MAGES Institute at Design WAH! 2025: What's for Next-Gen IP Creators

A New Benchmark for Singapore’s Creative Ecosystem

The 2025 edition of Design WAH! Showcase, part of Singapore Design Week, represented a pivotal shift in the Singaporean perspective on design- that design is not just craft but intellectual property with global capacity. 

As a curated showcase that brought together Singapore’s students and young designers, this show shed light on original works that ranged from character-based IPs and elaborate illustrations to product concepts and immersive world-building.

More than merely an exhibition, the showcase was a springboard of ideas with the potential to chic and commercialize. 

The showcase embodied both creativity and ideas that fundamentally encompass commercial crossover aspects across merchandise, publishing, digital, fashion, and consumer goods.

Highlights of the Showcase

Design WAH! 2025 was more than a visual feast of ideas; it created spaces produced by the potent union of ideas, talent, and industry.

Each aspect, whether through immersive zones or government representation, assuaged the idea that Singapore’s creative ecosystem is maturing into one where original IP can flourish.

1. Immersive storytelling zones: Visitors experienced interactive displays that uncovered the conception of ideas and how they progressed from sketch to finished ‘product.’ These zones functioned as portals between creator and audience, stripping design of its cloak of creation mystery.
2. Direct access to designers: Beyond passive viewing of work, the showcase facilitated dialogue. The audience was granted rare access to speak with beseeching creators and glimpse inside the artist’s thinking, strategic reasoning, and individual drive behind the conception of all intellectual property.
3. Wide variety and ambitious slate of exhibitors: The roster was both in depth and breadth.The designers came from schools including MAGES Institute, Nanyang Polytechnic, Temasek Polytechnic, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, and 3dsense Media School. There were independent designers like Jun yi Hu, Erika Tay, MINISHI, Jayne Ong, and Nadya Wijaya, and collectives like Super Tough Friends and @quietkindleworks, where designers flourished while extending the lens of inspected voices.
4. Industry support: (financial) Sponsors HOVARLAY, Moxmonsters, OVOL Singapore Pte Ltd, creuse.sg, and @pixeltechsg genuinely invested in the market and, as commercial actors, emphasized commercial aspects in early-stage design IP.
5. Government endorsement: (representation) The Minister of State, Gan Siow Huang, added stature to the showcase, further depicting Singapore as an entity where design is not just a cultural contributor, but also a technical-based contributor to economic and innovation mandates.

All these displays demonstrated how D/WAH positioned itself not just as an exhibit, but as a site for creators to prove their own ingenuity, talents to test their show readiness, and industries to seek scalable endeavors.

MAGES Institute at Design WAH!

For MAGES Institute, engagement validated our mission to develop future-facing and commercially viable creative IP.

The creative works of our students encapsulate not just technical ability but entrepreneurial enterprise, which illustrates that Singapore’s design education has purposefully shifted to developing IP as the distinctive advantage for a global, AI-human-centered horizon.

By joining the series, MAGES designers became part of a strong network community, including one another, mentors, and industry leaders. The mingled energy at Design WAH! reaffirmed at MAGES that the future belongs to those who can safeguard, expand, and financially capitalize on their ideas.

Gratitude & Collaboration

This milestone was achieved through a collaboration with Creativeans, as the lead organizer, and Franchising & Licensing Asia (FLAsia), our co-organizer, whose expertise in scaling brands across Asia contributed to the commercial viability of the launch.

Special acknowledgement to the sponsors and curator Bobby Man, CEM, CES, for being the catalyst that initiated the conversations that turned into Design WAH!

The Future

Design WAH! 2025 was not only the first time IP design was offered at Singapore Design Week, but it certainly will not be the last. The energy is there: Singapore’s next generation of designers is poised to own their creative futures.

For MAGES Institute, we are pleased to be part of this moment. Each showcase is a reminder of the journey that MAGES has taken to enable creatives who are taking design beyond the surface and creating IPs that change industries.

We are excited for our next Design WAH! We are where today’s designers and tomorrow’s IP designers will be.