Vanishing Crafts: A Bridge Between Tradition and Modernity

A Unique Book by Jesvin Yeo and Alvin Ng Reviving Singapore's Traditional Crafts

The book is Singapore's first-ever set of illustrated children's storybooks that come with a parent companion archive of artisanal masters and crafts. It encourages a shared parent-child reading experience, allowing parents to better understand traditional crafts and share their values with their children. The book can be read in English or Chinese, depending on which side is flipped.

The design of the reading companion is a testament to the perfection of craftsmanship. It is designed to be a book that is folded and creased over time, symbolizing the less popular traditional crafts. Each book had to be folded and cut manually to achieve a perfectly straight edge. The children's storybook, measuring 5.5 meters in length, posed a challenge of matching the same color tone across all pages.

The project, which started in October 2014 and finished in May 2016 in Singapore, was launched and on sale in January 2017. The research objective was to explore how the experiences, materials, and making processes of Singapore's traditional artisans could be transformed into interesting stories for younger generations. The data was collected through observation, interviews, and video recording.

The team faced several challenges during the creation of Vanishing Crafts. The language barrier between the artisans and the design researchers was a significant hurdle, as most artisans were more proficient in speaking dialects and Mandarin compared to English. The limited time given to understand each artisan trade due to the artisans' busy schedules was another challenge.

Vanishing Crafts is designed to promote the awareness of traditional crafts. It serves as a memory project of Singapore, sharing stories of the last remaining artisans. The pages are designed with lots of blank space for readers' curatorial input, their memory records, and photographs of any traditional artisan and vanishing trade from around the world. The book includes a children's storybook to introduce this heritage to the younger generations.

The project was awarded Silver in A' Print and Published Media Design Award in 2017, a testament to its outstanding expertise and innovation. Vanishing Crafts is a remarkable project that showcases a high level of excellence and introduces positive feelings, amazement, and wonder.