Justin Zhuang, Vanessa Ban and Candice Ng

Justin Zhuang is an observer of the designed world and its impact on everyday life. Since 2009, the journalism graduate has covered architecture and design for magazines in Singapore and around the world. He has authored several books and projects about design and the city Singapore, including INDEPENDENCE: The History of Graphic Design in Singapore since the 1960s (2012) and Everyday Modernism: Architecture & Society in Singapore (2022). Together with his partner Sheere Ng, Zhuang runs In Plain Words, a Singapore-based writing studio and publishing imprint.

Vanessa Ban is a designer and educator. She has over a decade of experience working across cultural institutions and clients in the commercial sector. She is also the founder of External Assessment Summer School, an interdisciplinary educational initiative that aims to bridge the gaps of art, theory and design. Additionally, she has served on jury panels including D&AD and the Crowbar Awards. As an adjunct faculty, she brings into her classes the experience she received at Pentagram, Typography Summer School New York, and the London College of Communication

Candice Ng is a designer, educator, and researcher whose work focuses on critical inquiry within graphic design education and pedagogy. She holds an MFA in New Media and participated in the 2018 SVA Design Writing and Research Summer Intensive. A two-time recipient of the Nanyang Education Award, Candice is currently a Senior Lecturer at the School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore.