His name has been known in the design scene since 1999, when he first co-founded award-winning furniture brand Air Division. But these days, Nathan Yong goes by many other titles and monikers – design director at Grafunkt, leader of the Product Design programme at LASALLE College of the Arts, and more recently KSY, an alias inspired by his birth name Kok Seng.
This return to his birth name marks a milestone in Nathan’s artistic journey. While his portfolio includes several collaborations with high-profile brands like Living Divani and Ligne Roset, his recent work is much more introspective. Of late, Nathan has been re-examining the fundamentals of design, the nature of different mediums, and the interplay of form and function. His recent collection Farewell to Reason exemplifies this, showcasing everyday objects recast in sculpted, luminescent onyx – works of art that challenge our preconceptions of the ordinary and mundane.
Can you tell us more about the direction you’ve been moving in for the last couple of years?
I’ve been involved in education for the last couple of years as the programme leader of product design in LASALLE College of the Arts. This gives me time to get back to the fundamentals of design and its history, and lets me do more research. That leads to more speculative projects that challenges how we look at objects, materials and how they are constructed, and their interplay in our contemporary world when we are surrounded with digital consumption and content.
What’s been inspiring you lately?
I’ve been more inspired by art for quite some time, although that’s something that has always been there. Maybe it’s age, or maybe I’m tired of people expecting things to fit into their needs. I’m very much interested in how to get people to be able to appreciate beauty for what it is. I strongly believe that we are all better off if we understand how an object came to be, its material, how it is made, by whom, where and when. Because in that way, we are not seeing things based on monetary or personal gain, but rather seeing them as “artefacts” that let us gain a better understanding of the world that we live in.
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In your recent collections, you’ve taken seemingly ordinary everyday objects and materials, and transformed them into something almost sculptural. Can you tell us more about the message or inspiration behind this recent work?
When I was approached by Royal Selangor to do a collection, I struggled to think about what type of “things” I should design. I was in love with the idea of pewter, a medium which has existed for centuries. It gives an object a sense of history and timelessness. But in a sense, it also has its limitations because it is a material that doesn’t really fit into the modern world.
So I decided to design a “skin”, a textured pattern that can be applied on any object. This was Vapour, designed with the intention of providing a new skin for Royal Selangor in the contemporary world. A pattern that was inspired by machinery and precision, and at the same time showcases Royal Selangor’s expertise in casting.
With the other collection titled Farewell to Reason, it was kind of a side project to create something with an aim to instigate a reaction, a sense of awe and curiosity. To get viewers to appreciate the beauty around us, in nature and also in humanity’s will. I wanted people to question function, form, and the meaning of both within oneself.
What is one thing you want young designers to know?
That design is life, it’s the schematic of humanity within nature. Once you are in it, you need to let it consume you wholeheartedly, and be part of its dialogue – you will then see the patterns of life.
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How do you envision the modern workspace in a post-pandemic world?
I think COVID sped up the digital revolution even further, we’re better connected without having to go to offices and so on… But I’m not sure how this is going for humanity. We need to engage technology cautiously so that we don’t lose sight of our goals. We need another movement or revolution to counter the prevalent attitude towards technology, and I think it has to be done with the arts and humanities.
What direction do you think the design industry will be moving towards for the next few years?
At one end design is going to get faster, bigger, flatter; on the other it is going to be more organic, fluid and blurred.
For more information, please visit www.nathanyongdesign.com.
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