Design Futures Forum 2022—2024

The annual Design Futures Forum (DFF) is a flagship event of Singapore Design Week organised by the DesignSingapore Council. It explores the pivotal role designers and organisations play in addressing contemporary and future challenges, with particular focus in three key areas: sustainability, emerging tech and care.

As the scope and focus of the forum evolves with every year, we crafted DFF’s identity to suitably reflect each edition’s unique programming and dynamic vision.

Spanning across two days of programming, DFF 2024’s first-ever extended format invites participants to move beyond surface-level discussions, enabling a deeper exploration of each theme and fostering a richer understanding of how design can address contemporary and future challenges.

Its identity is built around the concept of “digging deep”. Inspired by the act of toggling through multiple browser tabs, it symbolises the exploration of layered content and diverse perspectives. Just as one navigates open tabs to uncover connections, participants are encouraged to engage with the interconnected narratives that emerge throughout the conference, and discover new ways of thinking.

DFF 2023’s identity interprets design as a multiplier for impact across diverse contexts, representing iteration and evolution processes. Multiplying Xs (that also commemorates their 20th anniversary) mark a spot where design's potential converges, a focal point where the forum’s recurring themes can intersect and coalesce.

Using an AI engine, we generated a diverse array of visuals and condensed them into a selection of key images for the focal themes of the event. Each one of them underwent a transformative refraction process, serving as a channel for magnifying visual impact. As the visual identity perpetuates the concept of multiplication, it unveils tomorrow's potential emerging through iterative cycles.

DFF 2022 was shaped by the visionary curatorial direction of Paola Antonelli, one of the design world’s most influential voices. Centred on the theme “Design as an Enzyme for Progress,” the event explored the future of design—and the design of the future—through insights from leading thinkers and practitioners from Singapore and around the world.

Inspired by the verbiage of the forum’s theme, we envisioned the future of design as enzymes under a microscope, symbolising processes of fermentation, synthesis, and mutation. This concept materialised as a striking cellular motif, animated with randomised variations. Paired with bold and vibrant typography, the visual identity conveyed a sense of agency while emphasising the urgency of the forum’s key topics.