(1888PressRelease)
March 31, 2007 - The search is now on for better designs for these 10 items as the project moves into its next phase. Phase 2 kicked off today with the launch of a Competition, along with an exhibition and a Designers’ Marketplace.
Held at the National Library, the Designers’ Marketplace saw competition participants, nominators and owners of the 10 top-voted items for redesign participating in a round-robin dialogue session.
Owners of some of the 10 top-voted items included the National Environment Agency, Land Transport Authority, Housing Development Board, and National Parks Board. Representatives of these organisations presented the current scenario, challenges and expectations from the future items, services, or places that will be redesigned. This was followed by a Question and Answer session which enabled participants to clarify the nature of the design challenge.
Out of the top-voted items that resulted from Phase 1, the 10 items were chosen by the 10TouchPoints Steering Committee based on the following criteria: Social impact and benefit of redesign, ownership and plausible implementation of items, popularity of vote and item’s potential in spinning off new design solutions.
The exhibit of the 10 items selected for redesign, presentations by some of the owners and dialogue sessions at the event were aimed at enabling designers to gain a better understanding of the issues behind the items they choose to redesign from the owners’ and users’ perspective. Participants are encouraged to redesign with history, context and people in mind.
Members of the public took this last opportunity to give their feedback on the items as they interacted with owners and designers, and as they penned their thoughts on a sketch book attached to each item’s exhibition panel.
According to DesignSingapore Council Director Dr Milton Tan, the response for the 10TouchPoints initiative has been overwhelming. “In Phase 1, we exceeded our nomination and voting target. This phase showed that Singaporeans took the opportunity to voice what could be redesigned to make a difference in their everyday living. 10TouchPoints aims to be the vehicle for purposeful and user-centred design through public input, which will make a huge difference by enhancing usability, beauty, accessibility and sustainability to our living conditions,” said Dr Tan. “We are encouraged that through this project, the public began to understand that better design makes for better living.”
Phase 1 ended with a total number of 318 nominations, exceeding the target of 100; and 17,146 votes exceeding the target of 10,000. Under the Design Competition in Phase 2, entries are being called from 31 March to 16 July 2007. The public exhibit of the 10 items will be open for viewing by the public and interested participants to view till 15 April 2007.
“At the Designer’s Marketplace, we have a large number of designers, even non-designers, professionals and students who show that they are keen to take on the challenge of redesigning these items. The design community will take the implementation of better design one step closer to being realised and we would like to encourage more designers to participate in this process,” explained Dr Tan.
Interested participants for the Design Competition can find out more details on www.10touchpoints.com.sg. The 10 design briefs can be picked up by the exhibit panels or downloaded from the 10TouchPoints website. Registration ends on 15 May 2007, while the call for submissions will end on 16 July 2007.
