4As ~ Crowbar Awards

Jon Loke - Head of Jury
Victor Ng - Head of Jury
EURO RSCG, Singapore
Creative Directors

Jon & Vic is one of Singapore’s few true-blue creative teams.

It all started back in 2000 when Victor, fresh from graduating with an Economics degree before finally answering his creative calling, met Jon, a graduate of Visual Communications wide-eyed about advertising.

They were soon plucked by the legendary Linda Locke to work at Leo Burnett Singapore, where they had the good fortune of learning from some of the best in business like Tay Guan Hin, Ng Tian It and Goh Wee Kim.

Starting off as young creatives, Victor and Jon had to slowly earn their share of self-confidence. In 2002, they emerged overall winners of the first-ever Portfolio School organised by the Institute of Advertising Singapore. In 2004, they were jointly named the inaugural Young Creative Of The Year at Asia Pacific Adfest. In the same year, they also ranked among the Top 10 Young Guns in the world. In 2005, Campaign Brief Asia lauded the duo as one of Asia’s top young creative teams, based on its creative rankings and polls among top creative directors. Along the way, their work has been recognised by the Gunn Report and Campaign UK as among the best in the world.

Things got even more interesting when world-renowned London agency Mother hired Jon & Vic as its first-ever Asian team.

In all, they have consistently won international accolades from D&AD, One Show, Cannes, Clio and the Singapore Creative Circle Awards – on a range of key agency brands including McDonald’s, Philips, Procter & Gamble and Nippon Paint.

In giving back to the creative community, Victor and Jon have served as course tutors at AWARD School to train the next generation of creative talent. They were also invited to speak at the D&AD President’s Forum in London, on the topic “Asian Creativity From The Singapore Perspective”. Victor was a judge of Integrated Advertising at the last year’s D&AD Awards, and Jon was one of the youngest to judge the Singapore Creative Circle Awards. Both of them have also served as judges at past Crowbar Awards.

Following a successful return to Leo Burnett last year, Victor and Jon kicked off the new year by taking up the challenge of Creative Directors at Euro RSCG.

Icaro was born in Brazil, where he got a communication degree and worked on a couple of local agencies. After 4 years working in Brazil, he decided to try his luck in Portugal, where he lived and worked for 3 years in agencies like Leo Burnett, TBWA and FCB. Back to Brazil for a short period of time, he was then invited to join Saatchi&Saatchi NY.

Icaro has won both national and international awards, having 3 campaigns ranked on the top 10 most awarded print campaigns in the Gunn Report. He was also appointed by Creativity Magazine as the most awarded copywriter in the World in 2007.

Markus Bjurman has always embodied luck. For example he was spotted trying to shortcut across an ice rink in his native Sweden by an ice-hockey coach desperate for a player as his team was riddled by flu. That season, at the tender age of 8, Bjurman became the league’s top-scorer. Most of the goals he made hit the goalpost…and went in.

Years later, luck continued as he was accepted at advertising and graphic design college Beckmans School of Design, Stockholm in 1996 without even trying.

During a holiday trip to London he walked in through a random door to ask for directions and ended up being hired by ad-agency Mother Ltd in early 1999.

Luck continued without much effort and he fluked his way to numerous award-winning campaigns and was voted one of Campaign’s UK top 10 creative teams together with his partner who is also lucky enough to be able to work alongside Markus.

In 2001 agency KesselsKramer boss Johan Kramer felt peckish and dialled the number of a new pizza place in Amsterdam. Miraculously, there was a connection failure, which instead connected him to Bjurman’s mobile phone. This led to yet another incidental top job. Though as luck has it, it only took a year before he was beginning a second successful period at Mother again, due to a diverted flight that had him bump into Robert Saville, partner at Mother who happened to have a job offer in his pocket.

