Hi friends,

Frankie will be featured in ‘Beyond Gold: The Journey to the first Youth Olympic Games’, a documentary on the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games (Singapore 2010) which will premiere on local free-to-air Channel 5 (English) on Saturday, 7 August, 5.30pm to 6.30pm. The second run will be on Saturday, 14 Aug, 6.45pm to 7.45pm, just before the start of the much anticipated Singapore 2010 Opening Ceremony at 8.10pm which will be telecast ‘live’ from The Float@Marina Bay.

As the maker of the SYOG mascots, Lyo and Merly, catch Frankie as he sheds light on the production process of the mascots in an exclusive interview in the documentary. This documentary also tracks the paths of three young Singaporean athletes as they seek to qualify for the Youth Olympics.

Once again, the telecast times on Channel 5 are:

7 August 2010 (Sat) – 5.30pm

14 August 2010 (Sat) – 6.45pm

You can read the press release HERE.

You can download the article  here.

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Hi friends,

just a quick heads-up that Frankie will be performing this weekend on 23 May at 2pm at the Singapore Philatelic Museum. This is part of the International Museum Day celebrations, and we are glad to present a special puppet show entitled ‘The Tiger, the Rabbit, and Farmer’,  as well as snippets of our signature string puppet show!

This is in line with the ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Danger’ stamp exhibition that is on display in the Singapore Philatelic Museum to commemorate the year of the Tiger.

Admission to the museum is free just for this Sunday, so do bring your friends and join us for a great show and a tour of the Philatelic Museum! You can find out more about the Singapore Philatelic Museum at www.spm.org.sg.

The Singapore Philatelic Museum is located at 23 B Coleman Street, Singapore 179807. (10 mins walk from City Hall or Clarke Quay MRT stations)

Hi folks,

Frankie will be supporting Earth Hour 2010 this year by performing his signature marionette show, String Fling!, at one of the Earth Hour community events at Damai Secondary School. Here are the details:

Date/Time: 27 March 2010, 8.30pm

Venue: Damai Secondary School (4800 Bedok Reservoir Road, S479229)

For more information on this event, please contact ECO-Singapore.

Do also find out more about Earth Hour and consider doing your part to protect our earth and environment. You can find out more about Earth Hour at earthhour.wwf.sg.

Hi folks,

Frankie and team will be in the Philippines from 23 to 28 Feb 2010 to participate in the 2nd ASEAN Puppetry Festival as well as the 3rd Meeting of the ASEAN Puppetry Association, which will be happening concurrently. The event will be held at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines.

Frankie will be performing in the festival opening on the 24th, as well as on two other shows on 26th (10am and 2.30pm). He will also be meeting performers and puppeteers from different ASEAN nations there. Do join us if you are in the Philippines, drop by and say hi to Frankie!

Special thanks to the National Arts Council (Singapore) and the Lee Foundation for their support of this trip, and to the ASEAN Puppetry Association for their efforts in promoting the art of puppetry!

P.S. The pictures are from the 1st ASEAN Puppetry Festival in Palembang, Indonesia in 2007!

Supported by:

Hi friends,

Frankie will be performing this month at the following locations:

16 Jan 2010, 8.30pm – Redhill Square (in between the food centre and wet market at  Blks 79 and 85. Five minutes walk from Redhill MRT)

17 Jan 2010, 5.15pm – Sun Plaza Central Atrium (opposite Sembawang MRT)

28 Jan 2010, 12.30pm – SMU Arts Fest @ Singapore Management University (Underground Atrium near Koufu foodcourt)

These shows are free of charge and open to the public, so do drop by and say hi!

Amanda Zhang from youth-oriented WhyOhGee (pronounced Y-O-G) website interviewed Frankie and wrote a great article about the creation of the mascots. I’ve reproduced it here for your convenience, or you can also CLICK HERE to read the article on its actual website.

———————————————————————

The creators of Lyo & Merly

By Amanda Zhang

23 November 2009

It’s official, the mascots of the first Youth Olympic Games are here to take over the world.

Lyo the lion cub, and Merly the merlion cub, with their big, innocent eyes, funky hairdos and oh-so-huggable bodies are definite crowd pleasers.

At the mascot launch held over the weekend, the crowd went gaga when Lyo and Merly went public for the first time. There was an endless stream of people waiting to take photographs with the two new faces of the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games.

