Author: Nick Pan

The second Singapore Design Festival happening from 28 Nov to 8 Dec 2007 is a biennial event to celebrate and promote design as a propeller of the new economy.

I’m so glad Singapore embarks onto stuff like that, but do general Singaporeans appreciate design at all? Ask your fellow Singaporean friend “When was the last time design mattered to you?” If the person waited for 5 seconds, then design does not really matter to him / her.

Personally I think design is way way important, its like why have something when you can have it well designed as well. There is always a stigma as well that “Designer stuff” is expensive, but do you know that everyday stuff like the bus stop, traffic lights, even your humble tissue packet needs to be designed, design is not just posters and fancy products… design is a way of life (wah damn cliché statement, but its true!).

I remembered in 2005 i attended designedge05 event which was part of the festival and it was great. Saw lots of local talents, things happening in the design scene and the constant reminder that design IS important nagged via mainstream media really makes me happy.

The Singapore Design Festival this year is filled with events this year and i’m particularly interested in Inventioneering Architecture (facebook event) happening at Vivo City and Blurring Boundaries – Design Lecture by Karim Rashid (facebook event). Of cause Rojak 10 (rojak.farm.sg) as well.

I’ve designed a few icons and submited them to the design festival’s Icon Wall do comment on them. :) You can also join the Design Festival’s Facebook group to keep updated on the happenings.

So from now on, keep an Open Mind… let your ideas take flight. :)

This weekend i went on a cruise with my colleagues, it was a great time to get away together and spend about 48hrs on a ship that was going nowhere together. There was definitely lots of food, drinks, dancing and mindless entertainment like Jenga, Pit, bluff and basket ball on the top deck.

For the married ones, this also means leaving the family behind for the weekend and for some its the chance to become like a uni student on a school holiday all over again.

It was sure a memorable trip with colleagues and we would have stories to tell for sure.

The visually beautiful thing about the trip (can you even call it a trip if we are going nowhere?) is not the ship, but the endless beautiful horizon during sunset, breakfast, lunch, all the time. Its definitely a nice and beautiful view i would love out of my office window any day.

I’ve always loved the subculture of skating and i would have to say for skateboarding, i think Rodney Mullen’s style is by far the most technical. Its not about big airs or poping big time, but just sheer small technical flicks that say “hey lets try this… lets try that… what if…” Its all about experimenting, committing, practice and practice.

Maybe thats what passion is all about… keep trying, keep being curious, committing and being consistent.

Thats why i’m into Rodney Mullen’s style.

Another flick for another fix.

After last year’s Oktoberfest and the festive pack i bought recently, i knew i had to come for this year’s, it was way fun. I did not have that much fun in quite a long time.

After reaching Merchant Loop, you could clearly see the large tent that housed dunno how many liters upon liters of Erdinger.

When inside, the atmosphere forced you to think about nothing else but the food, the beer and your friends that are there with you.

This year the tent was much bigger than 2006 and i’m not suprised, cuz last year it was so good, you can expect the organisers to make it bigger and better this year.

The crowd was fun, people stood up on their benches and tables and groving away at the music that filled the tent.

Our group went up to the dance floor and danced to the familiar tunes from the 80s and a bit from the 90s. There was also alot of jumping to certain songs.

We all had beer of cause and i only had 2 which is little as compared to the group i was with. I had 2 regular sized ones, and just sips from the gigantic ones which is about 6 regular ones.

We all had fun, food, beer, dancing and alot of laughter… what can one ask for more on a friday evening… Look out for Erdinger Oktoberfest 2008!!