Contemporary Singaporean designer womenswear brand Ong Shunmugam has had its identity refreshed as it prepares to launch globally.

Along with the new brand comes the launch of a flagship store and the introduction of the Ong Shunmugam Custom line of bespoke womenswear.

TSLA Design, the design and branding practice of The Secret Little Agency (TSLA), executed the full rebranding for the five-year-old label.

“It was a great privilege to work with a homegrown brand with similar ambitions as ours to champion Asian design to the world,” says TSLA chief creative officer Hanyi Lee. “The collaborative process of translating traditional Asian cues into a contemporary fashion experience has been deliberate, authentic and rewarding.”

Key design considerations for the project included communicating the brand’s characteristic spirit of quiet defiance, as well as echoing its ethos of recontextualising Asian aesthetic traditions. The lynchpin of the new identity is the Ong Shunmugam logotype, inspired by the anatomy of traditional Mandarin and Tamil handwritten script, says the agency. There is also a new monogram showcasing the brand’s name in native characters.

More defined and distinct brand rituals have also been incorporated into the retail experience for customers, says TSLA. These include a seasonal Rangoli symbol as the individual mark of every Ong Shunmugam collection, derived from the Indian decoration that celebrates the beginning of harvest.

At the end of the customer journey is a final brand ritual – the ceremonial closing of the Ong Shunmugam shopping bags, which feature a contemporary interpretation of the traditional Chinese prosperity knot.