Challenge Accepted: Creativity for Kindness

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” — Aesop

In May 2020, the National Library Board (NLB) collaborated with the Singapore Kindness Movement (SKM) to create two challenges supported by the Seed Kindness Fund. Interested parties could pick a challenge, draw up a project concept, and make use of the fund to support their proposed initiatives to make Singapore a better and kinder place.

Posters created by NLB and SKM for the two challenges interested participants could choose from [Image source: National Library Board]

After learning about the Seed Kindness Fund through their school, a team of final year students from Temasek Polytechnic’s Diploma in Communications and Media Management decided to tackle the “Graciousness at the Library” Challenge (the first poster above) for their Final Year Project.

The team of Temasek Polytechnic students who took on the challenge. Top from left: Izz Lim, Kenneth Lee, Matthew Lee; bottom from left: Isabel Ariken, Zelia Tay, Feline Chan [Image source: TP team]

Having completed the challenge, here’s what the team has to say about their experience putting their proposed social media campaign together.

Congratulations on completing the challenge! Let’s rewind a little to the beginning. Could you tell us more about your team’s decision to take up NLB’s Seed Kindness Fund Challenge for your Final Year Project? What attracted your team to it?

Compared to previous projects we had in school, the Seed Kindness Fund Challenge was an opportunity to produce a campaign for NLB that had some funding, which allowed us to create works of better quality. It appealed to us also because we felt that a reminder was necessary to highlight the luxury of having public libraries (in Singapore), and that it was important to keep them as conducive spaces for every patron.

Was there something that your team was most excited to work on?

Of all the deliverables (which included posters, articles, videos and Spotify playlists), we were most excited to work on the videos as we spent a lot of time crafting the storyline and planning the shots so that they were both entertaining and informative.

It was also the most challenging aspect of the project since we had to figure out what would work for our target audience, and how best to bring across the message effectively.

Talent Denilson (left) and team member Matthew (right) posing for a reference photo, which was later used for the illustration below.* [Image source: TP team]

(To view more of team’s work, click here and here.)

Speaking of videos, what inspired the storyline for the 3-episode series, Reflections?

Our team wanted to produce something that would stick in the hearts of our target audience: youths. So we made the decision to cast actors from the same age group to better relate to them. We also took into consideration the shorter attention span of this demographic, so we decided that a short 3-part series was most effective in capturing the attention and interest of our audience. We based the scenarios on what could happen on a day-to-day basis and drew inspiration from our own past experiences.

Denilson posing as Hungry Harry during the filming of his introductory video* [Image source: TP team]

Filming part of Chatty Charlene’s introductory video in the school studio* [Image source: TP team]

Watch the trailer for the series below:

As with any project, I’m sure there were ups and downs. Which part of the project did the team find most enjoyable?

It was very enjoyable to hear all the crazy ideas we came up with during our brainstorming sessions! Many of these left us excited and sometimes even laughing uncontrollably.

Meeting our talents who were not in our project group and working with them was quite memorable as well, since we forged new friendships and made memories outside of just creating content for the project.

The cast and crew filming library scenes at Tampines Regional Library.* [Image source: TP team]

Was there something that your team discovered in the course of your research that surprised you?

We learnt that there are actually a lot of facilities and programmes offered at the libraries. To be honest, most of us have not set foot in a public library since graduating from secondary school, so it was very refreshing to see so many outreach programmes for the different age groups and demographics being offered. The resources available for the public now are of a completely different calibre compared to ten years ago.

What would you say to those who might be interested in participating in such challenges, but are unsure how to go about it?

Don’t be afraid to take up the challenge! Of course, it’s not going to be easy but it wouldn’t be a challenge otherwise, right? It’s always good to ask people who have worked on similar projects before and get their insight on what they did well and what they would do differently. It’s always the first step that’s the hardest.

Thanks again for putting together this campaign and raising awareness among youths on library etiquette. We hope that you, too, have gained some valuable hands-on experience working on the project!

• Note that safe management measures were adhered to during filming and only the actors were unmasked, in accordance with IMDA’s COVID-19 advisory at the time of filming.
• We publish our articles on our social media channels. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to get the latest updates on our stories.

-

Text by
Woo Pei Qi
National Library Board