Communal Dining:
A Hawker Culture Exhibition
Time
2022
2022
Scope of Work
Visual Identity, Exhibition Design, Merchandise Design
Visual Identity, Exhibition Design, Merchandise Design
Communal dining is the practice of dining with others. The practice is centered on food and sharing time with people who come together to connect over meals and conversations. Singapore’s tradition of communal dining at hawker centers has been recognized by UNESCO for its cultural significance – the United Nations’ cultural agency inscribed Singapore’s hawker culture to its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in December 2020.
Celebrating the Hawker Culture of Singapore, an element on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Raffles Design Institute, in partnership with the National Heritage Board, was proud to present a feast of our unique takes of Singapore’s Hawker Culture through Fashion Design and Marketing, Jewelry Design, Product Design, Graphic Design, and Interior Design through an exhibition called Communal Dining.
Concept
My proposal concept for the exhibition branding was called Ties that bind, which emphasize the hawker culture in Singapore as an intangible value that connects people together.
It is the tie within a family, and between friends. The hawker business has become families’ legacy and it’s passed through generations as a way for people to connect with their relatives: fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, aunts, uncles, cousins, or just between friends who choose to do business together. It is the tie between past and present, which lies in the culture of how the people live and create, how things have changed but the core values still remains.
It is the tie between people and people, and between an individual and the culture, the society, and the nation. Many Singaporeans grow up eating hawker food, to them this is home. And for me, as a foreigner living in Singapore, the experience of hawker food makes me feel more connected to the culture and the people here, make me feel as one part of Singapore.
For the design, to describe the intangible connection, I use the visuals of the knot, as it is where different lines, strings are attached together and become one.
Color Palette
As Singapore hawker culture is a mix of different cultures, the full version of the logo is a combination of 4 basic colors: yellow, red, green, and blue.
There’s also a red version for the logo, as it is the color on Singapore’s flag, symbolizing equality and a sense of unity amongst all the inhabitants of Singapore.
Visualization
Here’s the common scenes at hawker centres: people having meals with their family, colleagues and friends, people queuing for food, people cooking and working. Human is the focal point of the design and the lines running across symbolizing for the connection between them.
Exhibition Idea
As an idea for the exhibition, the multi colored lines in the photos work as guidance for the visitors and it also shows the concept of different lines running in the room but they are still one part. Please note that these are just refererence photos.
Merchandise
There were also an expanded project to design the merchandise. A set of pattern was developed based on the line visuals, taking inspiration from Singapore’s signature dishes such as laksa, satay, chili crab, etc., and was used to applied on different apparels and stationaries. These merchandise designs tells the people’s love story with hawker food, which has a greater purpose than just filling the bellies, it is a cultural legacy that binds everyone.
Communal Dining Exhibition
The Communal Dining Exhibition was hold from 16-29 May 2022, at the National Museum in Singapore. Although my design for the exhibition branding was not chosen, the merchandise design was selected to be exhibit at the event.
