Gideon Kong
- MA (Research), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
- BA Communication Design, Glasgow School of Art, Singapore Institute of Technology, Singapore
- Diploma in Product and Industrial Design, Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore
Gideon Kong is a designer based in Singapore who co-runs gideon-jamie, a small design studio involved in graphic design, publishing, workshops, and design writing. The studio started Temporary Press in 2018, a micro-publishing press producing content in art and design and whose titles are distributed worldwide by Idea Books (Amsterdam) and have been stocked in The Book Society (Seoul), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Post Books (Japan), and Printed Matter (New York). Since 2020, they also run Temporary Unit, an ad hoc exhibition space and bookshop.
In 2021, Gideon completed his MA research on contemporary critical and artistic graphic design practice and contributed to publications from IDEA magazine (Japan), Mediabus (South Korea), Workroom Specter (South Korea), Neutral Colors (Japan), and Spector Books (Germany). He has participated in exhibitions such as Solidarity Spores (Gwangju, South Korea), Fikra Graphic Design Biennial (Sharjah) and 26th International Biennial of Graphic Design Brno (Czech Republic).
Research and Practice
Presentations/talks
- On the Diversity of Self-Publishing (panel presentation), CutCopyPaste at Temasek Polytechnic (2023)
- Open Book 7 (dialogue), Page Break residency curatorial project by Berny Tan at Singapore Art Museum (2023)
- Publishing as Practice , dialogue with Perimeter Books, Melbourne, Singapore International Photography Festival (2022)
- Live Radio: Taiwan x Southeast Asia (presentation), organised by Fotobook DUMMIES Day; Taiwan, (2022)
- Dear Students (panel discussion), Typographics Typelab Asia (2022)
- Design & (Saving) Money (panel presentation), National Design Centre, Singapore, organised by Studio SML (2022)
- Hacking Design Practice, Pillow Lava School (2021)
- Between Publishing and Design, The Book Society; Seoul, (2019)
Exhibitions/fairs
- abC Art Book Fair, Beijing (2023)
- Useless Work, Temporary Unit (2021)
- Solidarity Spores – Common Interests: Conversation of Young East Asian Graphic Designers, Asia Culture Center, curated by Sulki & Min and Tetsuya Goto; South Korea (2020)
- Singapore Art Book Fair (2018–2023)
Publications
- Temporary Press, interview response in Publishing As Method: Ways of Working Together in Asia, South Korea: Mediabus (2023)
- Street Report 4: Seatings, Singapore: Temporary Press (2023)
- Explained by Sulki and Min, catalogue essay in Group Theory, South Korea: Workroom Specter (2022)
- Critical and Artistic Dimensions of Graphic Design: A Case Study of Sulki and Min’s Practice as Graphic Design Research, MA (Research) thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (2021)
- Forming Cityscapes: Small Interventions and Appropriations in the City, book chapter in Hard State Soft City: The Urban Imaginative Field in Singapore, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press (2020)
- Fikra Biennial, text contribution in IDEA no.386, Japan: Seibundo Shinkosha (2019)
- Vanishing Workflows, conversation with Xavier Antin in Vanishing Workflows, Singapore: Temporary Press (2019)
- Varying Progressions: Selected Graphic Symbols of Singapore, 1956–2003, conversation with Justin Zhuang in Fikra Biennial, Sharjah (2018)
- Looking at The Design Society Journal: The Early Attempts of Design Authorship in Graphic Design from Singapore 2009–2013, in Conference Proceedings for 10th Conference of the International Committee for Design History & Design Studies, Taipei Taiwan (2016)
Research interests
- Graphic design research
- Publishing as practice
- Critical graphic design practice
- Book design and typography