Like Pinnochio, Lyo and Merly needed a pair of loving hands to craft them to become the iconic creatures they are today.

Back from left: Mr. Michael Chong (Mascots and Puppets Specialists), Ms. Bee GOH (Cubix, COO), Mr. Stanley TOH (Cubix, Creative and Account Director) Ms. Weena LEE (Cubix, Art Director) Front from left: Mr. Frankie Yeo (Mascots and Puppets Specialists),Ms. Dawn WONG (Cubix, Account Manager)

The creative brains behind Lyo and Merly are the good people from Cubix International.

Cubix’s proposal was one of seven shortlisted mascot design proposals submitted earlier this year. With their unique and youthful twist on two iconic Singapore creatures, Cubix’s design was chosen.

For one, Lyo is a lion cub and does not have a shaggy mane. Instead of unkempt facial hair, Lyo keeps a burst of wavy, stylish red hair presumably kept in place with some gel or wax.

As for Merly, she is a merlion cub who does not have a fish’s tail. What remains of her merlion heritage though is a set of tiered scales on her arms and legs which adds to her demure and sweet appearance (think tiered wedding cakes and dresses).

Cubix, which specializes in branding, animation and character development, took great effort to research on Olympic mascots from previous Games.

Their research led them to move away from another set of designs which they were working on – robots. The robot theme was initially developed to showcase Singapore as a technologically advanced country. Through their research however, Cubix realized that mascot animals have always been a success and they wisely decided to stick to the theme of a lion and a merlion.

Image illustrations owned by Cubix International. Robots, durians and bad hair days were byproducts of Cubix’s development of the mascots.

Character development was what really brought the mascots to life. Cubix wanted to create a pair of mascots who had contrasting yet complementary personalities.

Lyo is ambitious, fiery and fun-loving. A typical boy-next-door, he dreams of winning basketball medals. Merly, on the other hand, is soft and demure. She is a vegeterian and loves the environment. Her harmless hobbies? Swimming and singing.

Born and bred in Singapore, Lyo and Merly’s diet include the local delights. With his fiery personality, Lyo loves chili crab and chicken rice with lots of chilli. One wonders how Lyo uses his paws to eat crabs though.

Merly prefers desserts and enjoys ice kachang, a local dessert of shaved ice drenched in condensed milk and colourful sweet syrup. Brain freeze!

From 2D to 3D

The hands that built the life-sized mascot suits were the team from Mascots and Puppets Specialists, led by Frankie Yeo.

One of the challenges they faced was transforming the mascots from two-dimensional to three-dimensional creatures. Choosing the right material and texture for the body and hair were crucial decisions Frankie’s team had to make.

The main material chosen to make the life-sized suits was eventually foam. It was not only light, it was also able to retain its shape even if Lyo had to squeeze through a door.

Mascot wearers have a heavy weight on their shoulders – literally. The heads turned out to be considerably heavy with Lyo’s head weighing a whopping 8 kilograms and Merly’s head weighing 6 kilograms.

To prevent heads from rolling (pun intended), the huge heads are strapped onto a harness donned by the mascot wearer. Lastly, to keep the mascot wearer from overheating, there is an inbuilt fan in the suit and optional vests lined with cool packs to keep the poor ladmascot wearer nice and cool.

Lyo and Merly were conceived and brought to life through the meeting of creative minds and a common passion for the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games.

We warmly welcome Lyo and Merly to the Singapore 2010 family!

Source: Singapore 2010: First Youth Olympic Games: YOG The creators of Lyo & Merly.

(Thanks to Mike Lim for the great photographs!)

Mascots and Puppets Specialists and our friends at the Arts House have come up with an exciting children’s holiday programme from 20-22 December 2009 (1pm and 3.30pm daily). Do check out our e-flyer below and do bring your children, nephews, and nieces for our Puppets Play Time at the Arts House!

Frankie will be performing and teaching at this special year-end programme at the Arts House, so don’t miss this great opportunity to encounter the art of string puppetry!

For enquiries, please contact us at 68412260. See you there!

TICKETING

You can purchase your tickets at

Website: www.bytes.sg

Hotline: 63326919

In person: The Arts House Box Office (at 1 Old Parliament Lane Singapore 179429)

Click to Download Full-size E-Flyer (right-click and save)