DANAMIC: 2019 In Review

DANAMIC underwent a significant dimension of change in the year 2019. We’ve had successes increasing the discipline of our business, creative and technology strategies, while actively engineering to diversify our portfolio of services with the branching out of the DNMC brands. The DANAMIC collective is positioned for long-term sustainable growth in 2020 — as DNMC Creative seeks to further itself as a Creative Agency, assisted by the DNMC Visuals and DNMC+ Production arms for content creation — amidst rapidly growing and changing creative and corporate climates.

Our success over the last year would not have been possible without our incredibly dedicated and talented team. The intrepid community of individuals that is the DANAMIC Team are our driving force, who have shown their commitment towards cultivating an environment where purposeful dissent and diversity of thought are championed, is what allows for meaningful discussions and inspires even more creative executable concepts.

Trusted Content & Accrediting Standards 

With this productive environment, 2019 has seen the team achieve quite a few wins; acknowledgements of their tireless efforts. Our Editorial division, danamic., has received approvals and verifications in massive content channels, namely, as a Facebook News Page, Google News Source, and Apple News Publisher. These boons recognise our Editorial’s delivery of trusted, value-adding content that now reach further and deeper into bigger regional audiences such as the United States, Asia-Pacific and Australia.

In the local Singapore-sphere, DANAMIC has also been honoured to receive the “NS Mark” accreditation for our support towards National Service, alongside adopting 7 of the 8 Tripartite Standards possible within our team’s demographics. As 2020 progresses, we hope to further our dedication to advancing a culture of diversity and belonging, as our team learns and grows together.

Providing Access & Nurturing Creativity 

In addition to developing our internal culture, our belief in nurturing future generations and supporting their efforts to express and create creatively is part of our lifeforce. We have been excited to form Media Partnerships with ICN Productions, NUANSA Cultural Productions, and SMUKI — each having their own funded and original play-written productions, embroidered with wholly original, self-composed soundtrack and stage set designs. We’ve witnessed these amazing university students work unitedly, and to be able to assist in broadcasting and recording their efforts for bigger audiences is humbling.

Furthermore, we’ve been proud to have hosted several educational institutions, such as Greendale Secondary School and Raffles Girls’ School, with their Work Experience Programmes or Experiential Learning Programmes. These programmes aim to allow students and even teaching staff to experience our take on the Media and Creative industries. A particular highlight would be DANAMIC being onboard Access Singapore’s pilot “Access Externship” programme to give less fortunate students a leg-up in digital skills and future career options.

#SupportLocal

While we’ve worked with companies from across the globe, we’re also proud to have been able to make contributions to our home roots in Singapore. A highlight that comes to mind, would be DANAMIC’s partnership as the Official Creative Partner for Block Live Asia 2019, Singapore’s lifestyle blockchain festival focusing on interactively educating the public on blockchain technology. Furthermore, we’ve worked with local organisations, such as Nanyang Polytechnic for their Scholarship Ceremony 2019 to celebrate the achievements of the polytechnic’s outstanding students with a memorable ceremony video.

Pushing further, our Editorial saw itself covering local talents and persons-of-interest, including Jian Yang who owned Asia’s largest doll collection with his own handmade toilet paper doll fashion and even visited IMDA’s Pixel Studios to uncover a symphonically astounding indie game, Songbird Symphony, developed by own local game developers from Joysteak Studios. We also had the pleasure of working with local musician, Niine, for some of his visuals and works to complement his original songs.

New Space, Smarter Office

Nearing the end of 2019, we’ve had to say goodbye to the lovely people that are MOX, who gave us our first taste of personal space, finally out of the realms of co-working spaces and trendy cafes. While we may not be found on the premises anymore, we’re still keeping our ties to the community with elite benefits on our creative and content services for MOX members alike. Onto our shift to a new, bigger office settled within the Tampines Retail Park — the likes of which IKEA Tampines and Courts Megastore are located — we have taken up residence in the relatively new BHCC Space building.

With about 2.5 times the floor space, and now our own Photography Studio Space, Editing Suites and Board-cum-Conference Room, we’ve taken it on to further our “Smart Office” concept. Implementing advanced automated lighting and environmental controls have allowed for energy savings. At the same time, wireless device casting and on-premise digital storage access now boost productivity. We hope to be able to release a Case Study within the later half of the year, revolving around the Google Home (or you could say our version of a “Google Office”) ecosystem.

The Core: Our Team, Our Family

While we navigate our way, I’d like to thank the members of the DANAMIC Team who have all progressed far in their respective fields:

• Benjamin Lau — Technology Director, for advances in our workflow processes, and the implementation of our Atlassian suite of project management tools
• Brandon Neo — Creative Director, for pushing the envelope forward in both our photography and video production segments and for also making difficult creative cuts where necessary
• Charmaine Villamin — Brand & Design Manager, for working out the specifics of our new (and incoming) brand guidelines, alongside powering through a lot of our new illustrative works
• Kane Kwek — Social Media Manager (and Interim Chief Editor), for being one of the core backbones in many of our operations and for also being the head honcho for media strategies
• Stacey Lim — Chief Editor, who has been instrumental in providing direction towards our Editorial, and who is embarking on a sabbatical for the first half of 2020 for further education
• Angelica Sanchez — Videographer, who has grown extensively to taking on a lot of the editing and post-production works, while still keeping it real in the field
• Feriadi — Video Production Specialist, who has stepped up in account management for our DNMC+ Productions team, while managing our growing array of productions and sets
• Russell Loh — Writer (Gaming), who started out as an intern, and who now holds opinion pieces and reviews in tech, that have become Top Stories in the Google News machine
• Soloman Soh — Photographer (Industry & News), who has become the eyes and ears for our DNMC Creative socials, while maintaining the diligence on our visuals
• Darren Chiong — Photographer, who also started as another intern and has now progressed into an incredible team player, and has us now seeing him manage his own shoots

We would also like to tip our hats to our family, friends and interns past till present — who’ve also worked alongside our bigger projects, bolstering our forces when in times of need. Thank you for believing in our cause and lending us a helping hand in every way possible!

Last but not least, a huge thank you to our esteemed clients and organisations who have worked with us or chosen us to uphold their creative and content creation needs. We are happy to have worked alongside many dedicated professionals who share our vision of creating at the speed of culture, and to talk to audiences — not at them.

What’s Next?

In 2020, we’re looking at complete refreshes on our socials, including a new shift in our Editorial’s direction towards more guide-centric and opinion-centric pieces. Additionally, our various creative teams are looking at exploring more in-house content, and we hope to finally see some of these come to fruition within the year.

With our large space, we’re also experimenting with opening up our space to other creatives and content creators who might want to use some of our facilities, or just have a nice place to work alongside! Do hit us up at spaces@danamic.org, if you’d like to know more.

Here’s to a promising and great 20-20 vision of a new year, as we look forward to embarking on many new projects, some spanning across the shores — so stay tuned for more exciting updates!