DESIGN SOJOURN PTE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Design Director
- Founder
- Expert in Business Innovation
Brian Ling is a multi award-winning design leader, specializing in strategic design and implementation programs that drive successful brands and Fortune 500 businesses. His unique ability to bridge the gap between design and business enables him to create solutions that are right for your customer, brand, and business.
Brian is an expert in Business Innovation, Design Strategy and Management, Design Thinking, and Industrial Design. Over his 25+ year career, he has demonstrated his design leadership skills by overseeing the market introduction of best-in-class products and services found in the domains of consumer electronics, healthcare and social services, digital platforms, property development, hospitality and retail.
In 2010, Brian founded Design Sojourn, a design-led innovation consultancy that partners with SMEs, MNCs, governments, and non-profits in Singapore and through out the world.
Brian is highly involved in the design community and serves as the Chairman of NAFA's Curriculum Development Advisory Committee (CDAC). He is also an adjunct lecturer at NAFA's School of 3D Design, where led the development of the Bachelor of Design Practice's second-year service design curriculum. Additionally, Brian is a board member at the Innovation and Insights Centre (i2i) at the SP Jain School of Global Management.
In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the design field, Brian was awarded the SkillsFuture Fellowship, the highest skills award for individuals. Presented by the President of the Republic of Singapore, Halimah Yacob, on 22 Nov 2022, the SkillsFuture Fellowships honours individuals as masters of skills and mentors of future talent. Brian has also been a certified Practicing Management Consultant (PMC) since 1 Sept 2012.
Job Titles:
- Senior Experience Designer
An experience designer - with over 5 years of experience in the marine industry as a Technical Superintendent - who finds great importance in a design's desirability, feasibility, and viability.
After witnessing numerous designs/fabricated products being modified extensively and even to a certain extent, disposed of. His transition from engineer to designer facilitates his aim to promote the longevity of a design and minimise wastage through thorough qualitative and quantitative research, design thinking, and strategic planning.
Harnessing his rich experience in project and stakeholder management, he has undergone several design projects ranging from a newly designed microsite for a start-up company to a redesigned website in the government sector, utilising various ethnographic research methods, and market research.
Farhan strives to accomplish effective, impactful, and meaningful designs. He believes, "everything is designed with a purpose, even the smallest cog in a machinery - it is up to us to understand (through research), what is the real purpose of a design".
Job Titles:
- Director of Human Research
Lisa, one of the non-designers in our team, is a Clinical Psychologist by profession.
She is a member of the Australian Psychological Society and is also a registered Psychologist in Sydney, NSW Australia where she trained as a clinical psychologist. She has over 19 years of extensive experience in a variety of settings, both at Ministry-level, general and psychiatric hospitals, and community mental health services in Singapore and Australia where she provides individual/ group psychological consultation and assessment in areas such as motivation and resilience.
Lisa also has a strong interest in the field of happiness and positive psychology, in which she actively conducts talks, seminars and workshops on. She has a deep believe that this can transform organizations buy helping them create meaningful solutions for their staff, stakeholders and customers.
It is from these experiences where she draws her expertise in the understanding of human behavior, and the motivations and needs of people. She brings to Design Sojourn a unique focus on designing better, people-oriented solutions.
Marit has over 20 years of working experience in various industries and roles. She started in the advertising industry with client servicing and creative services. She later had the chance to venture into project management in the furniture/renovation/construction arena.
Prior to switching over to an operations/administrative role, Marit was with a local healthcare company for ten years. She was involved in various aspects such as sales & marketing, new businesses as well as new product formulation & launches.
Samantha is an experience designer trained in user research and user experience design, with a background in Psychology. She believes that intentional design ultimately leads to better, happier lives.
As a former educator in the special needs sector, she adopted the commonly-uttered adage "Seek first to understand" to guide her actions. Samantha strives to listen to her clients and derive useful insights that translates to seamless solutions, through an empathy-driven approach. She aims to create a more inclusive Singaporean society.
In her free time, Samantha enjoys caring for her house plants and aquariums, where she explores the possibilities of circular design to reduce waste.
Syam is an Experience Designer who believes that good design research is paramount to impactful design solutions. Passionate about people and the community, he uses his ability to observe and connect with individuals on a personal level to gather meaningful insights.
He is trained in the fields of service design, experience design, and product design where he has completed projects ranging from custom furniture pieces for newly opened cafes to outdoor installations for social impact.
In his previous project, he used various ethnographic research methods to understand underlying issues involving transient workers in Singapore and designed an outdoor music installation to bring about intergroup contact between transient workers and Singaporeans.
Syam is a firm believer that design should not be limited to shaping beautiful objects, but rather a tool to bring about meaningful impact to people's lives.
Ying Hui is an Experience Designer who feels strongly about making meaningful contributions. She holds a natural empathetic outlook that enables her to cultivate emotional and moral connections with her clients. Having a foot in design and art; she finds function and aesthetic definitive to good design.
As a former Marketing Executive, she has learnt to recognise emotional and cultural significance in customer experience while developing campaigns on social, web, and e-commerce platforms. As such, she strives to deliver cohesive experiences and narratives using ethnographic methods to understand core desires and struggles of both customer and business.
With a background in Spatial Design and Interactive Media, she is also well-versed in digital intervention and believes in its potential to unlock endless possibilities to enhance the human experience through bridging digital and tangible interactions.