FIRST, there was Singapore Fashion Week. Then Art Stage and its peripheral events raised the profile of art buying in Singapore. Now, Singapore design is in the limelight with a brand new festival that takes design out of the drawing studio and into real life.

Singapore Design Week (SDW) 2014 kicks off on Monday until Mar 16 with an activity-packed schedule that has no less than 50 local and international design events taking centre stage at the brand new National Design Centre in Middle Road and elsewhere around the city.

Whether you're a furniture or product designer, a house proud aesthete looking for the next conversation piece, or just anyone who likes pretty things, the SDW aims to please with its combination of both commercial and consumer interests. Scale-wise, it's the biggest such event so far, with the DesignSingapore Council joining forces with the Singapore Furniture Industries Council (SFIC) and DesignS - a collective of industry players - to play up the role of design in business and society, and bringing Singapore closer to its target of being Asia's design hub.