the setting up of Equus, Alex was an associate director with Addison Design in Singapore which he joined in 1991 from Addison’s London office.

Equus Profile: Great Design doesn’t just look good, it communicates and connects. From strategy to design from offlineto on-line, from coal face to boardroom, we understand brands and how to give them the rightvoice, in any context.

Established in 1994, Equus is a strategy and intelligence-driven design consultancy with a reputationfor award-winning work. Innovative and sometimes unconventional, our emphasis is very much oncreativity and most importantly, on making business sense.

KELVEEN SOH

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBER 2011 – 2013

Kelveen is one of the co-founders of Yolk, a Grey Group company and a DBCS corporate member with over 40 employees headquartered in Singapore. In his role as Operations & Client Engagement Director, Kelveenleads his team to assist a range of brands and companies across Asia, focusing mainly in digitalacquisition, engagement and retention strategies.

For a decade, Kelveen has led his team in achieving numerous local and international awards, including one of the industry’s most sought after, ‘The Webby Awards’. Kelveen’s impressive portfolio includes works for PUB, NAC, Canon, DiGi, as well as award-winning projects for CibaVision and Nickelodeon.

Known for his strong desire to push boundaries to achieve new levels of digital experiences, Kelveen sincerely guides and dances with his clients and embodies the term ‘digitally daring’. Being a strong supporter of the local design community, winner of Spirit of Enterprise 2005 and a proponent of life-long education, he spends considerable time with aspiring youths, grooming them for a successful path in the digital arts.

In his free time, Kelveen also tries to convince his health-fanatic friends that the egg-yolk is cholesterol-free.

KEN KOO

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBER 2011 – 2013

Since 2005, Ken is the Asia President of the red dot design award. This award is one of the largest and most prestigious design award in the world and has 56 years of history. Ken initiatedthe third installation of the red dot design awards: the international red dot awards: design concept.In the same year, he also built the second red dot design museum in Singapore and successfullycreated the iconic red dot Traffic building that presently houses many companies from the creativeindustries. Since 2006, he is the creative director for the red dot Traffic development and isresponsible for the development of the creative hub.

Presently, Ken serves on the advisory board for the industrial design course in Ngee AnnPolytechnic. He also serves in the parliamentary resource panel of the Ministry of Information,Communication and the Arts of Singapore. He is also a committee member for the Arts and CultureStrategic Review Committee.

Ken graduated with an Honors Degree in Accountancy at the Nanyang Technological University in1996. Upon graduation, Ken worked with the consulting giant Accenture, focusing on improvingbusiness processes of multinational companies, frequently through the use of informationtechnology. In his career as a consultant, he serves multinational companies such as CaterpillarTractors, British American Tobacco, Sony Ericsson and Exxon Mobil.

Fueled by his keen interest in design, Ken left the corporate world in the year 2000 and founded acompany to promote good designs from Asia. Ken financed and helped young designersdeveloped their design concepts to products and present these designs to the international marketat major exhibitions in New York, Frankfurt and Paris. In 2006, he initiated MAAD, a weekendmarket for artists and designers. Today, MAAD continues to be a platform for young designers toexperiment and test market their ideas easily. Since 2009, he has been a professional member of the DBCS.

JEFFREY CHIU

CO-OPT INTO THE EXCO DEPUTY TREASURER 2011 – 2013

Jeffrey Chiu is the Director for Finance at Consulus (DBCS Corporate Member), a business design & design for business consultancy, operating in 8 cities globally . Jeffrey has been involved in the DBCS since 2009 and has been instrumental in cleaning up the financial practices and process of the association. His work has allowed the association to reconcile its numbers and set the association on a sustainable path of good corporate governance.

From 2011 onwards, he shall work to assist the incoming treasurer and ensure that DBCS will be successful in building a strong and capable secretariat. A secretariat that works within the framework of good fiscal discipline and responsibility.

Jeffrey is also an accredited member of Practicing Management Consultant (PMC). Jeffrey also advises the clients of Consulus in their financial management strategies so as to secure sustainable business growth. He has served in global markets in China, Indonesia, Brunei and Vietnam.