Clemence Chew

This project utilises typography as a medium of exploration into lateral bias within design systems.

Through the design of an experimental typeface, it explores the possibilities of typography built around the natural directionality of left-handed writing. The typeface highlights the lateral bias embedded within writing systems, serving as a starting point to challenge these norms and question the neutrality we assume in design.

The project extends through a series of publications and structured writing activities, documenting the design process and observing how directionality shapes the writing experience when the conventions of the system are removed.

Vanished Garden is an experiential installation that aims to spark an appreciation for nationally extinct butterflies and develop public interest in Singapore’s historical biodiversity.

The interactive experience comprises 11 freestanding panels, each showing a digital rendition of a nationally extinct butterfly from the SIGNIFY archive, as an abstracted image that becomes clearer when visitors wave their hands in front of the screen. This is surrounded by an immersive video wall created from the butterflies’ host plants, emphasising biodiversity as an interconnected ecosystem.

Visitors collect species information of each nationally extinct butterfly from each panel, compiling an archive folder and exhibition catalogue of the experience.