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.