Shentonista Valentines – Darren & Lesley: Taking Root

Over the course of this Valentine’s Day series, we’ve seen how a life partnership can transform into a business partnership in different ways—whether it’s by working closely together, building upon a shared space and dream, or, by playing to each other’s strengths and passions, supporting each other in chasing different aspects of a common goal. But the couples we’ve heard from thus far are all relatively younger, each with the bright-eyed vigour of youth and still comparatively new to the world of entrepreneurship. Granted, they’ve each shared bits of wisdom from experience beyond their years, but building a business up over the course of five years isn’t the same as keeping one running across the unstable economic landscape (and a whole pandemic to boot) for over a decade and counting.

This is why in the third and final part of our series, we’re diving into Darren and Lesley’s world of UNIFORM, a content and communications studio that’s been around for close to 15 years now.

Apart from their level of expertise in the professional realm, one thing that sets Darren and Lesley’s story apart from our other couples’ is the fact that UNIFORM was founded by Darren and another business partner, with Lesley only coming into the picture a few years later as a fresh graduate and, at the time, a stranger to Darren. Back then, the UNIFORM team was small and lean, and the days long and gruelling. “We would have 5AM call times for client shoots, then host a launch event for another client in the same evening,” Darren reminisced. “In this time, Lesley witnessed the entire spectrum of my emotions through the good and bad; she could always see the good in what we were trying to do, and never stopped growing and evolving for the good of the company.” Needless to say, though times were tough, Darren and Lesley each loved what they did (and still do!).

That said, our next big question was how then did the pair go from being co-workers to something more? As Lesley describes it, this change happened very organically. “There wasn’t a specific point where we were like ‘Okay, let’s be more than colleagues,’” she laughs. “When one of UNIFORM’s partners left, Darren and I spent more time with each other working on projects and going for meetings, where we naturally started talking about things other than work, and got to know each other better.”

Of course, the taboo of dating the boss is something that would linger in anyone’s minds, especially so given the recent spate of controversies that have been the topic of many a conversation online and among friends. But with Darren and Lesley, it’s clear that their quiet love for each other transcends all of that.

Chalk it up to the fact that the UNIFORM team was extremely compact, which meant that each individual wore multiple hats and took on various responsibilities at work, and also the way that Darren was a very generous, hands-on leader; one who would, as Lesley recalls, “invite the whole team over to his popo’s (grandma’s) place during Chinese New Year for a meal”. But as the pair’s relationship slowly simmered away, power imbalances and other concerns weren’t an issue for them or the team at all—though these days, Darren jokes that Lesley has too much control over his personal life now thanks to a recent health scare that left his diet at the mercy of Lesley’s ultra-healthy home-cooked meals, and his free time channeled towards a consistent exercise plan.

But all jokes aside, navigating this understandably precarious shift from being purely colleagues to life partners as well is something that’s arguably more daunting than becoming business partners with your other half, yet Lesley tells us that for the two of them, this transition was a smooth and rather uneventful one. “Maybe Darren might feel otherwise,” she says as a disclaimer, “but because we’d already been working together for quite some time, it just felt like a continuation of our roles.” In fact, if anything, she acknowledges that Darren’s expectations of her and her work are even higher now, because she has a more personal understanding of his objectives, intentions, and and standards, as well as his perspective, background, emotions, and values. In other words, Lesley now has a more holistic view on why Darren makes the professional decisions that he does, and how that shapes their now-shared goal as partners in life and at work moving forward.

2026 marks the couple’s twelfth year as colleagues and second year as husband and wife. With their lives so closely intertwined (and for so long at that), we were curious to know how they’ve kept their boundaries between work and life clear. Surprisingly, Lesley tells us that the work talk carries on, even in the sanctity of their home. “It was a bit of a struggle for me during the Covid-19 Circuit Breaker when home was the office too, but now that there’s a physical separation, I feel that the car ride home and our living room have become spaces where we can decompress by talking about what happened during the day, and process things with each other,” Lesley shares. To which Darren adds that their lives at UNIFORM have never been about work-life balance, but more about work-life harmony, especially so in the digital and advertising realm, where work crises are a near daily occurrence at times.

Apart from being a space to decompress, the couple’s living room serves a multitude of other purposes as well—it’s where the pair convenes to hash things out with one another when work-related conflicts bleed into their personal lives, where Darren locks in on the weekends with EA Sports FC on his Playstation, and where the couple’s fur baby Tobie hangs out.

Like most longtime couples, it seems the pair has their found their groove between work and life, but as with all routines, things can get stale and mundane. So how have they maintained the spark in their relationship alongside their own sense of individuality, given that they spend almost every waking (and sleeping) moment with each other? Well, Darren is the first to admit that he isn’t the most romantic person, and that surprising someone as perceptive as Lesley is almost impossible. That said, he shares that the spark lies in the little things that they do for each other—that, and the fact that he’s a lot sillier around her when it’s just the two of them. “We cook random dinners for each other, have date nights out, surprise each other with snacks from our supermarket runs, and are just happy doing little things like watching something on TV together.” To which, Lesley reminds us that they’re both homebodies who prefer to stay in and not leave the house, but they do have their own distinct hobbies and spaces within their cosy home where they can have some alone time when needed. For Darren, it’s the couch and his gaming (as mentioned earlier), and for Lesley, it’s a quiet corner and a good book or craft activity. “We’ve never forced the other to be the same,” Lesley tells us, “although he says now he’s dressing more like me and thinks I’ve made him basic!”

At the end of the day, anyone who knows Darren and Lesley can attest to their quiet, steadfast love for each other and the work that they do. Despite being inherently different individuals, the pair share a bond so strong and make up for what the other lacks so naturally. With decades of combined experience in both working and living together as partners, the biggest piece of advice the couple can share is that the relationship should always come first. “I love working with Darren, but if I had to choose between the business or our marriage, I would always choose our marriage,” Lesley tells us. “You could be great as a couple, but not-so-great business partners, and if it comes to a point where the business is putting unnecessary strain on your relationship, then consider letting go or rethink how to make it work rather than risk both.” And that, to the couple is exactly what love is in a nutshell—it’s stubborn in the sense that they’ll choose each other no matter what, and safe in the way they have full trust in one another.

Or, as Darren describes it, “love is soup in a slow cooker—everything gets better the longer it’s left to stew.”

UNIFORM
2 Tannery Rd, #05-02
Singapore 347720
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