The Long View is a series of dialogues on creativity and the enduring questions that come with a life of making, collecting and observing. Presented in partnership with Leonard Wee, a practitioner and educator working across art, design and teaching, each conversation draws from personal experience and leaves room for different interpretations and lived experiences. A recipient of the DesignSingapore Scholarship, Leonard trained as a graphic designer before dedicating his practice to painting, guided by the belief that meaningful imagery comes from the meeting of intellect, emotion and skill.

He is joined by Benson Chong, a book designer and co founder of Studio SWELL, a Singapore based creative design studio. His practice centres on the book as a physical object, from typography and grid structures to materials and binding. His work includes Shubigi Rao’s Pulp series and the Singapore Biennale 2025 catalogue, pure Intention. He is currently a postgraduate researcher examining the physicality of the book as a site of agency for its makers.

Every design decision raises a familiar question: does the rulebook decide, or does the gut? Benson traces how music theory gave him a vocabulary for something he could sense but not always explain, including why some proportions feel right while others feel slightly off. Over time, that vocabulary became a way of building systems through grids, type scales and tools that replace arbitrary choices with logic. He will unpack this process through books designed at Studio SWELL, deconstructing them live to look at where control gives way to intuition. The talk will be followed by a conversation with Leonard Wee.

The Long View in partnership with Leonard Wee.
Control & Intuition: The tension I observed through designing books.
Guest: Benson Chong.
28 October 2026, Wednesday.
8pm — 930pm.
Aa Furniture Showroom.
$18.

Beverages and light bites will be available for purchase.

Book your slot now.