Editorial Highlights

How was Plus Group founded? How did Mervin and you meet and become a business duo? 

PLUS was founded by 11 other members. We started out as a student group in NUS Architecture that explored life plus curriculum outside of architecture to enrich our understanding of what design can do to a creative person. From the student group, the Head of Dept and our Professors encouraged us to form something more concrete outside of the school’s vicinity, to harness the unique synergy that we have built in school.

Currently, most of the other partners have expanded their personal careers and have left PLUS, a situation that we knew would arise and hopefully our journeys will meet in the new future to push PLUS again.

^{Husband-and-wife creative duo, Mervin and Cheryl are founders of the PLUS Group, a Gold Recipient of the Singapore Good Design Awards 2022.}

Instead of focusing on a specific niche, why interdisciplinary?

We have always felt that design is a strategy to reach a goal that was carved out. We view each project with a holistic approach and suggest different outputs that we feel will have the best outcome. Therefore, to be able to achieve this unusual approach, we needed an interdisciplinary setup.

“Design is subjective. But your objectives aren’t.” Could you further explain this bold statement on PLUS Group’s website?

Design as a topic is definitely subjective. What is “nice” or “beautiful” to a person, might not necessarily be the same to another. However, when achieving a goal with proper setups of targets to meet, that becomes objective. For PLUS, this is where the data and art or design meet.

What went through your mind when the project – Insecta Iridesse was awarded the Singapore Good Design Gold Award?

We were definitely delighted. It just proves that our hard work meant something to others, especially those within the design industry. It was tough to convince clients of our unusual approach to design, but this helps in showing that our ways, though unconventional, could still yield positive results.

What is one of the most worthwhile investments that both of you have ever made for a project?

Community projects are something new that we are exploring. Seeing the faces of the communities and having them respond to you the way you want your design to impact them – those situations are priceless.

Leading a team isn’t easy. Do you have any advice for solopreneurs or managers on what it takes to succeed and/or complete a project?

We are not sure if it is an advice, but we make sure the team in PLUS eats a lot. Eating is our form of appreciation and eating is our way of showing that we care. Make sure the team is being taken care of and the team will take care of you. 

As the saying goes, two heads are better than one. If we may ask, how do you and your partner take care of each other after work?

We do not know actually. Our lives are so intertwined with work that it sometimes gets muddled up and the flow just leads the way.

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Tell us a little more about yourself

My background is in mechanical engineering and product design. Since 2020, I’ve been working on a start-up I co-founded, Scratchbac, which is a proximity-based favour app where people in the community can give or receive help and resources from one another.

I am also currently pursuing my masters at Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) under the Innovation by Design programme. Concurrently, I also volunteer at TechforShe, mentoring and helping to facilitate UIUX workshops.

I would say I have a strong passion for user-centric tech and aspire to make a difference in people’s lives and the community through innovative solutions to everyday problems.

I’m also a strong advocate for design thinking education and hope to help people of all ages to get into the design landscape.

How did Scratchbac come about?

My co-founders and I came to the idea of Scratchbac because of personal problems we faced during SG’s circuit breaker period. For me personally, circuit breaker came into implementation during my final term and by then, I was already quite used to ‘university hall life’ having stayed in hall for the past few years. So, one night I was up late rushing a project and really wanted supper. Normally, I would have no problem ‘jio-ing’ other students in our SUTD group chat to share delivery fees. But stuck at home, I had to either go hungry or bite the bullet and pay the exorbitant delivery costs myself. This started the train of thought: “Why can’t I just ‘jio’ the neighbours around me instead?”

What is your greatest learning experience from running Scratchbac?

That good design is far from just creating the perfect product. In the context of a start-up, everything is limited – time, money, manpower (and as a student start-up, we even lack experience). Early in the game, I often came up with crazy ideas and designs which I believed would solve the user problems in the best way possible. But often those ideas would get thrown out or be stuck in the backlog perpetually because they were just not feasible to be built with the resources that we had. It took a while but eventually I came to appreciate the idea of what we call the ‘build, measure, learn and iterate’ cycle. As a start-up, it’s not about building perfect versions of features from the get go but rather just what is good enough to test the hypothesis within our limited resources and building up from there.

