ABOUT SDW 2024

One of Asia’s premier design festivals, Singapore Design Week (SDW) celebrates Singapore’s distinctive brand of creativity, exploring design through three defining festival pillars: Design Futures, Design Marketplace, and Design Impact.

Organised by the DesignSingapore Council (Dsg), SDW is a celebration of creativity and innovation, championing thought leadership and showcasing the best of design from Singapore and beyond in our UNESCO City of Design.

DESIGN FUTURES

Design Futures will explore the future of design through Singapore’s forward-looking lens, aiming to prototype a better future for us all. The pillar aligns with Singapore’s strengths and reputation as a futuristic city of design and innovation economy. Upholding this pillar is SDW’s flagship Design Futures Forum, which returns with an expanded format in 2024 that will be held across two days.

Keynote speaker and “godmother of the metaverse” Cathy Hackl (CEO, Spatial Dynamics) will join segment curators, Singapore-based venture capitalist Debra Langley (Venture Partner, Lyra Ventures), Aric Chen (General and Artistic Director, Het Nieuwe Instituut), and DesignSingapore Council’s Tamsin Greulich-Smith (Director, School of X) to usher in insights from fellow thought leaders on design’s critical role in areas of Emerging Technology, Sustainability and Care.

Through thought-provoking presentations, engaging panel discussions and interactive hands-on sessions, the role of design and designers in the face of rapidly advancing technologies will be thoroughly examined, encouraging participants to enact change in their own spheres of influence thereafter.

The Design Futures Forum visual by Practice Theory highlights the unfolding of rich narratives, with the opening of layered tabs revealing the depth and expansiveness of the discipline.

DESIGN MARKETPLACE

Design Marketplace will unite lifestyle trends from around the world with the fast-growing design community of the Southeast Asia region. FIND – Design Fair Asia, Asia’s largest design trade fair, presents its third edition at Marina Bay Sands from 26 to 28 September 2024.

EMERGE @ FIND, Dsg’s talent showcase dedicated to Southeast Asian contemporary design, curated by Suzy Annetta of Design Anthology, returns with the theme of “These Precious Things”. Over 50 emerging and established designers from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam will present new works that explore ideas of both internal and external value. For 2024, the Southeast Asian showcase will place new emphasis on recently graduated designers from the region; through a new partnership with online art gallery, The Artling, works by presenting designers will also be available for purchase.

FIND – Design Fair Asia (left) and EMERGE @ FIND (right) at Marina Bay Sands during SDW 2023. Photos courtesy of FIND – Design Fair Asia.

DESIGN IMPACT

Design Impact will inspire with innovative and impactful design solutions that tackle society’s biggest questions. The Future Impact 2: Homecoming Showcase is a key event of this pillar. It debuted at Milan Design Week 2024 featuring seven designers: Christian+Jade, David Lee, Faezah Shaharuddin, Gabriel Tan, Genevieve Ang and Interactive Materials Lab, Tiffany Loy and Zavier Wong. The much-anticipated return to local shores will see the exhibition run for eight weeks at the Asian Civilisations Museum with some designers refreshing their pieces for this special return show.

Works showcased at Future Impact 2 during Milan Design Week 2024. Photos by Mark Cocksedge.

PAST EDITIONS

Following a two-year review, SDW returned in 2022 with a brand new vision that carves a distinctive and enduring niche by focusing on Singapore’s unique design strengths. Proclaimed “A bigger, bolder flagship design fest” by The Straits Times, SDW 2022 brought together more than 70 events and 200 designers over 10 days, and welcomed over 300,000 local, regional and international visitors.

Playground of Possibilities at National Design Centre, as part of Singapore Design Week 2023. Photo by Pretty Much Films.

In 2023, the festival saw an expanded range of offerings with over 80 events across the city-state, including three major special commissions by homegrown design trail-blazers, three Design Districts, 163 international partners and 214 expert speakers – bringing the total number of designers and creatives involved to more than 500.

Coinciding with Dsg’s 20th anniversary, the theme of this year’s festival was inspired by the council’s motto Better by Design. The theme exemplifies what Singapore Design stands for – the desire to always make lives better, that is borne from a strong sense of creative purpose and crafted for positive impact.

More than 127,000 visitors participated in the 11-day festival held at various locations across the island. A key highlight introduced this year was Design Districts that included the Bras Basah.Bugis Design District, curated by Singaporean designer Jackson Tan, co-founder of BLACK, where the festival commissions by BLACK, Lekker Architects and Kinetic Singapore took centrestage in the district.