A Knack for Design

THE TERM 'X' Factor is often bandied as that inexplicable, indefinable trait that makes someone stand out from the rest. This is especially true in the world of design, says veteran Kelley Cheng, who puts the 'X' factor down to an intuitive mind that is able to discern beauty in any scenario.

"Some people just know how to make things look good," says the founder of design firm, The Press Room, adding that the essence of design lies in proportion and composition.

"With training and practice, you can get these two elements right," she says. "But what makes a design stand out is the artistic and intuitive touch which is more emotional and cannot be taught."

Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa, who designed the minimalist wall mounted CD player for Muji, is one of her favourite designers. "His style is always about distilling design to its most basic intuitive element, and what he does for products is very much what I pursue in my own work."

With 20 years of practice under her belt, designing everything from books, exhibitions, magazines, interiors to posters and marketing collaterals, Ms Cheng, 47, clearly knows what she is talking about.

It also explains why she has named her retrospective exhibition, Proportion & Emotion. The exhibition is part of the SG Designer Milestone Series line-up, and is co-presented by DesignSingapore Council.

While she trained as an architect, Ms Cheng only practised it for several months, after realising that the job entailed "very little designing, but a lot of paperwork and drafting."

She had always had an interest in writing and design, and in 1999, took a leap of faith to start ish, a design magazine at a time when there was little platform to discuss the topic seriously in Singapore. It had a worldwide distribution of 10,000 copies and put Singaporean designers on the world map. Then in 2009, she started The Press Room.

For the exhibition, she's picked 20 projects, which either marked a career milestone or something she was passionate about. Naturally, ish is one of them. Her other picks include branding for Art Stage Singapore, where she found inspiration in the colours of Asian fabrics; Night and Day, a bar and gallery she ran so that the design community had a space to gather; and Jervois Prive, where she did the branding and marketing collaterals for a luxury boutique condominium. The cover of the marketing brochure resembles a painting, instead of a typical hero shot of the condo.

The second part of her exhibition showcases 20 new works, on which she collaborated with her designer friends from around the world.

"I also wanted to be able to mark my 20 years with the design community at large," she says.

More than just a showcase of various projects, Ms Cheng, through her exhibition, also asks if art can be design and vice versa.

"Art is free and expressive, and the artist has the freedom to do what he wants," she says.

"But design always comes with a brief, a set of expectations," she says.

She hopes that visitors will come away from the exhibition understanding how, even after fulfilling her design briefs, she was able to instill a level of artistic creativity beyond the obvious.

For the 20 new works, she gave the designers, such as Singapore's Theseus Chan, and Hong Kong's Freeman Lau, free reign to do whatever they wished, with a base artwork that she created for them. Ms Cheng wanted to see what the designers could come up with when they were given the same artistic freedom.

Now into the third decade of her career, she hopes to go back to her ish days, when she could tell stories her way. "Running the magazine was tough, but it enriched my life. I may do something similar like ish, but it will be on a digital platform," she says.

Proportion & Emotion: 20 Years in Design with Kelley Cheng 1999 - 2019 is on till Jan 5, at the National Design Centre, 111 Middle Road, Atrium, Level 1. The exhibition is also online at kelleycheng.com.