It required a lot of humility on my part as a designer to move from seeing these limits as hindrances to appreciating them as opportunities for more nuanced learning. When development cycles are so tight, you are really forced to think hard about each decision you commit to making which I feel helps me grow as a designer as well. 

Are there any books or podcasts that have impacted your life deeply that you would recommend to your friends? 

Hmmm deeply impacted… I’m not too sure but I recently read ‘Seven Brief Lessons on Physics’  by Carlo Rovelli which I found quite intriguing. (I think if I didn’t end up pursuing design, I would have considered going into research on quantum physics instead!). Other good Introduction to Design reads include ‘Nudge’ by Richard H. Thaler and‎ Cass R. Sunstein, ‘Hooked’ by Nir Eyal, ‘The Mom Test’ by Rob Fitzpatrick. 

As a winner of Singapore Design Awards and Singapore Good Design Awards (SG Mark), what does it mean to you?

Hahaha to be honest I was quite shocked when I found out we won. To see our tiny start-up up there with all these well-known companies is honestly extremely humbling and it’s definitely a huge honour. But for me, I think the biggest takeaway has to be the connection to the design community that these awards have opened the doors to. Getting to meet and learn from this wide array of talented designers and solutions has been a great experience that has challenged me to grow even more as a designer.

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How did Synergraphic design start?

Synergraphic Design was founded by Florence, my mother, who is a glass artist and businesswoman. In its early days, it offered only plain glass panels for windows and doors. But as an artist, my mother felt that instead of leaving the glass plain, the panels could in fact become a canvas for her art and design. Hence, over the years, Synergraphic accumulated techniques in cold, warm and hot glassmaking to create art and design works in glass.

Why Glass?

Glass is beyond a very functional material (food-safe, non-porous hence weather-resistant and hygienic, transparent, reflective, etc). It is also a wonderful material for art and design in its endless applications spanning interior and architectural spaces, lighting, furniture, dining ware, vessels, etc. Hence, there is still so much more discovery to be made of this intriguing and incredible material. 

_{Sara Ang from Synergraphic raves about her mum and shares about her work, mantra and more.}

I love many things:

• Working with people who are so different, with varying strengths and bringing them together to work as a team
• Sharing with people the amazing possibilities in glass that they have never seen or thought of
• Finding new ways to work with glass to create new fluidities and effects to transform spaces
• Sharing the craft with people through hands-on workshops  

But I guess what I love most is that I get to create unique art and design works in glass that meet our customers’ varying needs, and it is done not because I do it myself, but because I have to bring people together who have vastly different strengths, to make it happen.

Outside of work, what do you enjoy doing the most?  

Spending time with my 2.5 years old daughter and drinking alcohol.

Is there anyone that inspires you in life?  

My mother, absolutely . She is the most gracious, generous and strongest person I have ever met and I am very much a result of what she has poured into my life and demonstrated for me.

What is the most important piece of advice you have been given?  

‘It could be worse.’ (commonly said by my mother). It seems like an inconsequential statement but I think it really is a representation of an optimistic state of mind of choosing to see and believing that things are never as bad as they seem. It is a statement of gratitude, which empowers us to keep going and fighting 

What is the most important message you want to share with younger women who are thinking about their careers?

Everything begins with knowing and acknowledging who you are, weaknesses, fears and strengths alike. Once you’re comfortable in your own skin, you will never feel the need to strive to become somebody you’re not or whom you may think society/organisations require of you. With clarity on who you are, and with faith, you will be able to remain steadfast in the small steps even in the face of winds of change. Keep strengthening the strengths that you already have, know what you have to offer, and you will find yourself well-positioned to work in the team or the ecosystem that you’re in.

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