Design changes and improves lives, inspires creativity and new forms of expression. It also enhances business competitiveness in today’s crowded marketplace. The DesignSingapore Council is Singapore’s response to these propositions and opportunities.

The vision of the Council is “Inspiring design and developing Singapore as an international centre for design creativity in Asia where design improves capability, enhances quality of life, and drives national competitiveness”.

THE COUNCIL’S ROLE

The DesignSingapore Council, set up in August 2003 by the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, is the national agency for promotion and development of Singapore design. The Council works closely with other government agencies, the design community, industry leaders and educational institutions to spearhead a national initiative to develop and promote design in Singapore.

Among its programmes, the Council promotes design in enterprise so as to enhance the competitiveness of Singapore companies. The Council also implements programmes to grow the design-driven industries (architectural services, advertising services and visual communications design, interior design, fashion design, product and industrial design and so on) and to actively profile and promote Singapore design overseas. To foster a more pervasive design culture in Singapore, the Council seeds new design awareness programmes through schools, public institutions and activities.

Approaching design as a cultural and economic ecosystem comprising image-making, object-making and place-making disciplines, the Council’s strategies can be broadly divided into:
• Design Promotion which creates greater appreciation and demand for Singapore design and designers by businesses and the public;
• Design Development which focuses on the raising the capabilities of Singapore designers and international designers practising locally;
• Design Culture which provides the context critical to decision-making in development and promotion of design through formulating policies and strategies. 

DESIGN PROMOTION

Design Promotion creates greater appreciation and demand for Singapore design and designers by businesses and the public. It has three key initiatives: Design Exhibitions and Conferences; Design Business and Design Awareness & Perception.

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

Design Development focuses on raising the capabilities and impact of Singapore designers and international designers practising from Singapore. There are three key initiatives in this segment: Design Capability & Professional Development, DesignSingapore Studios and Design Competitions and Awards.

DESIGN CULTURE

Design Culture provides the context critical to decision-making in the development and promotion of design, through the formation of policies and strategies, and by profiling the state of Singapore design against regional and international developments. There are three key initiatives in this section: International Relations and International Headquarters, Design Media Multiplier and Design Sector Surveys.

OTHER KEY INITIATIVES

The DesignSingapore Council also concentrates on a number of key activities to promote and develop design:
• Singapore Design Festival which profiles Singapore as a creative hub, facilitates international exchanges and connections, and celebrates and showcases our creative talents and enterprises;
• Design Futures which seeks to develop design creativity in Singapore designers

SINGAPORE DESIGN FESTIVAL

The Singapore Design Festival was first initiated in 2005 as a biennial event to present Singapore’s emergent design culture, offering Singapore as an important meeting place for the global design community to explore issues, trade ideas, be inspired, collaborate, and learn from the best. The Festival is a multifaceted experience that aims to be at the leading edge of design creativity from Asia to the world and the world to Asia.

An important differentiating factor of the Singapore Design Festival is the focus on the design process and the conceptualisation of ideas, as opposed to the showcase of static end products. In essence the Festival aims to transmute the emergent design culture in Singapore and around the world into an interactive and “live” presentation of the design process and its end products.

DESIGN FUTURES   

For Singapore to be a leader in the creative economy, our businesses and designers need to be engage in upstream activities, such as applied design research & development. The relevant infrastructure needs to be put in place to groom a spirit of experimentation and entrepreneurship for original content creation.

The Design Futures Programme achieves these propositions, and creates bedrock support and inspiration to enhance design creativity. Original content creation is a critical capability and vital asset in the remaking of Singapore. The traditional understanding of Design as ‘Product’ (Trading) and Design as ‘Services’ (Professional Practice) must now include Design as ‘Knowledge’ (Intellectual Property) to extract the value of new content. It allows Singapore to compete in the upstream position, and reduce the risk of competing via conventional means of cost and efficiency.