LASALLE College of the Arts lecturers and award-winning designer Nathan Yong lead the partnership for students to showcase their talent at the eighth Laneway Festival Singapore.
Laneway Festival Singapore will sport a newly-added element to the 2018 edition: SEATS, spaces and furniture designed and installed by LASALLE College of the Arts students.
Laneway Festival has always considered a connection to the local creative community one of its strengths, second only to its line-up. Past editions have featured the H&M Flow Bench by designer Nathan Yong, the Kiehl’s Illustration Wall by illustration collective Tell Your Children, and the Budweiser Sound Chamber by product designer Andrew Loh.
On the music front, Laneway Singapore has teamed up with Singapore collective Syndicate. Local F&B businesses such as Popaganda popsicles and The Traveling C.O.W are also regulars at the festival. The Australian legs of the festival have included marketplaces for creatives to showcase their artistic work and skills, including craft-making and barbering.
With the SEATS project, Laneway Festival Singapore invites students to channel their imagination into actual products that will be experienced by festival goers. The students are being mentored by their lecturers Mr Daniel Pillai and Nathan Yong (Product Design).
Four designs have been shortlisted from submissions by Level 2 and Level 3 BA(Hons) Interior Design and Product Design students from LASALLE's School of Spatial & Product Design. Red Bull is sponsoring these four designs, which will be produced by The Merry Men Works and featured on-site at the festival.
“The challenge for the students is to create production-feasible furniture without compromising the creative use of materials, and to find new ways of looking at furniture while incorporating Laneway’s requirements. Looking at the final proposals and without interfering in each student’s aesthetic view, we hope we have come up with pieces that are both functional and interesting,” said Mr Yong, who owns Nathan Yong Design and the homegrown design store, Grafunkt.
Cover image: Tan Si Hui, #SWIs Chair
