Norman Teh: The Young Genius

By Kevin Yeoh  •  in Design

We get the 411 on Norman and his artistic achievements, but being an accomplished designer – he is an Art Director, co-founder of Design Circus and has lent his skills to various huge ad productions – doesn’t separate him from the likes of regular folk. Norman also finds time to shoot hoops, go partying and travelling. JUICE sips up a little more of this brainy fella ….

Only age 24, Norman Teh has already established so much, it’s crazy! He’s a graduate from Limkokwing University with a BA (Hons) in Creative Multimedia, a recipient of the Industry Award in 2007, works as an Art Director for Bright Lights At Midnight (BLAM), co-founded Design Circus and more. So maybe, just maybe, we’re a tad jealous.

He wasn’t that great in art in school, but he started doodling around in sketch books. His subjects – obscure characters and portraits of people in trains. That paid off eventually with numerous collaborations including the likes of Amir Muhammad, Nike, 8TV, Digi, Annexe Gallery, and Five Arts Centre. Bright Lights At Midnight was started by the brothers Fikri and Fahmi Fadzil with Norman filling in as Art Director. The company will be 3-years-old when April swings by.

Norman also co-founded Design Circus which is a collective of design enthusiasts with a strong design opinion. The collective is in the midst of organising a series of talks and workshops in the next few months, with design trips to Indonesia and Thailand later in the year. Talks on producing a book about Malaysia’s design history is in the works too. On the street front, Norman is involved with OriginalFake to design their men’s street line for the Spring 2009 collection to give the contemporary urban male that extra swagger. Holla.

Norman looks up to accomplished designers such as Tibor Kalman, Paula Scher, Kenya Hara and Wolf Ollins, all of whom have interesting individual philosophies about design, culture and life. This fan of Franz Ferdinand, Kings of Leon, Broken Social Scene and Steve Aoki doesn’t believe in style for “it is subjective. We’re sure to hear more of him at festivals and events this year!

For more of his visuals, log onto normanteh.tumblr.com or designcircus.tumblr.com.