In December 2017, an open-air car park on Grange Road, behind 313@Somerset, turned into Flashbang, a neon-lit Christmas market that ran from 9 to 30 December. It was organised by Invade, the company behind Artbox Singapore, and its visual identity came from the Singapore brand design agency Studio Ensemble, co-founded by April Chen.
Entry was free, and the market opened from 3pm to 11pm daily, until 1am on Christmas Eve.
A car park in a new light
The afternoon programme, from 3pm to 7pm, had craft workshops led by local makers, virtual reality installations and interactive walls. From 7pm, light tunnels, walkways and sculptures by local artists took over, with DJs and buskers. Up to 120 food, drink and retail brands were lined up.
Invade had run Artbox Singapore over two weekends in April 2017, and the organiser put that market at more than 660,000 visitors and S$20 million in transactions over six days. For Flashbang’s 22 days, it aimed for one million visitors.
The design behind it
Studio Ensemble worked with the Invade team on the identity, which was built around neon light artwork aimed at a young, media-savvy crowd. The agency also created a set of detailed illustrations that mixed pop culture with Singapore memories. It designed this visual system so that Flashbang could grow and move into other markets.
Chen worked on the event’s spatial design, which meant shaping a physical space to match a brand’s identity. Speaking in December 2017, while the market was running, she described Flashbang’s aim as a third generation of retail: shopping that goes beyond both online and in-store, where buyers and sellers interact as well as trade.