Making the familiar feel new
Singapore Night Festival had long built its visual identity around one familiar icon: the dome of the National Museum of Singapore.
While recognisable, the convention increasingly said more about where the festival happened than what it felt like to be there. In a calendar populated by light and arts festivals, SNF also needed a stronger expression of what made the experience uniquely its own.
For the 2024 edition, we set out to shift the perspective, quite literally, and put the scale, colour and energy of Singapore’s largest nocturnal experience at the centre of its identity.
Singapore Night Festival key visuals from years 2012, 2016, 2017 & 2022.
Change the perspective.
Instead of looking at the festival, we put audiences inside it.
A worm's-eye, convex perspective transformed the familiar dome into one element within a much bigger world surrounded by the colour, people, installations and energy that make SNF come alive after dark.
The dome had become the festival.
Across successive editions, the National Museum dome had become a familiar visual shorthand for Singapore Night Festival.
Our challenge wasn't to discard that recognition, but to move beyond a landmark-led identity and create a more visceral expression of the festival itself.
SINGAPORE'S LARGEST NOCTURNAL EXPERIENCE.
The new positioning gave that visual idea a voice. Rather than competing as another “light festival”, we framed SNF around something it could uniquely own: the scale and diversity of an entire district coming alive at night.
Not simply something to see, but something to experience.
From visual idea to lived experience
The convex perspective extended beyond the campaign visual into the festival itself. Branded convex mirrors throughout the district invited visitors to encounter themselves and their surroundings from a different perspective, turning the campaign's visual language into something audiences could physically participate in.
The mirrors became a popular festival touchpoint and were subsequently requested for later editions of SNF.
![[Festival Village] Festival Village @ Armenian Street - 1.JPG](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/64b4e4ee5987fc2958a7eb83/83394476-37ae-4167-ba94-f27ec438fa94/%5BFestival+Village%5D+Festival+Village+%40+Armenian+Street+-+1.JPG)
2012
Opening up the identity
2024 marked a departure from the dome-led convention of previous editions. The years that followed continued with increasingly expressive, experience-led identities, demonstrating just how far the festival's visual world could extend beyond a single landmark.
2022
2024
2025
2026
2025–26 creative shown for context; not produced by DSTNCT.
My Role
As creative lead, I was responsible for reframing an established visual convention while retaining the recognition Singapore Night Festival had built over successive editions.
I guided the team from the initial creative proposition through development of the campaign identity and its rollout across communications and the physical festival environment, working closely with the client team to build confidence around a deliberately different direction.
More than creating a new look for one edition, the opportunity was to show how an established property could evolve without losing what made it recognisable, and to turn a visual idea into an experience audiences could participate in.
Creative Direction · Brand Evolution · Campaign Positioning · Experiential Design · Stakeholder Alignment
The Team
DSTNCT:
Executive Creative Director Cheah Wei Chun
Associate Creative Director Shawn Heng
Jr Art Director Shannen Sutanto
Jr Art Director Gwendolyn Chan
Strategist Joshua Ang
Account Director Chloe Lim
Account Manager Jaslyn Jeffery
Account Executive Chua Hui Xin
National Heritage Board: Festival Director, Director (Festivals & Precinct Development), Assistant Director (Festivals & Precinct Development), Manager (Festivals & Precinct Development).
Year: 2024
