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Singapore Pangram,  | International Design Awards Winners
Singapore Pangram,  | International Design Awards Winners
Singapore Pangram,  | International Design Awards Winners
Singapore Pangram,  | International Design Awards Winners
Singapore Pangram,  | International Design Awards Winners

Singapore Pangram

Lead Designers
Prize(s)Honorable Mention
Entry Description

These Singapore Pangram posters illustrate the cultural and linguistic specificities of Singapore. Taking the concept of pangram as a point of departure, these posters explore the forbidden and the pushed aside – such as Singlish, pidgin Singaporean English. A pangram is a phrase that uses all twenty-six letters of the roman alphabet. They are invaluable to designers because they aid visualisation of what each letter would look like in a certain font. The pangrams in these posters give expression to the colloquial, yet unique, Singlish spoken in Singapore by merging language, illustration, and typography.

English is widely spoken in Singapore but over the years, Singaporeans have developed their own brand of English fondly referred to as Singlish. With the multi-racial background of Chinese, Malay, Indian and European, it's not surprising that Singlish borrows from the many different languages spoken in Singapore. The vocabulary of Singlish consists of words originating from English, Bahasa Melayu, Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Tamil, Bengali, Punjabi and to a lesser extent various other languages, while Singlish syntax resembles southern varieties of Chinese.

In Singapore, there are many debates over whether to or not to do away with Singlish. The designer feels that because Singlish has evolved from many years of mixing languages, it truly shows Singapore's development as a multicultural nation. Doing away with Singlish would be erasing a huge chunk of Singapore's history. With a belief that Singlish is a part of the culture in Singapore, an infusion of all things Singaporean, the designer created 26 Singlish pangrams from A to Z to celebrate the birth of Singlish.

Bio

Jesvin Yeo, who trained at Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design in London, is a multidisciplinary designer who explores historical and contemporary cultural changes, in particular areas related to Asian Material Culture and Heritage Studies. Jesvin founded Designing Cultures Studio which produced award-winning works that have been featured in international design publications including Wallpaper*, HOW Magazine, Communication Arts, PRINT and Applied Arts, as well as exhibited at galleries and museums in Berlin, London, Washington D.C, Tokyo and Beijing.

Awards and Prize

Among 60 international design awards Jesvin received are the prestigious Red Dot Award (Communication Design), German Design Award, GOOD DESIGN™ Award and iF Communication Design Award.