Teddy’s project, Sign-acular Type at Golden Mile Complex, explores how typography can reveal the layers of culture within a community. The title “Sign-acular” blends the words sign and vernacular, highlighting her focus on the everyday visual language of shop signs.
Teddy Toh
UXD 3rd Year
Golden Mile Complex, often called Little Thailand, is a mixed-use development in Singapore known for its diverse community and distinctive architecture. For decades, it has been a gathering space for people from different cultures, and this diversity is vividly expressed in the typography of its many shopfronts.
Teddy began by photographing the signs throughout the building. She then carefully digitalized the letterforms and reassembled them into new graphic compositions. One of her main outputs is a poster where the different scripts and styles sit side by side, creating a striking visual portrait of cultural coexistence. By removing imagery and focusing only on type, she emphasized how much identity and heritage can be communicated through letterforms alone.
Beyond the poster, Teddy also experimented with other design explorations. These variations played with scale, repetition, and juxtaposition, inviting viewers to reflect on how typography shapes their perception of a place.
For UX and design students, this project is a reminder that design research does not always have to begin with digital interfaces. By observing the built environment and translating its vernacular design into new formats, Teddy demonstrates how typography can act as a cultural archive. Her work captures both the everyday beauty of shop signs and the broader story of community diversity at Golden Mile Complex.
Est. 2024
Loc. The Hague