Building a Community for Designers: Min Li

Tell us more about yourself, and what does design mean to you?

I started out in industrial design and accumulated experience in diverse projects, including interior, graphic, packaging, web and traditional print, working in startups and SMEs before embarking on what I saw as the ‘final frontier’ — digital product design.

I founded DesignSG after many years and jobs as a lone designer, wishing I had a ‘library’ of designers to refer to when I needed advice or expertise in a specific specialisation. My personal definition of design is that it is an expression that can take nearly any form, created by an individual who leaves behind their own unique, personal imprint in the process of creation.

You can find my thoughts on design in this Medium article from a few years ago.

How has it been like building DesignSG to what it is today?

It has definitely been a long journey of endless learning and innovation! The chance to seek out and discover opportunities to create and be creative has also been one of the most fulfilling parts of this adventure, not just for myself, but also for others in the DesignSG team.

How has your role as a community leader evolved, and what keeps you motivated?

In the early stages of building the community, we curated conversation topics very closely. These days, the conversations are mostly organic, with just a touch of light moderation. It’s been an evolution from a directive style of leadership to a more facilitative approach, driven by a larger core team and a supportive sponsor. This has provided us with the motivation to be more intentional with our programs and meetups.

What do you hope to achieve for DesignSG in the next few years?

We are focusing most of our energy on a special project for 2025, with the goal of having it ready to share in time for this year’s Singapore Design Week (SDW). We also aim to collaborate more with other communities and feature cross-community partnerships.

Which part of DesignSG’s culture makes it special?

The community was built from the ground up and grew organically to meet designers’ needs. Some of our volunteers are not designers, which shows that what we do resonates with everyone, including those outside design circles.

What is one tip you’d like to share with fellow designers?

Embrace the parts of you that are considered strange or weird, because this may be the superpower you need to give design its human touch. With the use of AI in creative fields taking off and becoming the future norm, I think this is the key differentiating factor that designers can harness in a sea of AI-generated output.

What is one design tool you cannot live without?

A whiteboard – I have a 1.2m long one at home!

Join the DesignSG Telegram group today and connect with fellow design enthusiasts.