Creation Nation Foreign Policy Design Group co-founder and creative director Yu Yah-Leng has high hopes for the future of design in Singapore
When designer Yu Yah-Leng first moved back to Singapore in 2006 to be closer to family after spending 15 years studying and working in the US, she knew she wanted to set up her own studio rather than work for someone else. “It wasn’t easy, because I had no network of designer friends here. I didn’t even know basic stuff like the printers to go to,” she recalls in her soft-spoken way.
At the time, she had already been running a design agency specialising in websites and interactive interfaces in New York for several years. “I wasn’t interested in very template-based design that didn’t have much creativity.” Instead, she wanted to contribute to the burgeoning growth of independent design studios in Singapore. “I wanted to try and change the way things were being designed in Singapore, and break that stereotypical approach towards everything from wayfinding to packaging.”
With that ambition in mind, she set up Foreign Policy Design Group with husband Arthur Chin, who now spearheads the studio’s business strategy while Yah-Leng is creative director. They started to build their network by attending DesignSingapore Council events, and landed some work from government agencies after learning how to use GeBiz, the procurement platform for the public sector. A key turning point for them was getting to know hotelier-restaurateur Loh Lik Peng, which led to Foreign Policy working on design and branding for several of his establishments under the Unlisted Collection.
In fact, forward-thinking entrepreneurs such as Loh and Wee Teng Wen of The Lo & Behold Group have been instrumental in catalysing a new golden age of design in Singapore, Yah-Leng believes. “They are visionaries who have been exposed to the importance of design through living, working and travelling abroad. So they knew exactly what they wanted when they started their businesses in Singapore, and their belief in design inspired other entrepreneurs, helped to set a new trajectory for Singapore design and really changed the landscape here. Without people like them, designers, however talented, would not have had the chance to work on projects that allowed them to stretch.”