SINGAPORE — What do the Merlion, the red plastic stools you sit on in kopitiams, George Lam’s Guinness advertisement and our Changi Airport have in common? They were all conceived and designed in Singapore, and are featured in a new exhibition, Fifty Years Of Singapore Design, at the National Design Centre.

Officially opened by Minister for Communications and Information, Dr Yaacob Ibrahim tonight (March 12), the exhibition showcases more than 200 works by Singaporean designers from Singapore’s independence to today. While this exhibition is held in conjunction with Singapore’s Golden jubilee celebrations, it’s been something the folks at the National Design Centre have been planning for a while.

“There have been other design exhibitions, but never one that spans 50 years,” said Mahendran Reddy, senior assistant director of centre programming for DesignSingapore Council. “We’ve always wanted something to pay tribute to Singaporean designers and let our future designers be inspired by them. This (exhibition) is a journey we embarked on since we got the National Design Centre and it’s been more than a year in the making.”

The exhibition is segmented chronologically to let the visitor get a sense of the evolution of our design scene. Exhibition designers have also deliberately kept the presentation of exhibits attuned to their eras — going from two-dimensional ones and audio recordings in the early years, before transitioning to three-dimensional, multimedia exhibits. They cover design in four aspects — visual communications, environmental design (such as architecture and urban planning), fashion and accessories and, lastly, product and industrial design.

Curator Tjong Jiayu, of WY-TO Architects, said each category is “more or less equally well-represented”. “We wanted a spread of different objects that could tell the story of each decade and the final exhibits are selected based on the fact that they are pivotal, iconic and popular,” Tjong added.

Some of these “pivotal, iconic and popular” designs are the Philips Le Cube portable radio cassette recorder, which many might not know was designed by Philips Singapore; architect Tan Cheng Siong’s Pearl Bank apartments and Pandan Valley condominium (Singapore’s first high rise residential apartments and condominium estate, respectively) and fashion designer Thomas Wee’s Mixables collection that was launched in 1986.

“I remember the newscasters then would wear Mixables on TV and the next day we’d get lots of ladies asking for the same outfit,” shared Wee.

As this would be a permanent exhibition at the NDC for the next two years at least, Reddy and his team revealed that there are plans to change some of the exhibits and organise fringe activities in the centre as a further boost.

“Design plays an important role in nation-building. It contributes to our economy and shapes our future. It is also a part of our shared experiences in helping to define who we are as Singaporeans,” said Reddy. “We hope with this exhibition, the public will be able to understand design better and see that it’s part of our everyday life.”