Haphazardly he was awarded with a black pencil - gold award at the D&AD Awards and by pure chance he’s picked up numerous awards in New York‘s THE ONE SHOW, New York AICP Show, CREATIVE CIRCLE AWARDS, the ADCE Awards, BTAA, EPICA and CANNES LIONS without the crossing of fingers.

When Markus goes out on the town, unforeseeable good things happen.
Where will luck strike next?

Marcus Rebeschini
TBWA\CHIAT\DAY, New York
Associate Creative Director

Over Marcus Rebeschini's (mark us - reba ski knee's) 5 years at TBWA Singapore, he helped the agency win the Media Magazine Agency of the Year award and Agency Network of the Year award two years in a row with his awards & new business wins. The magazine also ranked him at no.4
in 2004. Marcus also helped TBWA Singapore win agency of the year at the 7th annual asian advertising awards. His work has won Best of shows and resulted in numerous wins at Cannes, One Show, D&AD, Clios, Media, Adfest, and his work has ranked in the top 5 in both Shots & The Gunn Report.

In February 2006 Campaign Brief Asia named him "Advertising Person of the Year" and ranked him as the number one creative in Asia Pacific for his consistency over 2 years. In 2005, Marcus joined TBWA/Chiat/Day New York as Assoc Creative Director, where he has continued to win awards, including his third Gold Cannes Lion for his Snickers Halloween campaign.

Marcus has also represented Australia and won bronze at the World Dirt boarding championships in LA.

Tan Yee Kiang
Naga DDB, Malaysia
Senior Art Director

Yee Kiang graduated with a BA (Arts) in Multimedia (Distinction) from RMIT University, Melbourne and began his career in Naga DDB as a graphic designer.

Over the past 7 years, he has won numerous creative accolades at the Malaysian Kancil Awards, including Young Creative of The Year in 2003.

Other feathers in his cap include international awards such as D&AD, Cannes, One Show, Young Guns, Asian Media Awards, Adfest and the creative ranking of No.5 in Campaign Brief Asia 2006.

Andrew McKechnie
JWT, Singapore
Creative Group Head

Even though Andrew claims to be a Kiwi, he has a very suspicious accent. Having lived in Africa, the Philippines, Indonesia, New Zealand and Singapore over the last 28 years, Andrew’s vocal chords have become confused.

However, this has not stopped him from writing. Andrew started his career as a Copywriter at FCB and gradually made his way to some of Singapore’s top creative agencies, including BBDO and JWT.

Along the way, he’s picked up some fancy certificates and metal phalluses at MEDIA Spikes, CCA, D&AD, The One Show, Cannes, Clio and Communication Arts. The Gunn Report has also recognised his work as some of the best in the world. Other surprises include winning the Outdoor Grand Prix at AdFest, being ranked as one of Clio’s Top 12 Young Creatives in the world and winning the Institute of Advertising’s Young Professional Of The Year award.

Andrew is currently writing a comic book and producing a photography series under his design label AMATEUR.

Eric Yeo
Ogilvy, Singapore
Creative Director

Those who know Eric Yeo usually have one thing to say about him – he's bloody hardworking. This trait of his was evident as early as 1989 when he was a student at NAFA. There, he really put in the hours and effort chasing skirts, and improving his game at billiards after lessons.

Well, all that toiling paid off and Eric landed a job as Senior Visualiser at Fong Haque & Soh.
Then, he moved on to Wunderman. And after a brief 3 months, he found himself at Ogilvy as a Junior Art Director.

Thanks to his industrious nature, Eric got plenty done and learned a great deal from those he worked with. Soon, word about this “maniacal machine” came to the ears of those at Leo Burnett, and Eric was promptly hired as Art Director there. After another 2 years, FCB poached him and off he went to be their Head of Art.

Today, Eric is back at Ogilvy and is still as hardworking as ever. Some days, he even tries to pack in a 10km run at the end of the day. And yes, his skill at billiards is awesome, thanks to years of sheer hard work.

