chris lee: founder of asylum creative

chris lee is the founder and creative director of asylum creative, an agency comprised of a design studio, retail shop, workshop and record label. since its inception in 1999, asylum has been involved in a number of cross-disciplinary projects working with such clients as levis, motorola, sony etc. before heading up asylum, chris lead the design division in bartle bogle hegarty asia pacific and ogilvy & mather singapore. alongside his commercial work and practice, lee is also involved in design education, lecturing at universities and conferences around the globe.

in march 2010, the agency will be presenting its first monograph, coinciding with its 10th anniversary.

chris lee is one of four individuals who have been awarded the title of designer of the year for the president’s design award 2009 this past weekend at singapore design week.

chocolate research facility

the chocolate research facility offers 100 different flavors of chocolate bar. the new brand and concept boutique-cum-cafe draws it’s focus on chocolates – both the taste and packaging. asylum creative put their taste buds to the test with this year long project.

inside the facility

chocolate wares

chocolate bar packaging

chocolate bar packaging

frolick

frolick is a frozen yogurt shop which asylum branded with a politically incorrect attitude. the store frontage is dotted with badges with racy slogans like ‘we stay harder longer’, ‘size does matter’ and ‘I like it topless…’. these badges are also given away and kept as collectibles which customers can update at each new store opening.

‘we wanted to approach yogurt in a fun, unexpected sort of way, rather than follow the conventional health-conscious image that other brands have,’ says chris lee. ‘the pull factor is tasty yogurt, a good design and spunky attitude.’ graphics for frolick

the collectible badges

canned soup

for christmas last year, asylum wanted to celebrate with their own ‘feel good’ soup labels, with this idea that their cupboards would be stocked with designer cans.

notebooks

designers are often accused of not reading enough, so in an attempt to salvage their reputations, they came up with fake intellectual notebooks with such titles as ‘advanced quantum physics’ and ‘the essays of socrates, plato and aristotle’.

‘the essays of socrates, plato and aristotle’