Gold Print and Published Media Design · 2022
Fading Traditional Trades and Crafts Book
by Jesvin Yeo
- A' Design Award 2022 Gold Winner in Print and Published Media Design
- Awarded April 15, 2022
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 658,244
- Verification code C175C46C2E · Verify this award
About Fading Traditional Trades and Crafts Book
The book uses 3D embossing to document and highlight the intricate details of the works meticulously crafted by traditional Singaporean artisans, from paper dragon boats and Indian jewelry to Peranakan beaded shoes. The color pages symbolize the rise and fall of traditional crafts, as the industry begins its developmental period (dull) to its golden age (yellow) and gradually fades (white). A pastel chalk is attached for readers to shade the pages and discover the lost arts of this intangible cultural heritage of Singapore, as only we humans can safeguard, support and bring it back.
Jesvin Yeo's Fading Traditional Trades and Crafts Book emerges from a profound commitment to cultural preservation through innovative print media, documenting vanishing artisanal practices with remarkable formal sophistication. This publication positions itself within the distinguished tradition of ethnographic documentation while transcending conventional approaches through its exceptional material treatment, employing deep embossing techniques that transform each spread into a sculptural meditation on manual labor and inherited skill. The technical achievement evident in the relief work demonstrates extraordinary command of dimensional printing processes, with figures emerging from the page surface with convincing anatomical articulation and emotional presence that conventional flat printing could never achieve. The monochromatic palette of warm cream and antiqued gold evokes archival documents, museum artifacts, and the patina of time, establishing immediate visual associations with preservation, memory, and cultural continuity. Each depicted craftsperson represents not merely an individual but an entire tradition approaching obsolescence, their concentrated postures and specialized tools becoming emblematic of knowledge systems transmitted across generations. The compositional decision to present artisans at work, rather than posed formally, captures the embodied intelligence that defines craft mastery, the particular angle of a wrist, the distribution of weight, the relationship between tool and material that constitutes tacit knowledge. Typography integrates seamlessly with illustration, the bilingual presentation honoring the multicultural heritage these trades represent while the elegant serif faces suggest institutional authority and documentary seriousness. The intimate book format invites close examination and contemplative engagement, positioning the reader as witness to practices that may soon exist only in such memorial documents. One might consider how the tactile dimensionality of the embossed surfaces parallels the haptic nature of the crafts themselves, creating formal resonance between medium and message that elevates this work beyond mere documentation into artistic statement.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- What makes this book unique is the use of the 3D embossing technique, not just embossing, to highlight the intricate details of the works meticulously crafted by traditional Singaporean artisans, from dragon boats to Peranakan beaded shoes. With the pastel chalk, the book encourages reader engagement by colouring pages to discover the lost art of our ancestors, as only we humans can help safeguard, support and bring attention to the significance of this intangible cultural heritage.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Book Box: 145mm (width) x 305mm (height) x 52mm (thickness)
Book Box Sleeve: 540mm (width) x 220mm (height)
Book: 140mm (width) x 298mm (height) x 40mm (thickness)
Book Sleeve: 530mm (width) x 298mm (height)
Inside pages (accordion fold): 4350mm (width) x 290mm (height)
3 Hard Covers: Inside Cover, Front and Back Covers - Tags
- Traditional Artisans, Traditional Crafts, Cultural Artifacts, Intangible Cultural Heritage
- Production Technology
- The making of this book explores how to combine traditional book forms with new technologies, make traditional book forms more interesting through unusual structures and visual stimuli, and push the boundaries of book design. The book is of significance to the design field because it not only records the traditional crafts for future designers to explore and contribute to the local craft landscape but also examines book design as a form of vanishing traditional craft.
- Design Challenge
- The project challenges were facing the covid-19 pandemic and the difficulty of making 3D embossed plates. Production of the book was delayed for 6 months due to the intricateness of the artefacts and further halted for 8 months due to the spread of the coronavirus. The team worked closely with the production houses to ensure things could move forward smoothly, and we are grateful that all challenges were managed well in the end.
- Project Duration
- The project started in May 2015 in Singapore and finished production in December 2021. The book is on sale from March 2022.
- Operation Flow
- The colour pages of the book symbolize the rise and fall of traditional crafts, as the industry begins its developmental period (dull colour) to its golden age (yellow colour) and gradually fades (white colour). The pastel chalk is attached for readers to shade the pages and discover the lost arts of this intangible cultural heritage of Singapore.
- Research
- Given the scarcity of available resources, the approach included analysing oral history data collected by the National Archives of Singapore under the Vanishing Trades project in the 1980s and conducting fieldwork with current and retired artisans to understand the current situation and future substantiate the findings. The aim of the project is to document Singapore lost or vanished traditional crafts so that future generations can learn about them even after they disappear.
- Inspiration
- Working with traditional artisans, I learned that when our ancestors came to Singapore in the 19th century from Malaya, China and India, they brought their values and livelihoods with them. These livelihoods include various forms of traditional crafts that have largely enriched Singapore cultural heritage. Thus, it is essential to record these crafts, some of which have vanished or will vanish within the next 20 years, and trace their place to the roots of their meaningful beginnings.
- Image Credits
- All images: Photographer Victor Gui, 2021 and 2022
- Patents
- Copyrights belong to Jesvin Yeo, 2021