client: DesignSingapore Council, Ministry of Information, Communication and  the Arts.
project: Gift design for the DesignSingapore International Advisory Panel

“Ceremony” is a set of gifts designed for the 4th Meeting of the DesignSingapore International Advisory Panel 2008 which consists of 7 members.

The design is a reflection on gift ceremonies, where the gesture of giving and receiving becomes the gift itself. The significance of giving as a performative ritual, often carried out by hands, is captured in seven unique forms, each necessitating a distinctive act. The gifts are individually inspired by particular practices, abstracted into seven ceremonious acts performed by DesignSingapore to each of its member of the International Advisory Panel.

As Robert Louis Stevenson once wrote, “I am in the habit of looking not so much to the nature of a gift as to the spirit in which it is offered.”
 

The gifts were handed out in a ceremonious affair to each of the seven members by Dr Lee Boon Yang, Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts.

International Advisory Panel:
Chairman - Mr Edmund CHENG
Mr Christopher BANGLE (BMW Group, Germany)
Mr Steve HAYDEN (Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, USA)
Mr Toyo ITO (Toyo Ito Architects, Japan)
Mr Toshiyuki KITA (IDK Studio, Japan)
Mr Dick POWELL (SeymourPowell, UK)
Mr Richard SEYMOUR (SeymourPowell, UK)
 

Ceremony No.1 (plaque)

 

Ceremony No.2 (tea ceremony)

Ceremony No.3 (gift box)

Ceremony No.4 (military / flag)

Ceremony No.5 (cupped)

Ceremony No.6 (scroll)

Ceremony No.7 (namecard)