Ivan grew up in a small town called Semarang on the Island of Java in Indonesia. After displaying early artistic promise, which was displayed on the family refrigerator, his Mum suggested he pursue a career in “something creative”. So he took his first flight in a big steel bird to attend Singapore’s Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. Later after graduation he decided to apply his fine art skills to the advertising industry.

In his ten years in this industry, Ivan has created campaigns at some of Singapore’s best agencies including JWT, McCann Erickson, Batey and BBDO for some of the world’s best brands. Also along the way he has grown from a f.a artist into an accomplished Associate Creative Director winning every major advertising award including Cannes, D&AD, One Show, Clio and Best of Show at Singapore’s own Creative Circle Awards.

When not collecting awards Ivan is a keen photographer documenting in extreme close-up butterflies mating.

Jay Phua
10AM , Singapore
Creative Director

Jay Phua is Creative Director with 10AM Communications, Singapore. He got his start as a writer with Leo Burnett, Singapore and has been lucky along the way at the One Show, D&AD, Cannes, Communications Arts, and the CCA. Though he has yet won anything from the local lottery. When not writing ads, Jay spends his time writing materials, which he hopes would one day materialize as skits on a late night talk show, preferably one hosted by Bill Murray.

Roy Poh - Head of Jury
Beautiful
Creative Director

Roy Poh was one of the creative directors and founders of Kinetic, one of the most highly-awarded agencies in the region. After 7 years in Kinetic, many of his projects have been featured in renowned industry periodicals. Roy has proven that good work need not be given up just to survive in today's market with awards like D&AD, Oneshow, Art Director's Club, Cannes, Clio, YoungGuns, Communication Arts, Singapore Creative Circle Awards, Singapore Designers Award and many more.

Roy has also been invited to judge at both international and local award shows like the Australia YoungGuns Design & Advertising award, the Singapore Crowbar Student Design award, the Singapore Creative Circle Award, Young Asian Designers Award and most recently he judged for the D&AD Global Award in London. And he is nominated by IAS as 15 most influential Creative Directors in Singapore for 2006 and 2007.

He is currently the creative director and founder of Beautiful. His new creative shop.

Anuar Abu
Leo Burnett, Singapore
Design Director

A career spanning 18 years, built on a foundation of passion and commitment, on a singular belief that great ideas and memorable design empowers, educates clients and builds consumer loyalty.

Anuar’s 18-year career started with a design consultancy specialising in packaging. Working with the biggest name in advertising through the years – Batey Ads, Saatchi & Saatchi and Leo Burnett – he has built a reputation and earned respect within the advertising fraternity, and also a loyal client following.

In 2003, Anuar left Leo Burnett to embark on a fruitful undertaking as a freelance consultant, in regional projects spanning Manila, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and of course, Singapore.

He is back on familiar ground assuming the role of Design Director – a unit he onced helmed in Leo Burnett.

Driv Loo
Kinetic, Singapore
Graphic Designer

Born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Driv graduated from Dasein Academy of Art in 2004. After joining Grass, a local design studio in KL, and freelancing for a couple of years, he embarked on some personal work which are featured in Pictoplasma, Tiger Translate, Arkitip Magazine, etc.

In 2006, he joined Kinetic and picked up silver and bronze awards in Singapore Creative Circle Award 2007

Hanson Ho
H55, Singapore
Design Director

Hanson Ho is an award winning design director and founder of H55, a graphic design platform started in 1999.

Having been commissioned by a diverse range of clients, Hanson’s portfolio of projects include the much publicised redesign of the iconic 'Funpack' for Singapore's National Day Parade 2007, identity design for the upcoming 'Design Difference' ICSID & IFI World Design Congresses 2009, identity design for the Singapore Pavilion at the 10th International Architecture Exhibition (Venice Architecture Biennale), branding for The Sandwich Shop, publication design projects for the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore, and his ongoing personal project, Rabbit: wearables which are available at London’s Dover Street Market by Comme des Garçons, amongst other design stores around the world.

