September 16 was no ordinary day. All 24 of us vacated the studio, packed ourselves into just a few cars and scooted to town. We had a party to attend: Splash was turning six years old!
We ate, laughed and cried. The last one, we can explain. It was because our ninja of a business development manager Sean Aw was leaving for greener pastures. We’ll miss him for sure.
While our sixth birthday has become a memory, here are six milestones conquered this year that continue to chart the future for us:
6 Splashin’ Milestones in 2011
1) We made more room for more play
Splashees now swim in a new space at Cavan Road which is twice the size of our previous home. This new and beautifully designed studio has gotten quite some publicity. Every nook and cranny has been nurtured by our very own designers-turned-interior-designers-overnight, so now, we’re convinced the possibilities of design are indeed endless!
2) We did our most memorable project ever
We don’t mean to cheat, but moving into and setting up our new studio has also been the most memorable project for us this year. This Mother of All Projects will birth more creativity in time to come, so we reckon it deserves double the honour.
3) We’ve (always) got talent
In 2005, we had humble beginnings with just 5 people running around. Today, there are 22. And that, for us, is still a humble beginning. Did you know that there’re some incredibly talented people here? Splashees are gifted in art, being super daddy/mummy and going vegetarian. Imagine what we can do when we put all that together!
4) We enlarged our hearts
Who said design can’t save the world? Together with the Realm of Tranquility, the Special Needs Trust Company and the Choice Movement, we continue to patch up and rebuild the broken, forgotten corners of society.
5) We experimented
Splash’s continuous experiments in adventurous living include: Dressing up (or down) for our monthly Cavanista runway; taking a 10-day trip to Nepal this November (and having to be on the road half the time!); and having our designers dabble with writing plus get their works published. Now, we’re totally convinced Splashees are super heroes hidden in t-shirts and jeans.
6) We learnt to swim again
If Splash is an Olympic-size pool, then Bubbly Books, our new publishing arm, is the new baby pool we’re having some fun wading in. We set up Bubbly Books this year to help Singapore-based authors publish their passions and reach out to children and young people. It’s hard work learning to swim again, but we’re going to have fun at it!
New Splashees Speak Up
We asked three new Splashees who joined this year to say a few honest words:
“I love a lot of things about Splash, but if I can choose only one thing to say, I’ll definitely say that it’s the people here I love the most. All Splashees are kind, helpful and very fun to be with. Everyone has been very nice to me since my first day of joining. Splash’s more like a family rather than a working place. I love Splash because of you, all of you,” said — no, gushed — designer Sang Dan.
“I’ve learnt more in the seven months I’ve been here than the last three years of my life combined!” exclaimed senior designer Terence. This does sound like good news to us. But we do wonder what he was up to those past years…
Describe Splash in six words, we challenged Eunice. “Fun times with an awesome company!” she said. Nicely done.
Well well, it has certainly been an eventful and rewarding sixth year here at Splash and we look forward to making more waves! Like we said, humble beginnings…
