On August 16, 2006 I presented “What is Design?” at the Invent Singapore Conference 2008: Design for Life workshop. I had a really great time as we had a really friendly audience that asked great questions.

I designed the slide show not as a Design definition exercise. Far from that. In fact designers are still debating on what design really is. This presentation was really more about looking at design on a holistic level and how design like the subject itself is constantly evolving. Not only that, the focus of the presentation was more about creating a design mindset for inventors to understand what design can do for them.

After almost 5 1/2 years and 5 international design awards later, I have decided to resign from my position as Head of Industrial Design and Senior Manager at Nakamichi’s Regional HQ in Singapore. Today the 8th August or 08/08/08 was my last day. The decision to leave was a tough one, but I believe it is time for me to move on.

While writing this, I suddenly realized that it also happens to be a cosmically auspicious day to the Chinese, not to mention the start of the Olympics! “Eight” in Mandarin rhymes with “Fa” which means luck and prosperity.

So while I’m pretty sad leaving behind some great colleagues, it looks to me like a happy ending that is going to lead into a flying start!