Graphic Design Guru Pann Lim Talks Designing For Everyday And Beyond

It’s an important part of so many things that we encounter on a daily basis: public signages; the user interface of any app; packaging; album art; the title sequence of your favourite movie (paging Wes Anderson); advertisements, including fashion campaigns; even this publication that you have in your hands. For a discipline that’s meant to help articulate messages and meaning more clearly though, much of what happens in the world of graphic design often remains behind the scenes and within industry circles – if at all.

READ MORE: Zarer Lim Is The Bedroom Doodler With A Cheeky Approach To Graphic Design

Consider the launch of Don’t Mind If I Ask last year – a book put out by an independent group that refers to itself as Team Don’t Mind If. Compiling essays as well as the results of surveys conducted among 506 individuals from the local design community, the handy paperback aims to unpack the inner workings of the graphic design industry here and, in turn, help chart its future. As Justin Zhuang – author, researcher and co-founder of writing studio In Plain Words – pens in its foreword: “Indeed, the profession also known today as communication design or visual communication remains poorly understood despite being one of the longest established in the city-state’s creative industries.”

That some of the most in-demand and influential image makers in the world in recent times traverse vocations, mediums and disciplines like a multiverse superhero adds both allure and myth to the scene. The late Virgil Abloh; Verdy, the artist-slash-streetwear whiz who was announced the artistic director of Blackpink last month; and some of fashion’s most singular creative directors (cue Hedi, Demna and now Pharrell) – every one of them have tapped and continue to depend on graphic design to help craft out their exacting vision. (Fun fact: Verdy, if you didn’t already know, started out as a graphic designer.)

Now factor in the latest National Design Industry and Manpower Study led by DesignSingapore Council. According to its findings, the design sector here will grow by 25 per cent between 2021 and 2030, with non-design companies (think those in manufacturing, real estate, education, food, finance, the environment, etc.) driving the demand for designers. Alongside creativity, business strategy and analytical thinking, design communication is reported as one of the top four skills that employers want most.

In short, graphic design bodes big business and dreams (and very likely soon, the hottest Blackpink merch to come out), so it’s about time that we all better understand and salute it. To help us do that, we turn to one of Singapore’s most sought-after and authoritative image makers: the equally multifaceted Pann Lim – co-founder and creative director of the critically acclaimed creative agency Kinetic Singapore; one-quarter and the literal father figure of the family-run art collective Holycrap.sg; lead guitarist of the iconic local post-punk band Concave Scream; and one of the design industry’s most decorated names with more than 450 awards and counting.

READ MORE: Zine-Making – A Rite Of Passage For Young Creatives In Singapore

Hi, Pann! For starters, let's set things straight: What exactly is graphic design?

"I consider graphic design a form of communication that combines various things, such as art, geometric shapes, typography, photography and illustrations, to form a message. When you look at it, you should get a message – or rather, you should if it’s effectively designed. Graphic design also usually comes with an objective, be it problem solving, selling something, soliciting a certain feeling or making one fall in love with a particular brand. The discipline can help to do all of that ... Almost all industries will involve graphic design in one way or another. For instance, say you’re doing a short film and you want to have nice supers (the collective term for titles, text or graphics added to a video) in it. Ideally, these have to be designed well. If you’ve watched any of Wes Anderson’s films, you’ll know that one of his signatures is having beautifully stylised supers and those require a very good graphic designer. Another scenario in which graphic design plays a key role is in the launch of a product – I’m referring here to the product’s marketing, branding and even packaging. If you don’t have nice text and logos on it–or if the product will be a tough sell, especially if it’s a product that’s new to a market. To me, graphic design is applicable and applied to everywhere."

How does graphic design impact people's everyday lives?

"Let’s say, for instance, someone is reading a book or magazine and it’s well designed. To me, something simple like that can help to make someone feel uplifted. Another way in which graphic design impacts people is through wayfinding (in graphic design, this refers to the use of design elements to help people navigate, experience and orient themselves within physical spaces). A badly designed system can cause chaos, which is problematic especially for places such as hospitals and transportation hubs, where it’s imperative that people are able to move efficiently. If you ask me, wayfinding ensures that people’s day-to-day lives function more smoothly. There’s no question that design as a whole changes people’s lives. Personally, I think that product design impacts people’s lives in a more substantial way than graphic design – just look at the iPhone, whose influence is self-explanatory. That said, the two design disciplines are often interconnected, with graphic design complementing product design."

READ MORE: Thaqif Nazri Finds His Voice As A Graphic Designer Through Typography

What attracted you to the discipline?

