Malaysian product brand Aureole Design founder Wei Ming Tan, Indonesian design studio Adhi Nugraha Design founder Adhi Nugraha, Vietnamese furniture designer Huy H. Nguyen, Bangkok-based artist and designer Saruta ‘Pin’ Kiatparkpoom are among the international speakers at the inaugural edition of FIND - Design Fair Asia (Furniture, Interiors and Design).

FIND - Design Fair Asia, the leading design fair in Asia, has announced details about its upcoming event which includes new and dynamic creative partners to bring the creative industry from the West and the East.

Image courtesy of FIND - Design Fair Asia

FIND - Design Fair Asia will take place at Safdie Architects-designed Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre from 22 September to 24 September, 2022 in Singapore.

World Architecture Community is official media partner for the inaugural edition of FIND - Design Fair Asia and will be bringing you the latest news and highlights from the design fair. 

Tony Chambers. Image courtesy of Tony Chambers

Tastemakers and key opinion leaders; creative director and design consultant Tony Chambers, and design journalist and author Yoko Choy will be responsible for the creativity and content pillar of the fair.

The design fair aims to create an opportunity for exchange and inspiration in the convergence of West and East and a platform for global designers to showcase their work.

Yoko Choy. Image courtesy of Yoko Choy

Together with the FIND team, Tony and Yoko are going to bring some of the best talents and practitioners in the design industry to the FIND – Global Summit, which will be a highlight of the fair, and share their ideas and visions through the online and offline platforms the organizers are going to build.

The summit will explore six main topics at the event: Sustainable Development, Post-pandemic Hospitality, Biophilic Design Movement, The Future of Wellness, Designing the Metaverse, and the 3Cs -in the creative industry – Creativity, Commerce and Communication.

The speakers will be exploring the role of design and other aspects of creative businesses under these topics. 

Indonesian design studio Adhi Nugraha Design founder Adhi Nugraha will be one of speakers at FIND. Image courtesy of Adhi Nugraha

"FIND – Design Fair Asia will be much more than a trade fair"

"FIND is the perfect word for our fair as it hints at all the things that make designers what they are: a ceaseless curiosity, and a desire to observe, search, learn and discover. We are all striving to find new ways to solve society’s ever-changing challenges," said tastemaker and key opinion leader Tony Chambers. 

"FIND – Design Fair Asia will be much more than a trade fair. It will be a platform for connecting and networking, enhanced by provocative conversations, engagements and workshops. It will be a great place to discover the powerful synergy between creativity and commerce – with the growing importance of Southeast Asia being of huge importance to the international community," Chambers added.

Bangkok-based artist and designer Saruta ‘Pin’ Kiatparkpoom will be one of speakers at FIND. Image courtesy of Saruta ‘Pin’ Kiatparkpoom

EMERGE @ FIND will put emphasis on new design talents of Southeast Asia

There is another key section, titled EMERGE @ FIND, at the fair which will put an emphasis on new design talents of Southeast Asia. 

This section, organized by FIND – Design Fair Asia and DesignSingapore Council, will be putting the spotlight firmly on Southeast Asia design talents for the first edition of EMERGE @ FIND. 

This part is aimed to be a definitive platform that is Asia’s answer for up-and-coming creators and designers – during the Singapore Design Week. 

Suzy Annetta. Image courtesy of Suzy Annetta

Founding editor-in-chief of the acclaimed Design Anthology magazine which documents and celebrates designers from Asia Pacific, Suzy Annetta, is curator of the showcase of EMERGE @ FIND. 

"Annetta who also co-authored a compendium of leading young designers working across the region, Design in Asia: The Next Wave, will be working with more than 50 Southeast Asian designers to present fresh works for EMERGE @ FIND through the lens of materiality," said FIND – Design Fair Asia. 

They will be categorised under the following four pillars: Natural & Local which includes designers and designs that utilise natural and/or local materials; Waste which includes designers and designs working with waste materials, offcuts, salvaged or recycled materials; Innovation featuring designers and designs that utilise innovative materials, or conventional materials in innovative ways; and Unconventional showing designers and designs that use unconventional materials or conventional materials in unconventional ways.

Image © Spacejoy/Unsplash

Alvin Tjitrowirjo from Indonesia and Wei Ming Tan from Malaysia alongside rising designers Karyn Lim, Robert Sukrachand, Hoang Anh Vu and Jim Zarate-Torres from Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines are among top designers at EMERGE @ FIND section. 

"Southeast Asia is filled with such an abundance of design talent that we have had the pleasure to curate a group of creators from six countries in the region who will present their work surrounding the theme of material at EMERGE @ FIND in September. They range from emerging to established, and are at the forefront of an international reframing of our existing production, commercial and economic models," said Suzy Annetta, curator of EMERGE @ FIND.

"Their work exemplifies their roots through the use of, and sets new precedents on, material usage that will inspire their colleagues, communities, clients and end users." 

"And materiality is a perfect unifying theme for the first edition of EMERGE @ FIND that will be unveiled during Singapore Design Week. It is at once local and global, distinguishing and unifying cultures while contributing to social reality and environments everywhere," Annetta added.

Image © José Jóvena/Unsplash 

Building a Community of Design Creatives

As part of FIND – Design Fair Asia’s efforts to build and bring together a convivial community of interior designers, architects and stakeholders in the creative design business, it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Society of Interior Designers and Asia-Pacific Space Designers Association (APSDA) to have both organisations host their events at the fair. 

The former will host its awards dinner at Marina Bay Sands on 23rd September 2022 while the latter will chair its annual board meeting at the same property, bringing together key board members from across its 14 regional offices.

"One of APSDA’s continuous missions is to elevate the professionalism and standards of the spatial and interior designers in Asia Pacific. FIND – Design Fair Asia is definitely a good melting pot for all national and regional industry leaders to congregate at and interact," said Prof Keat Ong, President of SIDS.

Industrial designer Karyn Lim based in Singapore is among top designers at EMERGE @ FIND section. Image © Sayher Heffernan

Partnership with Singapore Furniture Industries Council

FIND – Design Fair Asia has partnered with Singapore Furniture Industries Council (SFIC) to provide up to 70 per cent funding for eligible companies looking to exhibit at the fair. 

These companies are required to be incorporated, registered and based in Singapore and have at least three of six core business functions or activities operated from the city state, for e.g. market development and planning, logistics and shipping management and more.

FIND will be a key highlight of the reimagined Singapore Design Week with the collective goal of creating a global design moment in September. FIND will bring together physical and virtual visitors and 500 of the leading brands in the industry for three action-packed, inspirational days.

You can register to visit the design fair on this page. If you will be an exhibitor, you can visit this page.

Read more about the design fair on WAC's previous article. 

Top image: Wei Ming Tan, Founder, Aureole Design. Image courtesy of Wei Ming Tan, via FIND - Design Fair Asia.

All images courtesy of FIND - Design Fair Asia.

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