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Novum Magazine Q+A

Historical/background information on the design studio and information about its size and scope.

This is what we’ve heard that others have said about us—Bureau has always been seen as the creative underdog in the Singapore local creative scene. The long pauses of inactivity on our various social media platforms belies our constant search for a deeper meaning of our existence.

Our existence has always been about ‘never try, never know’—it’s this spirit of curiosity that has driven the different types of work we do. We have a strong belief that creativity is beyond any physical outcomes and it belongs to a bigger picture of business consulting. See us as a creative partner to help move your business forward.

Team/office structure, organization, work process, philosophy, relationship with clients etc.

We’re a small team and hence the organisational hierarchy is rather flat, which is great for ideas to cross pollinate. We believe in involving the designers in the different aspects of the business when we can. Seeing through a project would mean getting hands dirty with the unsexy bits like managing production cost, organising a photoshoot, materials and props sourcing, communicating directly with the client. Our clients have a direct line of access to the designers which is great because this leads to a much higher level of understanding for the project. Plus I’m sure designers appreciate that their voices are heard. We have several internal sessions to ensure our vision and the clients’ are aligned. The downside is that less time is spent crafting the design but otherwise we see that as healthy stress.

Studio philosophy: To borrow from Simon Sinek’s book Start with Why, “By WHY I mean what is your purpose, cause or belief? WHY does your company exist? WHY do you get out of bed every morning? And WHY should anyone care?”

For anyone to have made graphic design a career choice, he/she would have certainly thought that, “Hey, this is an area of work where I can be good enough to make a dif ference, since I’ve always enjoyed creating art or making visual improvements of things.”—or something to that effect. The purest answer then, to being a graphic designer, which is also the studio’s belief, is about making the world a (visually) better place. There can be many reasons WHY be a designer but I find this to be the single answer that should hold true to almost every designer. 

It is the simple, innate desire to make things look good, and find unexplainable happiness doing it.

Is there a certain ‘national’ component to your designs?

As in, our works having some sort of national identity due to cultural influences? 

Our tastes, influences and the visual culture that we are exposed to informs the way we as designers and how our immediate audiences see graphic design. For the most part it’s safe to say that corporate commissions in Singapore tends to take on a slightly more neutral, international approach—unless it’s part of the brief, or when we see that a subject matter demands that. There’s now a widespread acceptance and use of singlish in graphic design and advertising but I would say that’s more use of language rather than actual design influence. A few pieces of work we’ve done in the past might be relevant:

Separation 40 was a theatre piece created by Singapore’s The Necessary Stage (TNS) and and Dramalab from Malaysia. The play examines life on both sides of the causeway after Singapore broke away from the Malaysian Federation in 1965. The main show poster makes a light hearted comparision of the food that we eat, our currencies, what makes us proud. The Audience is free to interpret whether those things makes the two countries similar or different.

Gemuk Girls, also by TNS, is a darkly humourous play about a family struggling to reconcile with an emotional past after a shocking discovery that the main character’s father had been detained in the 1960s. The poster design was inspired by government campaigns from 1960s Singapore.

Hutan Tropical Goods & Services was began life as a side project with a few like minded friends who fell in love with the outdoor lifestyle of vehicle camping and jungle treks. The word Hutan means forest in Bahasa Language. The Southeast Asian region where we frequent, has a lot to offer. It’s not just the vast but fast disappearing tropical rainforests. We recognise that South East Asian Culture is a rich and diverse one and we’d like for the world to love it as much as we do. We’re not hardened outdoors men who would live off the grid for days, but we want equipment that does not fail upon a few steps into the jungle trail. Cheap equipment that breaks after a one time use, is a disaster for the environment because it encourages a throwaway culture. We also wanted products to be just as relevant to city dwellers. There is a lot of age old wisdom in traditional crafts of the region which inspires us. Hutan was a project to bring all of that together. Our experiences are showcased through products, pictures and travel tales. (www.hutan.co and IG: @hutantropical)

What are the passions, inspirations, influences, mentors, people and ideas that have influenced you/the studio?

Art that leaves you in awe and gets you thinking—it can be the wonderfully good or the outrageously bad. Long walks in the city while deep in thought. Military surplus stores for endless projects waiting to happen—factory visits also inspire me in similar ways. Reading biographies and memoirs help me understand that even the great people in history are just as human and that gives me hope during tough times. You also get to live someone else’s adventure through their words. That’s probably the cheapest way to go on an adventure.

What were the biggest challenges you had to face?

I’m easily contented. I’m happy just doing what i like to do best and I can do it for a long time as long as i can make a decent living out of it. But i’ve come to realise the same mentality isn’t going to sit well when you run an office with several other people whom you’ve come to love, and who’s lives are going to be affected by the decisions you make. We are really interested in personal growth and career progression for the team. We also want our people to know what makes it worth coming to work for and what makes them happy.

What are your thoughts on the industry? What are the main changes you see, like, dislike…(institutional, commercial, marketing, politics, etc…)?

Competition has increased and thus the value of design or creativity gets thinner with clients starting to have their own internal creative teams and production suppliers have also jumped onto the bandwagon of offering creative services.

We’ve also entered a time where you will find the cross over of many creative disciplines all under one studio. The convergence of creative offerings is a double edge sword—so much design content is available and that’s heightened the level of appreciation for the work that we do. Yet design has become more homogenous as a result of a world getting smaller. It is quite hard to find bad design now, so good acceptable design has become the norm, but the leap from good to great then has become exponentially more difficult to achieve. The world has become a village because of the world wide web. The contradiction is that in order to have a truly unique voice or point of view, the internet seemed an obvious place to avoid and one has to really dig deep.

What are your/the studio’s main accomplishments/projects of interest?

It has been an incredible experience, building meaningful relationships with clients, vendors and our peers. Extensive brand projects have allowed us to work with the brand owners to translate their vision into a complete brand experience. Exhibition design work has given us the opportunity to create meaningful curatorial experiences between the audience and the exhibited works—we’ve done a few of these for our photographer/artist friends. We’ve always cherished publication design work that gave us the opportunity to focus more on the content, which is truly the heart and soul of the work.

About Us

Byline—Bureau is the official website of Bureau Private Limited. Headquartered in Singapore, Bureau is a general graphic design services company. Our works include, but are not limited to, Brand Identity Design, Packaging Design, Editorial Design, Exhibition and Event Space Design and Strategic Planning. We've been most commonly mis-pronounced as Boo-Ree-O or Biu-Ree-You. The correct pronounciation though, is Biu-Roh. 

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