Gingerbread House and Rabbits
Confectionery shops always appeal to me, its “deliciousness” arrest my design sensibilities. One fine afternoon in mid-November last year, I was scurrying along Orchard Road when my eyes were arrested by these delicious Christmas motifs from Marks & Spencer. Their biscuits and chocolate packaging designs are a feast for the eyes. I ran my hand on their glorious tin cans and an image of a gingerbread house caught my eye.
You can just imagine me standing there, staring at that tin box with all the intensity of a child whose eyes gazed upon a coveted dream toy. And that’s how the idea of a gingerbread house appeared before me.
Me As A Design Machine
Presenting Forecept’s new Design Machine: She comes in a small package, barely five feet tall, with long black hair (that still keeps on getting long because she finds the hair salons in Singapore very expensive) and bright-colored shoes. A Filipina with 6 years of design experience behind her, this little woman braves six people (read: Project Managers/Account Executives) who regularly turns on “The Design Machine” to create new web design, revise the new web design, create simple flash animations, draw stick figures and rough storyboards, create direct mail marketing designs, design new logos, brainstorm for a pitch project, understand creative briefs and try to create a design brief for clients who wanted to have a website but don’t have any idea on what to place on their websites. This design machine can work with grace under pressure, fragile yet hardened by experience, works best when listening to her favorite music [...]
Stepping Into A New State of Strangeness
I boarded the 2:45 flight of Philippine Airlines and arrived at Changi Airport at almost 7 pm on April 12, 2008. I felt really strange, for the sun sets late along Singapore’s horizon, and the sun is just starting to hide at 7 in the evening. I had this feeling that the clock is only pointing to half past five. It’s a bit disappointing, ‘coz I thought I’ll be witnessing a magnificent sunset while the plane is landing as I set foot on Singapore’s land for the first time. Turns out that it’s not the cinematographic event I had in mind.
I felt like a zombie, an outsider looking in on another person’s life. Slowly, I became an outside observer of the person living inside me. I watched as I mechanically go through the immigration and collect my luggage, headed where the arrow pointed the exit and thought to myself, at [...]
