The Future Of Print

“Evolution, not Revolution. Co-existence, not Insularity.” says Jiahui Tan, the curator of The State of Print, and Founder and Creative Director of Fable.

- Jiahui Tan

During the pandemic in 2020, I was feeling so cooped up at home I decided to head to Basheer Graphic Books to buy some books. I started chatting with Nasser (the boss himself) whom I have known for a long time to do something fun together that involved augmented reality to drive more traffic to the bookstore. Much to our delight, that project, which was the first iteration of The State of Print, was a success as it was fun and brought traffic and sales to Basheer. The initiative was also picked up by quite a few international media platforms.

Fast forward to 2021, we started discussions with DesignSingapore Council to bring it to National Design Centre on a bigger scale. This time around, I wanted to involve more local brands that everyone is familiar with, international collaborators, and showcase winning works from the D&AD Awards in Singapore. It is important to see a coming together of Singapore and the world. I think the state of print in Singapore is very alive. It has just evolved from mass media to self-actualization and independent consumption. Annual reports are now mostly digital. But we have nice independent magazines and printed matter everywhere that fuels the soul of the creative industry. It depends on how one views the word ‘state’: is it commercial or emotional? That said, it is quite funny and ironic that I sometimes see people who fight for print lamenting about the reality and state of print on social media.

Oh, the irony!