New beginnings

de-funk has decided to be on hiatus, as we are shifting our aims.

We will be shifting to designcircus.tumblr.com, do check us out.

Design circus are a medley of design enthusiasts consisting of academics, practitioners and students with a shared passion and curiosity concerning design.

Seeking to discover the world of design in different Asian cities, this traveling troupe will explore design museums, libraries, educational institutions,
commercial centers, and design studios within each country, with a series of workshops and small talks.

Primarily through exposure to the design culture of other countries, Design circus aims to connect designers from various backgrounds and encourage discussion and experience sharing.

In turn this would inspire participants to build a positive design culture by enabling learning and experimentation beyond the limitations of professional practice by way of collaboration.

From the said journey of discovery, the outcome will be documented in various forms of communication such as case studies, critique sessions or exhibitions.

The exchange could support a deeper understanding of the contributions of graphic design to contemporary and historic cultural development as well as the role of the graphic designers in their own society in the context of Asia.

Hillman Curtis: Artist Video Series

I was at AIGA's website browsing around when I came across a series of short interesting artist videos created by Hillman Curtis. Curtis basically went and interviewed some of the most influential and profound graphic designers to date from Milton Glaser (guilty of "I Love New York") and various other designers.

Theres also a short interview from Aiga with Curtis regarding about the project he intiated to interview and document with these short videos here.

Singapore down below.

When we dropped down to Singapore a few months ago, we visited two amazing companies. The first we visited was Asylum at An Siang Hill, beautiful street with old preserved or renovated colonial architecture with pubs, old movie houses, bookshops, designer goods and of course Asylum. Asylum has been at the forefront of small leading design companies in Singapore with award winnings from all over the world, since opening its doors from 1999.

The interesting thing about the Asylum is the office is in the basement, with a very big reception area above which usually transforms itself into various different venues from restaurants, ice carving exhibitions to a design shop selling various local and international goods. Asylum has a refreshing array of work that is somewhat whimsical but also well conceptualize. Going beyond just the means of graphic and multimedia, they work themselves into designing spaces.

We'll be having more info on this place with the very overdue Singapore trip update.


We also had the pleasure of visiting another one of Singapore's leading design firms, the hybrid company Kinetic. Part of the mothership Adplanet, Kinetic appears to be an experimental lab from the advertising area. Having span a variety of work from musicians, furniture companies to real estate and Nike, Kinetic is an adaptable, innovative and has a somewhat playful approach to their work. Kinetic also has won various awards, and has some pet projects that is conscious of trying to aware the public of children abuse by creating books that potrays images and short stories that talk about this issue.

Andrew and the creative economy

If you missed British Council's shindig, last week where Andew Senior drop down to give a talk fear not! Do check out this week's dosage of the Fairly Current Show, as they invite Andew Senior, Head of the Creative Programming at British Council. He indulges us on the subject of creative economies in UK and other regions and further elaborated on how the industries can play a pivotal role in the economy.

Do check out http://creativeconomy.org.uk

more updates soon!

Pecha Kucha Night

Back by popular demand, Pecha Kucha Night, the global design networking/social event that draws creative talents together is back for its fourth instalment!

Featuring:
Edwin Raj – A&R manager at Homegrown Records and guitarist from They Will Kill Us All
Gavin Yap – Actor/director/writer/producer extraordinaire
Kioue AND Tha-b – Graffiti artist from Super Sunday Enterprise
Maswari Asmawar – A designer you want to know more about
Shahril Nizam – Super talented illustrator and poet.
Robyn Eckhardt – Food reviewer and travel writer
And more…

We’re also officially announcing the Malaysian finalist for our International Young Design Entrepreneur (IYDE) 2008 award! Join us in congratulating and wishing him luck before it’s off to the finals in London this September.

DJ Cliq will be spinning cool tunes so if you’re up for a fun, laid-back night listening to creative people talk about inspirational things, come along and experience the eclectic range of topics and images for yourself.

What Pecha Kucha Night Vol. 4
Date Saturday, 12th July
Time 7.30p.m – 10.00p.m
Venue The Annexe Gallery @ Central Market Annexe
Jalan Hang Kasturi
Kuala Lumpur

Note This is a free public event!

More about it:

Pecha Kucha (pronounced peh-chak-cha) was started in Tokyo, Japan in 2003 by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Klein Dytham Architecture. Presenters give a slideshow of 20 images, each shown for only 20 seconds — giving a total presentation time of 6 minutes 40 seconds.

The brief the presenters are given is no brief! They can talk about any subject of choice, as long as they keep to the time and format. With presenters made up mostly from the creative and design fields, Pecha Kucha Nights are great for networking, only more fun.

Don’t worry about registering; just grab your friends for a night of lots of talk.

To find out more visit www.britishcouncil.org.my

Local Shindigs!

Urbanscapes is organised by KLue and is the first and only all-day “user-generated” creative arts festival. Urbanscapes aims to bring together communities and participants from the fields of music, arts, lifestyle, film under a single banner to showcase the best of the local scene. Previous Urbanscapes events took place in 2002 (Grappa Soho) and 2004 (KL Sentral). Urbanscapes 2008 will feature involvement from KLue's sister publications Junk and Tongue In Chic. Junk will be hosting the music stages, while Tongue In Chic will be bringing some colour and fashion flair to the marketplace.



The Fairly Current Show, a weekly Internet TV programme focusing on current and quirky affairs in Malaysia. Their very first guest is landscape architect Ng Sek San, who speaks about resident actions to stop the chopping down of 40 year-old angsana trees in Bangsar. Upcoming guests include Adrian Yap, Shanon Shah, Jacqueline Ann Surin, Pete Teo and Yasmin Ahmad.

Enjoy and pass around to your friends.



The Weekend, an exciting new site that features independent Malaysian musicians has just come online. Come see our songsters in action through interview and exclusive performance sessions. You can catch that talented troubadour, Azmyl Yunor, in the first session out 27 July at www.the-wknd.com (and soon on PopTeeVee too!). The site will later evolve to accommodate merchandising (songs, t-shirts, stuff like that ya know) and other cool bits and bobs.

Look for them at urbanscapes also!

Giggles with Stavros and Mr Potato

I present to you, Stavros, the creator of position art. Stavros is the brainchild of Nokia's new N90 phones using GPRS systems to make 'art'. Overall a well design website (if only it wasn't in full flash), good solid idea and Stavros with his position art might just leave you giggling like a high school girl.



Came across this ad sometime ago on kennysia's blog, have a watch here. A gentle reminder that our spicy tomyam neighbours at the north are still pretty ingenius at making ads.