Through the years, Hanson has received recognition and awards from some of the most prestigious international competitions for his work, including the British D&AD, the New York Type Directors Club, the New York Art Directors Club, New York One Show Design, the Creative Circle Awards and the Singapore Design Awards.

Melvin Chee
:phunkstudio, Singapore
Partner

Melvin Chee (b. 1974) is a founding partner of creative collective :Phunkstudio. With 3 other partners, They came together in 1994 to form :phunk studio, a creative collective based in Singapore.

Described as "The Champion of Singapore's Graphic Scene" (Creative Review, UK), "Asia's hottest agency" (Computer Arts, UK) and "iconic representatives of the new wave of young Asian creators" (Get it Louder, China). Phunk is Asia’s leading art and design collective.

They have propagated a visual signature that seamlessly blends and reinterprets their diverse influences such as traditional Chinese craft and folklore, Hong Kong pulp fiction, Japanese manga and otaku subculture, Western popular culture, art and design movements into a singular creative thought that reflects their multi-cultural identity, background and environment. The concept of "universality" in the age of modern globalization is a constant theme in their works.

They constantly challenge the conventional notion and definition of the “artist” and “commercial design studio” by constantly blurring the boundaries between both, mixing Neo Pop Art ideology with Post-Modernist design sensibilities. Their cross-disciplinary approach is best described as "an aesthetic collective consciousness" focused on experimenting with new approaches to visual expressions. Their expansive scope of projects spans across art, design, publishing, fashion, music, film and interactive.

Phunk has collaborated and worked with international brands such as Nike, Nokia, MTV, Daimler Chrysler, Comme des Garcon, Levis, Tiger Beer and Salem. Their works are featured in many international publications and awarded in various design award shows.

They have exhibited and lectured extensively around the world.They represented Singapore at the Gwangju Design Biennale 2005 and the London Design Festival 2006. The Singapore History Museum hosted their 10 year retrospective exhibition 'A Decade of Decadence' in 2005

Zann Wan
Couple, Singapore
Creative Director

Zann is co-founder of Couple. Founded in '07, Couple's projects include print and screen graphics, packaging, way-finding systems, exhibition design, books and magazines.

Prior to this, Zann was the Design Director of Epigram. Her work has been featured in Form, an European Design Magazine and Gesch_ftsberichte _ FFF, a German publication of annual reports.

Her awards list includes multiple AR100s, the New York Festivals and HOW. She was recently awarded two Hong Kong Design Awards and the acclaimed Graphis Annual Reports 2007.

Sebastian Tan - Head of Jury
The Shooting Gallery, Singapore
Group Managing Director

Sebastian entered the market as a fresh-eyed art student. A much sought after photographer and director today, Sebastian has been known to be a maverick possessing a unique and effective blend of creativity, fiery passion and foresight.

Never giving up his dream of becoming an art director one day, he showed gritty persistence and imagination in his first stint as a photographer’s assistant. Even while he was constantly kept busy by the demands of his job, he honed the skills of the trade from the bottom up. However, it was because of a minor setback that opened a door of opportunity for him to crystallise something more ambitious.

Laid off and armed with only a 35mm camera, a couple of lenses and the proceeds from the sale of his car, The Shooting Gallery was born in 1987 out of his necessity to survive.

Perhaps one of the few things that The Shooting Gallery of today had in common with its humble roots is the professionalism of Sebastian and his crew. A diversified and major player in print and television commercial production, the brainchild has expanded to include production subsidiaries and dedicated digital imaging facilities, Wishing Well The Imaging Station. The collective enterprise has bagged numerous local and international awards, secured long-term deals with major clients and teamed up with top-class professionals from around the world.

To date, Shooting Gallery Asia is a collective of 12 companies with offices and studios in Malaysia, Indonesia Vietnam and New Zealand, and growing.

The latest being Artison, a production design business to support and add value to the film-making industry in the region.

