Early this month, National Art Gallery unveiled two new things: its shortened name and a new logo. Now named National Gallery Singapore, and spotting a new logo, it will use the $25 million donation from DBS Bank to support the gallery’s efforts to promote Singaporean and Southeast Asian arts.
With the new branding however, National Gallery Singapore has had to deal with negative comments about its new logo. While some commented saying that the new logo is open to interpretation- just like art, there are others such as Mr. Brown who likened the new logo to Tetris blocks. Many however, got momentarily confused, thinking that it’s website’s Login ID and password bar or another search bar.
The design was done by local design firm Asylum. Asylum’s design director, Chris Lee, said that “the agency took three months to work on the logo, going through at least 50 designs before shortlisting the most compelling one.”
He added,
By reducing the identity to two simple blocks was something that I immediately felt as a brilliant thought, because it is open to interpretations. Just like art. I felt slightly uncomfortable at first but like all original designs it’s important to feel uncomfortable. I strive to create simplicity in all of my work, not in terms of execution but in terms of distilling complex messages into a single most important vision.
Minimalistic and simple artwork has inspired The Online Citizen to produce similar artwork concepts, but this time, involving everyone to guess what these artworks represent. Joshua Chiang, TOC’s former editor, now an illustrator based in Cambodia and the artist of these artworks said,
I created these designs as part of my national service and didn’t charge a single cent for them.
Take a look at these designs, and guess what landmarks/icons or figures they are!
(Answers are below, but try not to sneak a peek!)
Singapore figures
Singapore icons
- Mr Tony Tan
- Mr Teo Chee Hean
- Mr Lee Kuan Yew
- Mr JB Jeyaretnam
- Mr Chee Soon Juan
- Ah Meng
- Merlion
- Supreme Court
- Singapore Flyer
- Marina Bay Sands
- Istana (The black, flesh and white rectangles are the two sentries outside.)
- Gardens By The Bay
- Cable Car Tower
- Art Science Muesum
- Fort Canning Park (The grey is the Fort Canning Centre, the line leading up to it is the escalator)
How many photos did you guess right?
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Joshua Chiang is a self taught illustrator and has recently published “The Chronicles of Oujo: Questalon”. It is the first book in a series based on an original concept by Joshua Chiang and Jeffrey Lawrence Omar. The series is a humorous and irreverent take on the high fantasy genre and follows the exploits of an orphan boy Oujo and his friends, the irrepressible halfling Pip, and the shy elf-girl Lizpella, as they embark on the greatest adventure of all… school!
It is now available from the iTunes app store. (link)
