Studio Juju is Singapore designers Priscilla Lui and Timo Wong. Their work traverses furniture, products and interiors and carries the spirit of 1960s contemporary art – minimal in form, often saturated in colour, and embedded with an optimism that says "hello, let's try something new”.
We caught up with Priscilla and Timo to find out more about their studio, what they have been busy working on lately, and as the Milan Furniture Fair gets closer, what we might see from them in 2018.
more space: What does a day in the life of Studio Juju look like?
Studio Juju: We start our day spending time with each other over breakfast. This is the most important part of the day. We speak about different projects, and the direction for each work. In the studio we spend some time in the mornings with our assistants and use the mornings and early afternoons to come together and brainstorm ideas. Most mornings are characterised as ‘dialogue time’. Our afternoons are always used for meetings with clients, run errands or simply as individual focus time to get things done. We usually end the day together discussing the work completed — prototypes, 3D models, sketches and visuals. We start to slow down by 7pm, and usually cook a simple dinner at home or eat outside. We don’t do television and prefer to unwind listening to music. Some of our favourite musicians are Tom Waits, Radiohead, Sufjan Stevens, Michael Jackson and B. Fleischmann.
Reminiscent of the work of American sculptor Alexander Calder, the Rabbit and The Tortoise collection for Living Divani is a series of fun and playful tables. Photo c/o Living Divani.
The vastness of form and saturated colour, the Big Round and Tall Long installations at the Tampines MRT Train station in Singapore. Photo c/o Studio Juju.
What are the milestones that have been most important to the development of your practice so far?
Being awarded 'Designers of the Future' by the Design Miami/’s jury and presenting our work in Switzerland for the Design Miami/Art Basel show. Working with Living Divani to develop the Rabbit & the Tortoise Collection of tables, designing outdoor benches for Gardens by the Bay for their entire outdoor site, creating a set of permanent sculptures in one of the train stations in Singapore. They are important for us because they show the diversity of work we create in our studio and our belief that creativity is not confined by the boundaries of genres or categories.
What skills have you developed that you are most proud of?
Working with people, understanding their point of views, having empathy for different opinions, saying ‘no’, saying ‘yes’, going with intuition in our design decisions — these are skills that we have developed over the years we feel are most important.
The vastness of form and saturated colour, the Big Round and Tall Long installations at the Tampines MRT Train station in Singapore. Photo c/o Studio Juju.
"Working with people, understanding their point of views, having empathy for different opinions, saying ‘no’, saying ‘yes’, going with intuition in our design decisions — these are skills that we have developed over the years we feel are most important."
Priscilla Lui and Timo Wong, Studio Juju
Living Divani, and others, have been important collaborators for you – what insights and skills have they shared that have helped to shape your practice?
Working with Living Divani allows us to better understand how a brand works and to be sensitive to production, aesthetics, heritage, and stylistic values.
What has been your most successful design to date?
Our baby! He was born just this January!
Congratulations! What great news. So, what is one thing that you haven’t ever designed but would love to?
A car, a boat or a small jet, or, maybe a timepiece.
"Working with Living Divani allows us to better understand how a brand works and to be sensitive to production, aesthetics, heritage, and stylistic values."
Priscilla Lui and Timo Wong, Studio Juju
What is currently on the drawing board and what can we expect to see from you in 2018?
We are working on a project for 'Wallpaper Handmade' to be launched in 2018 during Milan Design Week. We are also developing some accessories for a Danish brand, and some commercial commissioned interiors and furniture projects.
Thanks Priscilla and Timo and congratulations again on the new addition to the studio!
Living Divani is available exclusively in South East Asia from Space – Australia.