Sebastian also sits on the advisory council of Temasek Polytechnic’s School of Design and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts’ curriculum advisory committee.

He had also served and judged in various Award Shows like, the Creative Circle Awards, The Hall Of Fame Awards, The Crowbars, The Phoenix, The Kodak Gongs, The Asian Television Awards, The Apollo and many more. He had himself been recently awarded the Spirit of Enterprise, 2007.
With a gleaming 15,000 sq feet headquarters sprawling at Brilliant Building, Sebastian has much to be proud of his achievement. But he still remains the same simple and humble visionary, with no airs at all, persuading clients not just with the depth of his views but also the expertise of his direction.

Freddie Yeo
Infinite Frameworks, Singapore
General Manager

Freddie is the General Manager of Infinite Frameworks, one of Asia's leading post-production facility based in Singapore.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Communication Studies at Murdoch University, Western Australia in 1992 and started his career at Caldecott Productions International, a division under MediaCorp.

In 1997, together with a group of industry veterans, he set up Infinite Frameworks and has been responsible for expanding the company’s service offerings that includes Post-Production services for TV Commercials, Feature Films and Short Films, Broadcast Design and Branding, Animation, Intellectual Property Acquisition and Content Development for the local and regional markets. It currently employs 55 staff in its Singapore operations and another 100 staff in its animation studio in Batam.

Freddie has been involved in some of Singapore's most critically acclaimed feature films having held an Executive Producer role for "Be With Me" directed by Eric Khoo which was the Opening Film for the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes Film Festival 2005. He is also a Producer for one of Singapore highest ever box-office grossing films “881” directed by Royston Tan. He also recently produced Eric Khoo’s latest feature film “My Magic”.

He sits on the Board of the Singapore Film Commission (SFC) and is the Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the School of Interactive Digital Media of Nanyang Polytechnic.

Juan Foo
The Shooting Gallery, Singapore
Executive Producer

Movie maverick Juan Foo has been involved in up to 7 films to date.He develops and packages film projects at international film markets; giving him a broad perspective on cinema.

His network within the community has given him the attribute of being the referral point for motion pictures. Having a grounded experience in the craft has made him to be the Singaporean voice for panels and he is a curator, writer, lecturer and judge for film events.

Juan wears two hats helming business development and content development; constantly mining concepts and opportunities that are entertaining, engaging and economically viable.

Kenneth Tan
Singapore Film Commission
Director

Kenneth started his career at Acorn Marketing & Research Consultants, where he rose through the ranks to become Managing Director of the group’s Singapore headquarters, servicing a wide spectrum of blue-chip clients across the Asia-Pacific region in fast-moving consumer goods and services sectors. Kenneth’s reputation as a top-notch market researcher is still the industry benchmark today, nearly a decade after he left Acorn to join MediaCorp, where he held five senior management positions – as Chief Operating Officer, MediaCorp TV; Chief Executive Officer, MediaCorp Radio; Managing Director, Caldecott Productions International; Executive Vice President, MediaCorp Group Communications & Government Relations; and Executive Vice President, MediaCorp Group Research.

Kenneth’s next honour was being appointed as the youngest and first non-expatriate Managing Director of Golden Village Singapore, overseeing two companies – Golden Village Multiplex Pte Ltd (the cinema arm of the group, with the largest market share of all cinema operators in this country) and Golden Village Pictures Pte Ltd (distributor of major feature films such as the MATRIX trilogy, HAPPY FEET, and almost all local movie productions made in Singapore in the last 2 years). In his fourand- a-half years with GV, the company broke all previous trading and profitability records, and launched one of the world’s most successful cinema complexes, the flagship Golden Village VivoCity.

Kenneth presently owns and runs his own company, The Bridgebuilders Group, providing a comprehensive range of marketing, business and management consultancy services to organizations in the entertainment, arts and media sectors, in addition to designing and delivering leading-edge training of senior executives in public speaking.

