Engaging. Brand. Experiences.

TRANSFORMING DATA INTO WELL-CRAFTED THOUGHT

National Library Board

Industry: Education, Lifestyle, Public Sector

Project: Infographics series (MusicSG) Design

Intro and Challenges

When it comes to learning something new, accessibility is key. Taking an extensive body of information and making it appealing is a challenge that is best met with intelligent design and an instinct for how the mind absorbs information. The design team has three functions: one, to get into the minds of readers and understand how they will respond to an infographic; two, to catalogue, understand and appreciate the raw data available and transform it into valuable insights; and three, to be true to the higher purpose of our work — which is to capture an artistic legacy and immortalise it.

The music scene of any city or country is a reflection of its artistic and cultural evolution. Singapore is no exception, and this little city-state has been home to a highly diverse music scene over the decades. The National Library Board is the administrator of the MusicSG website — a non-profit digital archive project with the aim to digitise, archive and provide access to all forms of published musical works from, in and about Singapore to preserve the country’s artistic heritage and legacy. The key to making this engaging to the general public was to make it easy for people to understand the history and evolution of the music scene in Singapore.

Lively Green was brought on board to develop infographics that would suit this very purpose. When we started the project, the amount of information available was vast: with multiple genres including traditional, indie, xin yao and contemporary artists, eminent biographies of local artists, important events and popular hits. Our task was to delve deep into the subject-matter, to create stories and narratives that fascinate and inspire, and then portray them in appealing, easy-to-read infographics.

Solutions

We applied our unique brand of design thinking to this project, beginning with comprehensive research into the Singapore music scene, while drawing out overarching themes, identifying milestones and approaching the information from a reader-centric perspective. The final product was both informative and compelling — utilising effective information hierarchy, and crafting readability within the visual space. For the reader, this translated into a suite of appealing graphics that would spark curiosity and inspire further engagement.

Once again, the success of this project was an opportunity for our team to contribute to Singapore’s design scene in a significant way, with our finger on the pulse of the nation.