DESIGN INSPIRATION INTERVIEW

“TEN MINUTES WITH (DRUMROLL) Jessica Tan”

Name: Jessica Tan
Company: the purple ink
Designation: writer & designer

http://www.thepurpleink.com

Who are you and what do you do? Can you identify a design style that defines you?

I’m a writer who spends her time reading, writing and traveling. I write for local and international magazines – covering business, art, design and travel. I’m working on my first piece of fiction work, too. I’m also a designer. Well, technically, I’m a redesigner. I refurbish old furniture. Mostly, chairs. My design style? Soulful, vintage designs with a contemporary twist. I also love styles that are at the same time unexpected and quirky. the purple ink is my workshop or studio. It’s a place and space where I do what I enjoy doing – be it writing, working on ideas for refurbished chairs or anything else that’s creative.

What inspires this specific style for you? What drove you to this style? How did this come about?

I love history. I’m a history graduate. Everything has a history. What I love about updated vintage designs is the fact that history is being honored.  I refurbish old chairs that have been discarded or sold to secondhand dealers.  These chairs may be aged and worn, but they still possess soul and great bones. I guess, I’m just a hopeless romantic at heart. I see beauty in even the most seemingly mundane of things. I get inspiration from everywhere. When I see a worn and used chair – I don’t see something that’s ugly, battered and old. I see possibilities of a second life, a second chance to shine again. I can’t really pinpoint what drove me to such a style. In many ways, the style is a manifestation of who I am – my beliefs in life and the lenses through which I experience life. When I was renovating my first apartment – I wanted it to be an honest reflection of the person living in it. When it came to the furnishing of it – I was looking everywhere for vintage looking chairs. You know, the ones that we often see in Elle Décor or Living Etc…  I couldn’t find anything that I liked. And so I decided to buy secondhand chairs to refurbish them. That was how it all came about.

Why do you do what you do? What gets you out of bed in the morning?

A couple of years back – just before I decided to drop out from the rat race (ie, hold a office 9-5 job) I felt something new bubbling inside me. (Maybe it was there all along, but I didn’t sense it) I just felt the need to create something – anything – with my hands. There was this need to work with my hands. This need to create. I can’t explain why exactly. And so I decided to take more seriously my creative projects – writing prose and some poetry, I even tried painting. Even keeping myself busy with gardening was fulfilling. I guess, I do what I do because I love creating – coming up with ideas, be it for my stories, poems, chair designs or a crazy new project. Life is short – And I intend to fill my days with work that I love doing and I believe in.

When did you come into this business? Tell us the story of how it all started.

It all started mid 2007 – when I decided to refurbish old secondhand chairs for my dining area. There was a certain look in my mind that I wanted to create for my dining room, I just couldn’t find the table or chairs to bring that image to life. And so I set myself the task of making them. When I finally put it all together – creating the look I wanted, I realized how much I enjoyed redesigning old furniture. Over dinner, one night with a couple of close friends – my friends and I were just goofing around in the dining area when the idea of doing my first collection – the Hepburn chairs – came about. I decided to just go for it. A couple of months later, the Hepburn collection emerged.

Where do you draw your inspiration from? Do you follow a specific idea generation method, design process? How do you do what you do?

When it comes to redesigning old chairs – fabrics inspire me a lot. Looking at fabrics somehow fires up my imagination – alerting me to the possibilities of countless of different looks and styles that are possible on an old chair. The colors, textures and emotion of fabrics can be very powerful creative tools. I shop for fabrics when I go away on my travels. I store them in my workshop – while I look for the perfect chairs  to carry the fabrics off.

How do you see design now and where do you see it going? Where are you going, as a designer?

I believe that the DesignSingapore Council has done a great job thus far, building up awareness of design in daily life, education and businesses – we are seeing also a lot of younger designers in Singapore emerging – product designers, fashion designer etcs… they are all stepping out. Personally, I believe that design is within everyone’s reach. After all, design is a form of expression. Everyone needs to express themselves. Everyone needs design in some form to exist as a human being. I follow David Kelley, founder of design firm IDEO and director at Stanford D-School, very closely. This guy’s brilliant and definitely ahead of his times. People are finally catching on with him – he believes the importance of design not only in products, but also processes. He believes that design should also stamp our way of thinking. I believe this stems from the post-industrial need to feel more connected to fellow human beings and with oneself. If you think about it, there’s a design element in everything – design colors how we interface with human experiences & emotions (listening to music with an iPod, storing our memories through digital photos and blogs etc), objects (chairs, tables and cars) and people (there’s design embedded in process of using Facebook, Twitter etc.).

It almost feels as if there’s this little switch in our heads: once it’s triggered, you finally begin to see design everywhere.

Each of us carry personal wisdom from our own unique experiences. What words of wisdom do you have for other designers and aspiring designers?

Be honest and stay true to yourself. I believe every artist has a vision in their mind’s eye whenever they are working on a project – be true to that vision/image regardless of trends, fads and all the outside chatter.

Twitter is a useful medium for listening, learning, and sharing. For those in the media and communications and design industries, it’s also a rapid and immersive education in meaningful, two-way micro messaging.

The friending races, theatrics, and contests to tempt those into following individuals can be fun, but short-sighted, when in fact the true technique for building relationships, regardless of volume, is the genuine act of earning and investing in them. It’s rooted in selflessness and rewarded with a rich stream of relevance and a network of valuable contacts that can also help you in the real world.

The Twitter culture evolves though the greater collective of those who invest in the caliber and meaningful dynamic of the micro exchanges. We experience is by what we share, learn, and discover, what and who we follow and spotlight, and how we give back to those who help us and others.

Here are the Top tips on Promoting Your Designs and Your Self on Twitter:

• Twitter asks what you are doing. Instead answer the question, What do you think we are better off knowing right now? Other questions to consider…What/who inspires you? What just happened? What am I missing? What did you learn today? What’s out on the Web worth sharing on Twitter?
• Curate and share helpful and applicable content on the stream and apply relevance and/or context. Offer perspective. You are unique and your ideas, opinions, and experience can help or offer value to those who are learning.The public should be included in almost everything you share.
  
• Earn a reputation and authority based on the niche you establish for yourself, reinforced by the tweets your post and share.

For the First time, Workforce Development Agency WDA is organising an event in supportof the Ministry of Information Communication and the Arts MICA to showcase the various job, career conversion and skills upgrading opportunities in the Creative Industries.

The Largest annual international design even held in Malaysia. Features cutting edge creativity and design innovation. Check it out – http://kldesignweek.com/

A must have for designers /iphone users. A very cool app, only that iphone camera does not take images in macro mode, and small text come out blurred. Apart from that, it works very nicely. Download at myfonts.com.

Hello everybody,

Today, designheir.com has a new home. After long deliberation, I’ve decided to transfer designheir.com to a self hosted wordpress blog. Blogger was getting a bit slow and difficult to customise. Downloaded a simple and easy free theme by bloggsessive. This looks much better!  Affordable and reliable hosting now provided by giraffedomains.com!