On 2nd May 2008, Kenneth will start work at the Media Development Authority of Singapore as Chief Operating Officer, and concurrently become Director of the Singapore Film Commission, the Board of which he has served on since the latter’s inception in 1998.

Ong Sor Fern
Singapore Press Holdings
Film Critic

Ong Sor Fern read literature at the National University of Singapore, which broadened her mind but qualifies her to do very little in real life. She joined the Singapore Press Holdings as a journalist and has covered everything from books and the arts to jazz and the movies.

Besides creating and editing the Life! Books tabloid, she also helped establish the Life! Theatre Awards in 2001 and served as a judge on the panel for three years. She helped programme the 2001 Singapore Writers Festival and has served on the National Library Board. She also helped found the Asian Film Archive and is on the board of directors.

She is currently the deputy editor for entertainment.

Rennie Gomes
Yellow Box Studios, Singapore
Managing Director

Rennie is one of the key founders and Managing Director of Yellow Box Studios in Singapore. Essentially a music and sound Design Audio House, Yellow Box is has been at the cutting edge of audio for some of the best commercials and films to come out of Asia.

If Yellow Box had a backbone, in the metaphorical sense, it would be in the form of Rennie Gomes. He wears several professional hats and is the Managing Director of the Company as well. As a composer, sound designer and audio engineer, Rennie has had 20 years of experience in audio-post production and music engineering. Best known for his edgy, experimental grooves and unconventional methods, Rennie has won several international awards for his creative sound design. Other than his utter madness for loud pulsating music, he is also known for his uncompromising passion and dogged loyalty to Zouk Club.

His award winning advertising credits include Finalist in the Sound Design category for Lexus in New York’s advertising tour de force The One Show in 1999 as well as Finalist for Best Music in a TV campaign in the prestigious D&AD 2001 for Chinese 88.com, a television campaign featuring a variety of spots, for which “Tortoise” was awarded critical recognition.

Rennie was also awarded Best Sound Design in the 2002 New York Festival for JVC, ‘Sound’, a commercial produced by The Shooting Gallery for local powerhouse, Ad Planet, featured an unusually quiet style of sound design.

Rennie also picked up a Silver for Animation and Motion graphics and a Bronze for Sound Design and Music in the Interactive Craft categories in the Creative Circles Awards 2007.

Rennie has also been a key figure in developing local film projects, being an avid follower and supporter of local films since the early beginnings. He is firmly commited to raising the level of production quality in Singapore-produced films, particularly in the area of sound design, music scoring and audio post. As a sound designer and film mixer, he is also much sought after for his inventive, unorthodox approach to cinema audio. Rennie has worked with Emmy Award winner Robert Chappel , Asia’s film stalwart Eric Khoo, and promising newcomer, director Royston Tan. Rennie’s film credits include sound design for Mee Pok Man, Twelve Storeys (Eric Khoo), Sound Design for The Long Lunch trailer (Anthony Redman), as Supervising Engineer on Talking Cock the Movie, as Audio Technical Advisor on City Sharks (Esan Sivalingam), and his best work for feature film till date, as music composer and sound designer for Royston Tan’s existential surburban portrayal of disenfranchised teenhood, Fifteen.

In November last year Rennie released his first experimental album entitles Fade to Black. This is his first commercial release.. Essentially an electronic musician Gomes has collaborated with The Observatory having helped produce their critically acclaimed 1st album and also having done remixes on two of their songs.

Gomes’s music influences range from the likes of Square Pusher, Massive Attack, DJ Krush to Air and Portishead.

Wahyuni Hadi
Objectifs Films

Arts manager Wahyuni Hadi is most known for her work promoting Singapore independent film. She completed her Masters in Arts Management from LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts under the school scholarship and NAC Bursary. Formerly the Senior Programme Manager (Film) at The Substation, she created a number of milestones during her tenure including launching the Singapore Shorts Film Festival and Asian Film Symposium. Her love for the arts led her to the position of Commissioning Editor at MediaCorp TV12 Arts Central where her bold and fresh approach to local arts television programmes saw the collaboration with visual artists such as Ho Tzu Nyen and Justin Lee, documentaries on Theatreworks project in Laos and the recordings of Arts Festival performances by renown artists such as Akram Khan.

