Design Trends: Nathan Yong

Currently based in Singapore and running his own award winning multidisciplinary design consultancy, Nathan Yong is in demand. His work, which spans the realms of industrial design, interiors, graphics, architecture, furniture, lighting, tableware, manufacturing and branding, is on showroom floors in world design centres such as London, Cologne, Milan, Shanghai, Sydney, and Singapore, just to name a few.

Yong, a UNSW Art & Design graduate, says he’s driven by a vision of perfect simplicity - subtle, efficient, and cleverly constructed. He works with primarily natural materials, inspired by a childhood growing up near Singapore’s East Coast Park, where he gathered objects from the beach with his brother and constructed toys. 

Be the end result a chair, light, building or a vase, Yong incorporates natural symmetry, balanced lines, and a sense of space and lightness. Many of his design objects also offer hidden compartments for tucking away clutter, and believe it or not, the storage elements provide organisational systems. When he describes his work, Yong says, “I want to not be wasteful, and [for the design] to help in whatever way it’s used: to be efficient in the way of materials and construction, as well as beautiful and poetic.”

Yong has been a key designer at several international design houses for many years, including the iconic French furniture brand Ligne Roset for whom he’s created a furniture and lighting range that blend classic East Asian aesthetics with European sensibilities. One of his more recent products, the Parachute hanging light, aligns satin black lacquered steel wire in a complimentary shape to his Paraffin candleholders and the Elisabeth seating collection.

Yong is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2008 Singapore President’s Design Award for Designer of the Year, the highest accolade achievable for any designer in the nation. Admirers and collectors of Yong’s work value quality materials, superb attention to detail, simplicity and honesty.