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Intro and Challenges

National Supercomputing Centre Singapore (NSCC Singapore) wanted a booth design that stood apart from its previous designs. Instead of NSCC’s signature red branding, the team chose a “kopitiam” theme to represent Singapore at SC25 in St. Louis. A kopitiam is a traditional Singaporean coffee shop, recognisable by its Peranakan tile patterns, pastel walls, and marble-top tables.

This required reinterpreting NSCC’s brand identity through that concept, while sourcing illustrations that felt authentic to the kopitiam experience. The booth was also exceptionally large, so text had to sit at eye level throughout, giving visitors a comfortable read as they walked through the space.

Solutions

LivelyGreen Strategic Brand began with research before moving into design — studying the colours, signage, furniture, and Peranakan tile patterns that define a traditional Singaporean kopitiam, so the concept felt authentic rather than decorative. Since this was an exhibition booth, we also mapped out the layout, content grouping, and placement of key information through content mock-ups before starting the design.

The booth went through several rounds of refinement. Early concepts leaned heavily on NSCC’s signature red, but this didn’t fully capture the kopitiam experience. We shifted to a soft, tile-inspired palette as the base, then applied NSCC’s red strategically to the logo, headings, and key messaging — keeping the booth true to the concept while staying recognisably NSCC.

Given the booth’s scale, we also tested text placement at multiple heights before settling on eye level throughout. This let visitors read key information comfortably as they walked past or approached the booth, without the layout feeling crowded or the branding getting lost in the pattern.

Impact

This kopitiam exhibition booth design balanced cultural authenticity with brand identity. It gave NSCC Singapore a memorable presence at SC25, one that reflected its Singaporean heritage and stood clearly apart from its previous exhibitions.