Hadi now manages Objectifs Centre for Photography & Filmmaking where she spearheaded the first film and photography residency and initiated the first short film distribution company in Singapore. She continues to give talks in schools, curates for film festivals and launches independent projects such as the Fly By Night Video Challenge. Hadi is also the Festival manager of the Singapore International Film Festival.

Melvyn is a Senior Art Director and winner of the coveted Ogilvy Giant Award at Ogilvy & Mather Singapore. His wide-ranging projects include interactive projects for Levi's®, BP Castrol and digital mobile works for Nokia, all of which won him accolades and awards at local and international award shows. He defines Levi's® Copper Jeans website as one of his capstones.

Once, working under the moniker 2manydesigners, he produced pro-bono collaborative works with Nike, Woods & Woods, U.N.K.L.E. and various music bands, to name a few.

For 4 years Melvyn ran the Lomography Embassy which promoted the Russian Camera both locally and internationally. Through publicity events that featured the Lomo Lifestyle, interest in this cult phenomenon was positively revived. In 2005, Lomo was featured in the prominent digital film festival RESFEST through a showcase of videos using the cameras as a medium.

When he's not spending time on his über sexy iPhone/iPod, he makes up lists of "Top Ten Favorite ___ of the Year" (think babes, music and film). The film, 'Life Aquatic' by Wes Anderson still tops his film's category till today. He has also joined the group "Wish Owen Wilson well".

Simon Waterfall
Poke London
Creative Director

Simon has been a creative director since he was sixteen, still at school, his company wrote the first computer games for Commodore 64 and Amigas, he still remembers when computers came with soldering irons. Unlucky enough for him his chosen profession in the Digital arena moves so fast that everything he learns today is dated tomorrow.

After studying his Masters in Industrial Design at the Royal College of Art in 1994, he co-founded Deepend design which grew as the industry embraced digital. It blossomed to 350 staff in nine offices round the world and became the number one creative agency in the UK for three years running and number one in the world in 2001.

In 2001 he with five partners set up Poke which was a vehicle to challenge everything that they had learned, practiced and preached. It become the number one digital studio in the UK in 2006 and is part of the advertising company ‘Mother’.

In September 2007 he became the youngest and first Digital President of D&AD and in November will also be awarded with the title of Royal Designer of Industry, the highest honour in design.

In his spare time, of which he has none, he runs a fashion label called Social Suicide, arranges flowers at the weekend and crosses his fingers for dry weather to ride his motorbikes. He lives in the East End of London, is single, and has three points on his driving licence.

Jonathan Yuen
Kinetic, Singapore
Senior Graphic Designer

Jonathan Yuen is a multi-disciplinary graphic designer based in Singapore. He was born in Penang, Malaysia, and studied visual communication design. He started his career as an interactive designer and has been in the industry for six years. His latest work has been recognised and awarded at Singapore Creative Circle Awards, YoungGuns Award, Global D&AD, The One Show, The Art Directors Club, Adfest and Spikes. Since 2004, he has been with Kinetic Singapore.

Robert Upton
EURO RSCG, Singapore
Associate Creative Director

Soon after graduating with an Honors Degree in Graphic Design from Melbourne 's Swinburne School of Design, Robert traveled to Singapore where, over the next five years, he worked with various companies involved in the emerging youth market of Asia.

From 1997 until 1999 he established and managed the off-air creative department of MTV Asia which saw the establishment of MTV Asia's first online presence in 1998. The website won a silver at Promax the same year.

