Exploratory

Introduce yourself!
My name is E Cheng and I’m currently a first year design student at Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

How did you get into design?
After secondary school, I went into animation at Singapore Polytechnic (SP), but decided to pivot to design because I realised that what I enjoyed most about animation were the design aspects. So then I decided to pursue design further in NTU, and I’m really enjoying it so far!

That’s great to hear! How’s school going for you thus far?
I think NTU is great for people who are trying to pivot to something else, and I’m really enjoying the school life and the community that I have in school. There are a lot of events and stuff that you can attend, and tons of opportunities to showcase your work, so that’s really cool!

Yeah, we sometimes find ourselves reminiscing our uni days too! Outside of school and design, what other hobbies or interests do you have?
I don’t know if this is considered a hobby, but I love going for gigs and music shows. I’ve been attending concerts regularly since 2019, 2020. I’ve also been part-timing as a barista, so I’ve been practicing latte art a lot too. I think I have a lot of weird interests actually (laughs).

We’d call them interesting, not weird! What types of gigs do you enjoy?
Honestly, the music pool in Singapore is really big. When I first started, I was mostly going for indie gigs, but recently I attended the mixed genre Music Day Out! and thought it was really cool. Everything was DIYed and I met a lot of people from different backgrounds, like designers, musicians, and people who do sound.

A lot of people think there’re not a lot of things to do in Singapore, but I feel like if you find your niche, you’ll be able to find your community, whether it’s fashion, design, or anything.

Agreed! We also think it’s great to have clear, unique interests, because it really helps to expand your worldview outside of say what you do for work or are studying in school.
Yeah! And I think it’s very nice that younger people nowadays are exploring things that are outside of their careers and jobs, which I think isn’t something that people used to do because they were so focused on their jobs. I really like how people feel like their jobs are not such an integral part of their lives anymore, and that they can afford to expand their lives beyond that and have different hobbies and interests that shape who they are and how they live.