United Cities Of Singapura (UCS): A Dystopian Pandemic Response
2021
Speculative Design, Propaganda Design, Critical Design, Social Commentary
A speculative design project conceived during Singapore's 2021 lockdowns. United Cities of Singapura constructs a fictional government set in 2045 — a regime for which the pandemic response never ended, only evolved — and produces the propaganda posters, banners, and official circulars it would have issued. The visual system closely mirrors the visual language of real Singapore public health campaigns, rendering the slide from public health messaging into authoritarian control invisible by design.
Conceived during Singapore's 2021 lockdowns, the project constructs a fictional government — the United Cities of Singapura, or UCS — and produces the propaganda posters, banners, and official circulars it would have issued. The setting is 2045. The pandemic response never ended; it evolved. Citizens are no longer addressed by name but by number. The Managerial Task Force Council issues policy updates. The Civil Disobedience Act governs non-compliance. The state signs off every communication with "TOGETHER FOR A BETTER TOMORROW."
The visual system is designed to closely mirror real Singapore public health campaign materials — replicating the typefaces, the icons, the layout logic. The three symbols on the title slide — a red heart, a smiley face, a spiked virus form — are the exact icons Singapore's government used during COVID communications. "Stay Apart. Remain United." sits in the same typographic hierarchy as "Report Infected Citizens. Or Else."
The project explores:
- Authoritarian messaging disguised as public health communication
- How familiar visual language can shift social behaviour without changing register
- The manipulation of information through design — in headlines, in imagery, and in fine print
- The tension between collective safety and individual freedom
- The distance between crisis management and control
The series moves from the benign to the sinister without ever changing its visual language. The New Normal. Safe and Sound, Always. Don't Wait to Vaccinate. Spread Facts Not Fear. Then, in the same layout, the same heavy black type, the same red iconography: Report Infected Citizens. Or Else. The curfew poster reads "GOOD NIGHT, SLEEP TIGHT." beneath a setting red sun. The fine print on "Report Infected Citizens" reads: repeat offenders will be terminated on sight — not in the headline, not in the image, but in the small text where no one reads.
The UCS flag adapts Singapore's national symbol — the red and white, the stars — into a circle of nine stars surrounding the UCS mark. Recognisably the same. Recognisably not. The "TOGETHER FOR A BETTER TOMORROW" banner hangs above the curfew notice, set in the same typeface, at the same weight.
Rooted in the Singaporean experience of the pandemic, UCS asks how much distance separates public health from authoritarian control — and whether we would notice the difference if it arrived in the visual language we already trust.
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