Company Name

Company Founded in 

Name of Founders

Founder Birth Year (Yah-Leng)

Founder Birth Year (Arthur)

Education (Yah-Leng)

Education (Arthur)

Previous Job

Other Pursuits

1st Office

Period of Occupancy (1st Office)

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Number of Staff (1st Office)

2nd Office

Period of Occupancy (2nd Office)

Estimate Space (2nd Office)

Number of Staff (2nd Office)

3rd Office

Period of Occupancy (3rd Office)

Estimate Space (3rd Office)

Number of Staff (3rd Office)

4th Office

Period of Occupancy (4th Office)

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Number of Staff (4th Office)

Officially operating in an office space at Kallang Pudding

2007

2008

First hospitality branding project. The Waterhouse at South Bund, launched in Shanghai

2011

2012

Move to Yong Sia Street, Tiong Bahru office

2013

Launch of The Swap Show – an exchange exhibition between studios of two cities

Launch of landmark project Gallery&Co – biggest, most comprehensive and complex project

2015

Launch of The Working Capitol – first large scale wayfinding project

Launch of Brand Guide: Singapore Edition – a book documenting the most progressive and beautifully-executed brands in Singapore

2017

Yah-Leng inducted as member of the prestigious AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale)

2018

Launch of Design Diplomacy during the pandemic as a platform to unite designers with online dialogs and live talks

2020

Yah-Leng named Asia's Most Influential by Tatler

2021

Launch of official Foreign Policy Summer School with 2 parts: Internship program and Bootcamp

2022

Since Yah-Leng Yu and Arthur Chin founded Foreign Policy in 2007, the globally-acclaimed design and branding agency has been behind some of the most recognisable projects around town in partnership with clients such as Figment and Singapore International Photography Festival. Narrative-making and storytelling defines their work, while a principled local sensitivity provides foundations for their community-minded initiatives such as Design Diplomacy and Brand Guide: Singapore Edition. Good design is intrinsic to good business in their work, creating projects that are not just form, but substance. We trace their local and international roots with the pair, who are partners not only in their creative practice, but in life as well.

 Looking Inwards and Out

Company Founded in

Carolyn Teo, Sean Lan, Benjy Choo and Adrian Tan

Original Founders (1999)

Successors (2001)

Current Owner 

Founder Birth Year 

Dip. in Visual Comm, Temasek Polytechnic (1998)

Education 

Other Pursuits 

1st Office 

Number of Staff (1st Office) 

2nd Office 

Number of Staff (2nd Office) 

Co-founded Kinetic Singapore (the print arm)

2001

Nominated Singapore's Most Influential Creative Directors by Institute of Advertising Singapore and SMRT Media

2006-11

Awarded Singapore’s Most Influential Creative Directors of the Year by Institute of Advertising Singapore and SMRT Media

Independent Agency of the Year, Singapore Creative Circle Awards

Design Agency of the Year, Singapore Creative Circle Awards

Awarded "Designer of the Year", President*s Design Award 

Agency of the Year, Singapore Creative Circle Awards

Awarded "Design of the Year", President*s Design Award

 Appointed Chairman for Singapore Creative Circle Awards

2016

Appointed Design Craft Jury President D&AD Awards

Appointed Design Jury President AdFest Awards 

2019 

2020 

Ranked 5th as "Design Agency of the Year", D&AD Awards 

Family and kinfolk. These are anchors for Pann Lim, co-founder of Kinetic Singapore, a local creative agency founded in 2001. With no less than 550 awards to its name, Kinetic was recently ranked 5th as Design Agency of the Year 2022 at the D&AD awards. Pann Lim was also the recipient of the prestigious President*s Design Award “Designer of the Year” in 2013. However, Pann does not over-rate these accolades. He remains grounded and shares some hard truths in running a creative agency for over 20 years, where hard work and humility never lose its value. Our writer Chris Low gets some life and work lessons from Pann Lim.


Family and Kinfolk

Education

Founded Company in

Team Size - 1st Office

Team Size - 2nd Office

Current Office

Current Team Size 

Graduates from NUS with a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture. Joins Alfred Wong Partnership. Joins the art collective Plastique Kinetic Worms.

1997 

1999

Designs the Singapore Pavilion at the World Expo in Aichi, Japan.

2005

Co-founds gallery-bar, Night & Day, with Kelley Cheng.

2009

Wins the President’s Design Award for his collaborative artwork Building as a Body (2011). Moves into current office in Golden Mile Tower.

Curates Singapore: Inside Out in Beijing, London, New York and Singapore.

Collaborates with urban farming initiative, City Sprouts, for Archifest.

With a fairly young design tradition, it was only in recent years that more designers have been branching out across different disciplin. But Randy Chan of Zarch Collaboratives has always embraced the interconnected relationship between art, architecture and design. It was when he joined the art collective, Plastique Kinetic Worms, that he fully realised the potential of a collaborative approach. Being involved in curation, conservation, architecture, and art installation, Zarch Collaboratives deconstructs the traditional rules of genre and approach, demonstrating an innovative vision of what design can be.