THEM GIF JAM 2011: JUDGES

Zul Andra
http://kissmyculture.com

The arts and entertainment writer has been up and around town for the past 5 years. Having written in the nightlife and arts beat for I-S magazine, his previous experience includes writing for TODAY and JUNK. He now shares his knowledge of the clubbing culture through a bi-monthly column in Juice magazine, ThinkMaven.com, inSing.com, Time Out Singapore and The New Paper. He likes his whiskey dry, his steak rare, his coffee thick and his humor deadpan.

Steve Erlick

Steve began his ad career in the United Kingdom in the early 18th Century as a Copywriterscribesmith at Hall Advertising. He moved to Asia and Hong Kong (at the same time) landing at Bates Worldwide in the very early 90’s and then onto Ogilvy & Mather Singapore as Executive Creative Director in 1995.
After a near subliminal spell at TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles, Steve returned to Asia and came to his spiritual home of BBH. ECD of BBH Asia Pacific from 1999, Regional ECD and member of the BBH Worldwide Board since 2005 – he now cannot find any other credible reasons to make his title longer.
Steve’s work has bukakke’d many of the Regional and International Award Shows.
BBH Asia partners include Axe, Surf, Vaseline, Chupa Chups, Johnnie Walker, Singapore Tourism Board, Minute Maid, Sprite, NTUC Income, LG Mobile, Bloomberg TV, YTL YES and Mentos.

Presently, Steve’s favourite joke includes the phrase “blood out of a clown suit.”

Chris Lee
Creative Director, Asylum
www.theasylum.com.sg

Chris Lee is the founder and Creative Director of Asylum, one of the most respected creative companies in Asia.

Since its inception in 1999, the creative company has focused on cross disciplinary projects that include interactive design, product development, environmental & interior design, packaging, apparel design, branding and graphic design. Asylum’s work in the creative industry is recognized with more than 100 international awards.

Featured in more than 30 international magazines from around the world, Asylum is defined as an unconventional maverick in the creative world. ICON UK magazine recently described Asylum as “probably the best design agency in Singapore today”.

Chris has served as a judge for the prestigious D&AD awards in London, The Hong Kong Designers Association Awards, The Red Dot awards and Tokyo TDC in 2009. Most recently he became a founding member and President of The Design Society, a non-profit organization that aims to promote visual culture through exhibitions, workshops and education. Voted as “one of the most influential Creative Directors for 5 consecutive years, Chris is also the recipient for Designer of the year in Singapore’s President Design Award 2009.

Scott Mclelland
www.supermarkart.com

Scott is creative director working with brands and advertising agencies from Hamburg to Hong Kong. He has been creative director of some of the regions most creative advertising agencies such as Bartle Bogle Hegarty Tokyo and Weiden + Kennedy Shanghai working with brands such as Levi’s, Nokia and Nike. He is currently based in Melbourne though probably on a plane.

Chris Ng
http://idnworld.com/

Chris is the shitkicker at IdN Magazine.

He has been around the company for 7 years, and hasn’t got a promotion nor a raise.

After all these years, he’ still kicking shit for the magazine, and lovin’ it.

Ian Stewart

Ian came to Asia 20 years ago from Sydney, and has spent the past two decades in the trenches of youth marketing around the region. Ian has lived in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, and Bangkok. He has worked for Coca-Cola and MTV, Ogilvy and his own youth agency Filter, and now Converse.
Ian is the Marketing Director for Converse in Asia, based in Shanghai.

Jackson Tan
www.phunkstudio.com

Jackson Tan is a Singaporean artist, designer and curator.

He is the co-founder of :phunk studio, a contemporary art and design collective based in Singapore.
Described as “The Champion of Singapore’s Graphic Scene” (Creative Review, UK), “Asia’s hottest agency” (Computer Arts, UK), “one of the world’s foremost cutting-edge design collectives” (Asia Tatler, Hong Kong) and “iconic representatives of the new wave of young Asian creators” (Get it Louder, China).

They have propagated a visual signature that seamlessly blends and reinterprets their diverse influences such as traditional Chinese craft, philosophy and folklore, Hong Kong wuxia pulp fiction, Japanese manga and otaku subculture, Western popular culture, art and design movements into a singular creative thought that reflects their multi-cultural identity, background and environment.
Labeled “Creators of modern urban mythological tales” (Chinese Contemporary Art News, Taiwan), :phunk has created a visual universe densely populated by ancient gods and modern creatures, to depict universal tales social satire, humanity morality, rock n’ roll ethos, contemporary culture and :phunk’s unique witty sense of humor. The concept of ‘universality’ in the age of modern globalization is a constant theme in their works.
They constantly challenge the conventional notion and definition of the ‘artist’ and ‘commercial design studio’ by constantly blurring the boundaries between both, mixing Neo Pop Art ideology with Post-Modernist design sensibilities. Their cross-disciplinary approach is best described as “an aesthetic collective consciousness” focused on experimenting with new approaches to visual expressions. Their expansive scope of projects spans across art, design, publishing, fashion, music, film and interactive.

:phunk has collaborated and worked with international brands such as Nike, Nokia, MTV, Daimler Chrysler, Comme des Garçon, Uniqlo, Levi’s and Tiger Beer. Their works are featured in many international publications and awarded in various design award shows. One of their artworks titled ‘Electricity’ was cited in the book, ‘Graphic Design, A New History’ as “Instances of truly global graphic design”. They were awarded ‘Designer of the Year’ in 2007 by the President’s Design Award, the highest accolade for designers in Singapore.
They have exhibited and lectured extensively around the world.They launched their solo artist exhibition, ‘Universality’ at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei in 2007. They represented Singapore at the Gwangju Design Biennale 2005 and the London Design Festival 2006. The Singapore History Museum hosted their 10 year retrospective exhibition ‘A Decade of Decadence’ in 2005.
Jackson is also the co-founder and Creative Director of Black Design, a multi-disciplinary design practice based in Singapore.

His work has been featured in numerous design, style and art publications and won numerous international awards including the inaugural “Best Of Show for Design” at the Creative Circle Awards 2006, D&AD, 100 Show, One Show, Promax Asia and Singapore Design Awards.

In 2004, he curated and designed the landmark exhibition, 20/20. It is an ongoing showcase of Singapore’s finest design talents. It charts the paradigm shift that has occurred within Singapore’s creative landscape. 20/20 was presented at the London Design Festival 2006 to critical acclaim. In 2007, Black premiered Utterubbish: A collection of UseLess Ideas at the Singapore Design Festival 2007. Utterubbish was the feature event of the festival. Utterubbish was an original design exhibition based on the theme of sustainable design and featured over 30 international designer presentations. In 2008, He was invited by the Center for Creative Communications (CCC), Japan to curate and present, 新潮 New Wave – Singapore’s Contemporary Design Culture.

He has been invited to speak, exhibit, participate, mentor and judge in various international design conferences, competitions, seminars, workshops with organisations such as The Art Directors Club (USA), D&AD (UK) and the National Arts Council (SG). He was chairman of the design jury for the Creative Circle Awards 2006. He is also the vice-president of The Design Society.