Future Impact (2023)
Showcasing Singapore on the global design stage
The nation of Singapore is a modern day marvel. In just sixty years, the ‘Little Red Dot’ transformed from a small fishing village into a global economic powerhouse.
As it looks towards the next 60 years, Singapore is focused on design and the creative industries as a key source of future economic growth.
In 2022, the DesignSingapore Council (Dsg), a subsidiary of the Singapore Economic Development Board, appointed TC & Friends with the task of showcasing Singapore design on the global stage.
Our solution was to curate, produce and deliver an annual showcase called ‘Future Impact’ championing the best and latest in Singapore design. With two exhibitions per year at Milan Design Week and Singapore Design Week, Future Impact was curated by our founder and creative director Tony Chambers and Italian curator Maria Cristina Didero.
Client
Singapore Economic Development Board
DesignSingapore Council
Services
Curation
Art Direction
Brand Strategy
Visual Identity
Exhibition Design
Logo Design
Location Scouting
Event Production & Programming
For the debut year of Future Impact at Milan Design Week, we sourced and managed the majestic Bastioni di Porta Venezia as a venue. Built as an imposing Milanese city gate in the 19th century, the venue was a fitting declaration of intent.
Bastioni di Porta Venezia
TC worked alongside Maria Cristina Didero as co-curators
Aerial view of Corso Venezia
Studio Juju’s ‘Coffee’ Coffee Tables
As well as curation, we handled the art direction, graphic design, social media and production for Future Impact.
Participants of Future Impact included the following luminaries of Singapore design: Forest & Whale, Studio Juju, Tiffany Loy, Gabriel Tan, Nathan Yong and Viewport Studio.
Each designer produced new, engaging works that addressed the curatorial themes of Design Futures (design solutions in sustainability and cutting-edge technology) and Design Impact (design solutions that address pressing global challenges).
More than a stage for the latest designs, Future Impact was a declarative display of Singapore’s ingenuity and creative DNA. Practical, strategic and innovative, the annual showcase has continued to propel and position Singapore as a global design titan with a bright vision of the future.
For the exhibition design we worked closely with Milan-based Design Studio, DWA. With DWA we co-created a design approach favouring minimal intervention which emphasised the designers’ work and the elegance of the location.
To further enhance the audience experience we created a dedicated ‘materials room’ within the venue, which contained ‘touch and feel’ samples of materials used in the show, giving visitors deeper sensory engagement with the works on display.
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