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SINGAPORE: Organisers of the upcoming Singapore Design Festival are planning to use the event to boost the local design industry.
The people behind the first Design Festival two years ago were very happy with the success of the inaugral event and have even bigger plans this year.
"Increasingly we find that the value of design is in its intellectual property. And so, in the Festival we will be focusing on how design is actually traded at the level of intellectual property. Licensing, if you like, for designs that other people can take and exploit for a license fee," said Dr Milton Tan, Director, DesignSingapore Council.
So the idea is licensing of intellectual property to help local and foreign designers.
One designer who has enjoyed the benefits of the last design festival is Jackson Tan.
He started his company 13 years ago with his classmates...and now, 90 per cent of his market is from outside Singapore.
"During the last Festival in 2005, when we did our exhibition we were given a lot of international press exposure. And because of the exposure, we were very lucky that we got commissioned by Nokia from Finland to design interactive digital content for all their flag ship stores around the world," says Mr Tan.
So to tap the design industry, which added two billion dollars to the Singapore economy in 2004, the organisers are looking for festival partners to bring events and exhibits to the Festival.
All to add to the line-up of fresh ideas the DesignSingapore Council is already working on.
These include producing television programmes about design, establishing a centre where prototypes can be tested and organising the 2nd President's Design Awards at the Esplanade as the Festival's opening night. - CNA/yy
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