Nation by Design: Reimagining Singaporean Identity

Nation by Design: Reimagining Singaporean IdentityA district activation at Singapore Science Park for Singapore Design Week 2025

13–21 September | Exhibition · Panel Discussion · Workshop

In a time of global flux, Nation by Design examines how design functions as both a tool of reinvention and a lens through which Singapore’s national identity is continuously shaped, questioned, and reimagined. Against the backdrop of the Singapore Science Park, a space of innovation and inquiry, this 9-day activation brings together historical narratives, lived experiences, and speculative futures to explore the interplay between official nation-building efforts and community-centred design responses.

PANEL DISCUSSION

Official Narratives, Lived Realities: The Cultural Work of Design

Sunday, 14 September 2025, 2pm to 3pm, REINVENTION Stage, Geneo,1 Science Park Drive, Singapore 118221

This one-hour panel discussion brings together four voices across design practice, education, and research to unpack the role of communication design in shaping national identity. Moderated by Dr Regine Abos from RMIT University, the panel includes doctoral researcher Alan Fong, RMIT design academic Dr Nicola St John, Singaporean designer and typographer Mark de Winne, and recent RMIT-SIM graduate Kristen Mah.

Drawing on diverse perspectives, the panel will explore questions such as:

• How have Singapore’s nation-branding strategies evolved from post-colonial formation to global city-branding?

• In what ways do visual design elements (typography, colour, iconography) communicate belonging or reinforce exclusion?

• How can designers mediate between institutional narratives and the nuanced realities of everyday life?

• What role does design education play in helping emerging designers articulate their own cultural positions?

The discussion will weave together theoretical insights and lived experiences, exploring how design not only reflects cultural identity but actively constructs it. In doing so, it asks a central question: how might design create the conditions for more plural, dialogic, and future-facing understandings of nationhood?

Whether addressing the aesthetics of policy, the storytelling of grassroots initiatives, or the politics of design authorship, this session opens space for critical reflection on what it means to design for, and from within, a complex, multicultural society.

WORKSHOP

Designing Nationhood: Belonging Beyond the Frame

Sunday, 14 September 2025, 3.30pm to 4.30pm, Blk 1A Lobby, 1A Science Park Drive at Geneo, Singapore 118221

This hands-on, two-hour workshop invites students, educators, industry professionals, and the general public to explore the theme of belonging by interpreting and reimagining national symbols and cultural codes. Participants will reflect on their personal and collective relationships to elements of Singapore’s visual identity (such as flags, emblems, colours, and typefaces) and consider how these symbols include, exclude, or evolve across different contexts.

Through collaborative activities like mapping, collage, and dialogue, the workshop fosters a space for critical engagement and creative expression. Participants will experiment with remixing familiar visual forms to propose alternative narratives of identity and community, informed by their lived experiences and aspirations for the future.

By surfacing diverse perspectives and fostering shared authorship, the workshop supports a deeper understanding of how design shapes collective identity and how reinvention can begin with reimagining the symbols we often take for granted.

EXHIBITION

Nation by Design: Visualising Identity Across Time and Perspective

13–21 September, Blk 1A Lobby,1A Science Park Drive at Geneo, Singapore 118221

Part research archive, part design provocation, this exhibition traces the evolving visual language of Singapore’s national identity, from official campaigns to everyday lived expressions. At its core is a juxtaposition between institutional branding artefacts drawn from RMIT doctoral researcher Alan Fong’s study and contemporary projects created by RMIT-SIM communication design students.

Fong’s research delves into the symbolic communication of national narratives through tourism branding, National Day Parade logos, and public campaigns, revealing how state-directed design efforts aim to shape belonging in a multicultural society. Using visual grammar frameworks, the exhibition decodes how iconography, typography, and colour palettes function as cultural signifiers across time.

Alongside this, the RMIT-SIM student works respond to contemporary social issues, including aged care, the revival of Chinese dialects, and the experiences of foreign domestic workers, filtered through the students’ own intersectional identities as young designers. Their works, encompassing print, film, and interactive media, act as both mirrors and interventions, responding to or expanding on dominant narratives.

This curated exhibition highlights the dialogue between top-down and grassroots visual languages, inviting visitors to consider how symbols shape civic identity and how design might make space for more plural and participatory expressions of nationhood.

Host or Publisher RMIT University and Singapore Institute of Mangement