In 1999 Robert and his wife re-located to London where he worked on a contract basis for a number of premium design and advertising agencies, including Leo Burnett where he was responsible for the re-design of Morgan Stanley's European credit card website.

Robert returned to Singapore in 2002 where he took the post of Creative Director at The Filter Group, a regional youth marketing agency who specialize in youth research and BTL marketing for clients such as Coca-Cola, Nokia, Microsoft X-Box and Levi's.

From September 2004 to May 2007 Robert headed the creative team at MRM Worldwide Singapore as Creative Director where he was responsible for developing work for Microsoft, UPS, Nestlé, MasterCard and Nortel.

Robert joined the Euro team in May 2007. He has been married to Ling for 8 years and has an unusually charismatic 3 year old daughter, Talia… and another on the way.

Steve Lawler
kult, Singapore
Creative Consultant/Senior Art Director

Steve Lawler is a leading-edge interactive designer with extensive experience working with many top name clients and international brands. Truly passionate in this challenging arena, he has been exploring and experimenting with sound designers and filmmakers in introducing new techniques to web creativity.

He did excellent work at Fabrica, Diesel Spa before being brought to Singapore by OgilvyOne Worldwide as Senior Art Director of Interactive. After 2 years he left Ogilvy to explore more in developing a visual language.

Now as a Creative Consultant at kult, Singapore, Steve hopes to research the more unconventional fields in new media. He is currently directing a project showcasing Asian design stars to the world for Tiger Beer. His personal work explores the power of graphic art to communicate across cultures and languages, using silk screens and painting to spread his message.

Steve’s exciting portfolio extends from fashion to technology and includes brilliant work from Nokia, Levi’s, DHL, Colors Online, Amnesty International, World Wild Life Fund, Benetton, Alessi, Fiorucci and Private Investors. He was also the designer behind Diesel StyleLab’s SS03 site.

Steve has been profiled in Creative Review, IdN, Create Online, Vogue UK, MTV Netherlands, “Non Solo Musica” TV program (Spain) and ID Magazine (US), and his works have been published in Switzerland, Germany, South Africa, Australia and Hong Kong. Actively teaching and composing workshops he is slowly attempting to convince everyone he meets to look at things with a fresh perspective.

Valerie Cheng
Arc Worldwide, Singapore
Creative Director

Valerie is the creative director of Arc Worldwide in Singapore. She has over 12 years of digital marketing experience gained from a range of local, regional and international clients, including Singapore Airlines, SilkAir, Hewlett Packard, Tiger Beer, SAP and, more recently, United Overseas Bank (UOB).

Starting her digital career specializing in web usability and information architecture, her portfolio has evolved from primarily digital work to include integrated and CRM work. Her educational background and appreciation for offline creativity has inspired her to take ideas across various mediums, helping make Leo Burnett/Arc Worldwide the biggest winner in the integrated category at the recent Creative Circle Awards.

Valerie may have made her mark in the One Show, London International, Effies, Golden Drum, Asia Interactive Awards and the Digital Media Awards, but the biggest award will always be her 5-year-old son.

Hon - Head of Jury
Shutterbug, Singapore
Photographer

Like most SMEs, Shutter Bug Photography Services had humble beginnings before growing into one of the napshot photography studios in Singapore today.

Hon, who started Shutter Bug, began his lens journey with renowned photographer Teo Keng Beng in the mid 80's without even knowing how to hold a camera correctly. With his eagerness to learn and passion for the trade, Hon developed an 'eye' for photography very quickly and made the bold move to start Shutter Bug after just 4 short years.

Today, not only does Hon know how to hold a camera, he has numerous awards on hand with recent wins coming at the prestigious Cannes Show, D&AD and One Show.

Hon's passion for photography and creativity has definitely help put Singapore on the world advertising map. Even in this day and age, where Digital Imaging can easily fix many time consuming details, Hon still insists on doing it right with a camera. You could say it’s old-school, but hey, isn't that what we all look for in Photography - details and craft?