Black Mongrels

14/08/2026

The Design Mongrel
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Bi-weekly Newsletter

Honest takes on design, craft, and why some work earns attention. And most doesn't.

Honest takes on design, craft, and why some work earns attention. And most doesn't.

09/07/2026

Ready, Set, Grow! Your First Job Journey

A practical e-guidebook designed to help Gen Z entrants start their first job journey with confidence.

Co-created with Singapore Polytechnic, this e-guidebook supports young adults aged 18 to 26 as they transition into the workforce. It provides practical guidance on identifying fair and progressive employers, understanding employment contracts, knowing workplace rights, and navigating common workplace challenges.

Our role was to transform this important information into an engaging and accessible publication that resonates with a younger audience. The result is a guidebook that balances informative content with a friendly, approachable visual language, making complex workplace concepts easier to understand and apply.

The guidebook adopts a clean, contemporary, and approachable visual style tailored to young readers. Bright colours, clear information hierarchy, and friendly illustrations create an engaging reading experience, while practical visual cues such as icons, callouts, and checklists help readers navigate and absorb the content with ease.

Together, these visual elements create a publication that is both informative and relatable, empowering young job seekers to approach their first workplace experiences with greater clarity and confidence.

02/07/2026

Office #04. 🖤

Every move marks a new chapter, and this one is all about balance.

Designed for focused thinking and meaningful collaboration by day, our new space transforms into a cosy lounge by night, where conversations flow, music plays, and creativity continues beyond office hours.

A place where work meets play, clients become friends, and teammates become family. Here's to great work, lasting memories, and calling this space home, for now.

15/04/2026

National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) takes an active role to engage, enable and empower every individual to play a part and contribute to growing a culture of giving, where everyone is able to give their time, talent, treasure, ties and testimony every day and everywhere. They also bring together individuals, leaders, communities, and organisations across the people, private, and public sectors to uplift individuals, strengthen communities and build a better society. Together, they envision Singapore as a City of Good, where everyone gives their best towards a more caring, inclusive, and compassionate society.

The theme for the Annual Report FY24/25 is "Nurturing the Heart of Singapore Together". Our design concept, “Threads of Giving — Woven Together, Stronger” brings this idea to life through a visual expression of connection and collective strength.

At its core, the concept reflects the belief that every act of giving is a thread—distinct on its own, but stronger when interwoven with others. Together, these threads form a collective tapestry, symbolising the unity, resilience and shared spirit that shape a more compassionate Singapore.

This is expressed through a visual language of interlacing lines, representing how individuals, communities and organisations are connected through shared purpose. As these threads intersect and align, they create a cohesive and evolving social fabric—one built on unity, continuity and collective impact.

Ultimately, the design reinforces a simple yet powerful idea: a caring and inclusive society is not built alone, but woven together, thread by thread.

13/04/2026

Nature has always known how to thrive. When we take a moment to observe, we begin to understand that growing plants is not about perfection, but about balance. Gardening is not a mystery to be unraveled, nor a battle to be won. It is a conversation, a quiet exchange of care and understanding, where knowledge forms the bridge between hesitation and mastery. At The Rewilding Co., they believe that anyone can cultivate beauty and abundance with the right foundations.

Taking cues from the structured logic of scientific periodic tables, the identity system explores clean, contemporary typography paired with a bold, modular layout to create a distinctive visual language. A deliberate emphasis on the letter “R” anchors the identity, serving as both a focal point and a symbolic representation of Rewilding — reinforcing brand recall while adding conceptual depth.

The typographic treatment draws inspiration from elemental grid systems, featuring framed compositions that echo the order and precision of scientific classification. This introduces a subtle “scientific” undertone that aligns with the brand’s ethos of knowledge-led growth and understanding.

Graphic elements derived from periodic table structures form a flexible, modular system. These blocks can function independently or expand into layered compositions, creating visual rhythm and adaptability across applications. The resulting design language is modern yet grounded, structured yet organic, minimal yet expressive.

The new identity balances an avant-garde sensibility with clarity and restraint, allowing it to seamlessly integrate with photography while maintaining a clean, uncluttered aesthetic. This creates a cohesive brand experience that feels both forward-thinking and deeply connected to nature.

www.therewilding.co

07/04/2026

Dance Ensemble Singapore joins hands with the Siaw-Tao Seal Carving Association to present "Imprint" - a cross-disciplinary dance production, breathing new life into two traditional art forms. The tactile, sensory world of carving opens up rich possibilities for choreography. The artist and dancers are bound by a shared quiet perseverance, a deep devotion to process, and a clarity of artistic vision.

Through imaginative stage props and scenography, dancers transform their bodies into blades and living seals. Each movement, like every cut of the carving tool, leaves behind an indelible mark. In their respective mediums, both the artisan and choreographer carve not only art — but memory itself.

The key visual blends contemporary dance photography with the visual language of traditional Chinese seal carving, creating a striking fusion of movement and heritage. Dancers are arranged in a circular, radial composition around the seal, forming a sense of motion and continuity. Their suspended leaps and extended gestures create visual energy that contrasts with the solidity and permanence of the carved seal.

Photography by Studio W.

06/04/2026

“Intersections” is a sensory installation that explores the connections between dance and various art forms such as Opera, music, theatre, multimedia art, Peranakan fashion, photography, Wayang Kulit and Calligraphy. Set within an ever shifting nine-grid formation, the installation offers audience a chance to immerse themselves in a multi-sensory dance experience that crosses boundaries and encourages deeper interaction.

The key visual adopts a structured nine-grid composition, reminiscent of editorial layouts and photographic contact sheets. Within this framework, diverse dance forms and cultural expressions intersect visually and conceptually, reinforcing the theme of “Intersections.” The nine-panel grid structure acts as a visual system that organises different art forms into individual yet interconnected frames, creating a sense of order and rhythm, while allowing multiple narratives to coexist simultaneously. Dancers extend beyond their frames, visually breaking the grid boundaries to symbolise cross-disciplinary interaction and fluid artistic exchange.

A contemporary grid-based cultural collage emerges, where dynamic dance photography converges with traditional art forms, unified by expressive calligraphy and a clean, minimalist editorial aesthetic.

This programme is commissioned by SCCC as part of Cultural Extravaganza 2025.
Photography by Studio W.

www.des.org.sg