"I’ve always loved to draw since childhood. If I were to grade my drawing skills, I’d say they’re not terrible, but not good enough that I can use them as a source for a living income. I can, however, visualise things very clearly. I was also a mischievous child who just loved to play. Studying wasn’t my forte and I flunked my exams many times. To make matters worse, my mother was a teacher – my performance in school probably embarrassed her, but my parents didn’t complain or make too much of a fuss over that. Fast forward to when I was in the army: An older friend by the name of Leng Soh (now an art director at Kinetic Singapore) happened to have completed the visual communications course at Temasek Polytechnic and recommended it to me. I didn’t know what I was going to do next, so I just signed up for the same course; so one can say that I pretty much stumbled into graphic design. If not for Leng Soh, I might not be doing what I’m doing."

What is Pann Lim's signature as a graphic designer?

"There tends to be a sense of playfulness in my work, but I always tell people that I serve the marketing brief first. If the brief comes to me and it doesn’t call for playfulness, I won’t make it so. Being able to customise every project is something I feel strongly about, but generally – from my experience – younger creatives can be besotted with staying true to their personal preferences and in turn at times be unable to distinguish between such personal tastes and what’s good for the project. That’s a problem because if you can’t separate the two, the results will be a mess. That said, this is not an issue exclusive to younger creatives – it’s something we all need to remind ourselves of constantly."

Tell us then: What makes good graphic design?

"This is usually quite hard to quantify. An important question to ask first is what’s the intent behind the design? Let’s say it’s a magazine, where the role of graphic design is to put text onto pages and for people to be able to read the articles. However, sometimes, designers have a tendency to prioritise creativity over legibility. For example, they might design to a point where the typeface is too small – or they choose a very trendy typeface that’s hard to read. In such a case, I think we need to go back to the DNA of the publication in question. Some magazines intentionally make the text a bit more artistic and difficult to read while other titles want the text to be as legible as possible. As a designer, I find it more interesting when the typefaces chosen are experimental or when the layout is unconventional, but that’s just my own preference. To me, good design is always heavily dependent on context."

What graphic design trends have recently caught your eye?

"Generally, there has been a leaning towards things that are more ornamental. It means that not everything can be read easily, but I find that people these days are increasingly open to this. I can imagine if I had shown such ornate and illegible designs to my lecturers in the late 1990s, they would not be very appreciative. Now, though, things have got to a point where people go, ‘Hey, it takes a while to read or decipher a typeface, but that’s okay’. Tastes have evolved and made way for more and various aesthetics to be accepted. I think a big part of this boils down to how – because of social media – we’re now more exposed to the many weird and wonderful things around the world. Anyone from a young student to older industry folks such as myself can see the standards of graphic design around the world just by scrolling through Instagram for a few minutes."

READ MORE: 12 Music Albums With Great Cover Design According To Our Senior Art Director

Speaking of social media, another big digital trend that's making waves within the creative industry is AI. How do you see AI impacting how graphic designers work?

"It hasn’t really affected us yet, but I think it’s something we in the industry are watching very closely. We’re also enjoying how AI technology is getting better each day. Knowing that future editions of Photoshop will very soon have Firefly (Adobe’s own AI-powered image generator), for example, my colleague did a few tests with the beta version of Firefly and we witnessed the many wonderful things that one can do with this feature. Some might complain and be negative about the incoming integration of AI into our lives, but I prefer to look at it positively – as a giant leap not just for the graphic design industry, but humanity in general. While it’s still early days, technology such as AI will probably be as game-changing as the Internet when it first came out. It’s an interesting time to live in, and I want to see what we can do with AI and how we can use this technology to improve how people live.”

What would you say is the state of graphic design in Singapore now?

"Frankly, it’s quite a robust scene. For example, I’ve noticed that we have more and more design studios sprouting up everywhere. More young graduates are also being hired to work in-house at corporate brands as compared to before, when graduates tended to look more towards design studios for work. I think this has to do with how companies now need people to handle their daily social media postings across multiple platforms. The industry has shifted, with more and more brands wanting to create a presence on TikTok and Instagram, and they need a lot of work done – this is where graphic designers come in and play a vital role. As for the design or creative studios, it can seem like everyone is trying to outdo the other – and this makes me feel hopeful. This healthy competition helps to better the scene and raise quality across the board."

THIS INTERVIEW HAS BEEN EDITED FOR CLARITY AND BREVITY. FOR MORE WISE WORDS FROM THIS GRAPHIC DESIGN GURU, FOLLOW FEMALESINGAPORE ON TIKTOK

Photography Phyllicia Wang Art Direction Jonathan Chia

This article is adapted from a story that first appeared in the July 2023 Graphic Design Edition of FEMALE