July 2010

Dear FMDS staff, partners and students,

Before innovation comes imagination. With the correct formula – acute observational skills coupled with a structured and logical thought pattern – imaginative powers can be nurtured and enhanced. Indeed, it is this exact winning blueprint that not only guides teaching methodologies at FMDS but also sets us apart from the rest of the flock.

Noting the current service lapse in teaching practices among fellow competitors, FMDS endeavours to answer this gap by emphasizing a strong and in-depth understanding and appreciation of design. In this light, FMDS strives towards this particular track of pedagogy through the cultivation of these soft skills, namely, in the Creative, Business, Management and Communication aspects.

Instead of opting for an easier teaching method e.g. desktop training, FMDS aims to facilitate the development of structured and logical thought patterns and processes among students. At the same time, the school does it utmost to help them connect with current industry happenings. The goal is to support and cultivate in them an uncanny and sharp instinctual ability to turn an idea into a commercially viable and profitable concept.

At FMDS, we go the extra mile – I regard the provision of a design education extending beyond mere product and service.

FMDS acts as a teaching platform to nurture and cultivate imaginative and structured thinking skills with design as its core discipline. It aims to draw out the imaginative power of our students. The school further enhances this power with key business acumen and marketing knowledge, with the chief aim of turning our students into marketable, highly sought-after creative talents.

Our successful graduates are our best mouthpieces: not only does it speak volumes about our teaching pedagogies, it is also the best form of advertising that no other medium or platform can provide in establishing our repute among design schools in Singapore.

Every FMDS employee is an educator. Our past is regarded as our students’ future (be it in design or any aspect of our life’s experiences) and we can always play a mentoring role to these young minds. Everyone in FMDS can become a ‘living’ model for our students with regards to sharing, teaching and learning. To me, the responsibility is shared across the board equally, regardless of the staff’s role and vocation at FMDS.

FMDS reputation building exercise starts with ourselves. Do you subscribed to this vision? Do you believe in the FMDS’s mission statement? Do you uphold our FMDS values? If you do, we can always be counted on to produce top design graduates. Else, it is nigh time to search and examine yourself.

As we brace for more challenging times ahead, we need everyone to adopt an unwavering focus in helping FMDS and our students to become the cream of the crop in this trade.

I don’t promise you the sky. But I can promise you I will try my utmost best to bring you there and my history has proven that successful many times. For sharing, I will leave you with this quote.

"People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the seas, at the long course of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and yet they pass by themselves without wondering."

-- St. Augustine

Yours sincerly,

Mark Phooi
Principal