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Works
2017
Singapore Indian Heritage
Publication
Client:
Indian Heritage Centre, Singapore
Creative and Art Direction:
Bryan Angelo Lim
Featured:
Nominated for AIGA 50 Books |
50 Covers 2017
Indian Heritage Centre, Singapore
Creative and Art Direction:
Bryan Angelo Lim
Featured:
Nominated for AIGA 50 Books |
50 Covers 2017
The Indian Heritage Centre is a National Heritage Board museum focusing on the stories and objects of the Indian community in Singapore. As an entry point for visitors to explore and understand the Little India precinct, its permanent collection takes them on a journey from the South Asian ideas, philosophies, objects and peoples that first arrived in Southeast Asia which interacted, amalgamated and flourished with local ideas, beliefs and craftsmanship to how South Asian people settled and took root here to become the integral part of Singapore’s cultural and identity fabric.
Singapore Indian Heritage is the museum’s first publication. Taking advantage of the format of a book and what it can present, the monolithic 556-page publication puts together the intense research that culminated in the curation and presentation of its permanent collection, allowing its curators and knowledge specialists to go more in-depth than what the exhibition display format could offer. A visual feast for anyone interested in South Asian culture, the publication features catalogue entries of over 300 artefacts, photographs and documents in their collection that truly befits the vibrant and colourful heritage and stories of the Singapore Indian community.
Understanding the diversity—in language, religion and beliefs—within the Indian Community, the overarching concept draws from the idea of macro- and microcosm in which the knowledge and understanding of the universe—no matter how esoteric and abstract—may be seen and understood from the tiniest of physical condition and context.
This idea is not only a common thread in may belief systems of Indian origins, but can also be in how the story of the Indian diaspora in Singapore is part of the larger South Asian narrative. Design elements such as typography and photographic images of objects are presented in the form of juxtaposition of size and contrast. (Big vs small type; zoomed out to be presented in full, but zoomed in to reveal micro details)
The art direction takes on a more universal approach by consciously avoiding to draw upon specific visual motifs that might allude to particular aspects of the Indian visual culture or privilege one community over another. This allowed the objects to speak for themselves and also subtly hinted at how objects and traditions from South Asia evolved and adapted to local contexts when they arrived in Southeast Asia. Instead, huge colour blocks of both bright, saturated colours and muted, desaturated colours were used to demonstrate the broad-ranging facets of the Indian culture, as well as the ebb and flow of the Singapore Indian story.
Singapore Indian Heritage is the museum’s first publication. Taking advantage of the format of a book and what it can present, the monolithic 556-page publication puts together the intense research that culminated in the curation and presentation of its permanent collection, allowing its curators and knowledge specialists to go more in-depth than what the exhibition display format could offer. A visual feast for anyone interested in South Asian culture, the publication features catalogue entries of over 300 artefacts, photographs and documents in their collection that truly befits the vibrant and colourful heritage and stories of the Singapore Indian community.
Understanding the diversity—in language, religion and beliefs—within the Indian Community, the overarching concept draws from the idea of macro- and microcosm in which the knowledge and understanding of the universe—no matter how esoteric and abstract—may be seen and understood from the tiniest of physical condition and context.
This idea is not only a common thread in may belief systems of Indian origins, but can also be in how the story of the Indian diaspora in Singapore is part of the larger South Asian narrative. Design elements such as typography and photographic images of objects are presented in the form of juxtaposition of size and contrast. (Big vs small type; zoomed out to be presented in full, but zoomed in to reveal micro details)
The art direction takes on a more universal approach by consciously avoiding to draw upon specific visual motifs that might allude to particular aspects of the Indian visual culture or privilege one community over another. This allowed the objects to speak for themselves and also subtly hinted at how objects and traditions from South Asia evolved and adapted to local contexts when they arrived in Southeast Asia. Instead, huge colour blocks of both bright, saturated colours and muted, desaturated colours were used to demonstrate the broad-ranging facets of the Indian culture, as well as the ebb and flow of the Singapore Indian story.
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