Singapore’s very first Saturday in Design (SiD) on 21 May had 32 companies taking part in 19 locations across the island, and right from the beginning there was a palpable sense of energy and excitement in the air, with early birds hitting the streets even before the official starting time of 11am.

Crowd at Bene/Waldmann Lighting

It started on 18 May…

The SiD festivities began with the Official Opening on Wednesday night, 18 May, at the red dot design museum. Indesign Media CEO, Raj Nandan, kicked things off with a welcome speech, followed by special guest speakers Jeffrey Ho, Executive Director of DesignSingapore Council, and German designer Stefan Diez, who was here to present his red dot award-winning Chassis chair for Wilkhahn.

Indesign Media CEO, Raj Nandan, giving his speech at SiD’s official opening

German designer Stefan Diez presenting his Chassis chair for Wilkhahn

Thursday and Friday also saw preview events being held at various showrooms around Singapore: Dream Interiors had Seyhan Özdemir from Autoban and Luis De Oliveira of De La Espada here as special guests; and BW Furniture and Infinity, Chan Hampe Galleries, ERCO Lighting with Modular Space, and Bene with Waldmann Lighting all hosted VIP viewings prior to SiD.

ERCO Lighting/Modular Space preview party on Friday night

Interior Design Confederation (Singapore) also held its first open door Round Table Discussion on Friday afternoon where participants got to hear the views of stakeholders from Singapore’s design industry.

Boffi’s new showroom

Attendees getting shuttled around in Mercedes-Benz sponsored cars

Saturday’s early morning rain, which petered out by 11am, made it nice and cool to be out and about. Specially arranged buses as well as Mercedes-Benz sponsored cars shuttled visitors to the showrooms where highlights included unique installations under ’The Project’, product launches, the highly popular Aeron Hockey tournament, not forgetting all the fantastic prizes to be won.

Foundry’s showroom

The Project showcase at Xtra

To round up the design festivities, the much anticipated Closing Party – at a larger gallery in the red dot design museum – was packed with exhibitors and key members of the design community all eager to catch up on all they had seen and experienced over great food catered by Dallas, and drinks by Absolut vodka, Stella Artois and Appletiser.

Closing Party

Word from Jeffrey Ho, Executive Director, DesignSingapore Council

“The DesignSingapore Council congratulates Saturday in Design and participating companies on the success of this inaugural event in Singapore. We welcome more of such industry-led design events that encourage collaboration amongst companies in Singapore, as well as generate greater appreciation of design in our lives.”

Jeffrey Ho

Special thanks to Platinum Event Sponsor, PDM International; Gold Event Sponsor, Merx; Major Sponsor of the Opening and Closing Events, Wilkhahn; Event Partners, red dot design museum, New Majestic Hotel, Wanderlust, Aesop and kikki.K; Industry Partners, IDC(S), DesignSingapore Council and Australian High Commission Singapore; and Media Partners, Cubes and Surface Asia.

Visit indesignlive.asia for continued coverage of what went down at SID.