FDSA 2025: Dr. Jane Lim and Tong Yin Ang’s exciting outlook for Future Design Star

by Aisha Capulong

Dr. Jane Lim and Tong Yin Ang steers INTI International College Subang's Center of Art & Design with a conviction that has allowed the institution to garner accolades well into its third decade of educational influence

We sat down with Dr. Jane Lim, Chief Executive of INTI International College Subang, and Tong Yin Ang, Dean of INTI International College Subang’s Center of Art & Design (ICAD), during their MOU signing with the inaugural Future Design Star Award programme for a short interview on their perspectives around the initiative and what they hope it will develop into in the future.

INTI International College Subang’s programmes and curriculums focus on being career-driven, ensuring their graduates are empowered for life the moment they step off campus and into their chosen industries. In line with its collaboration with the Future Design Star programme, a core belief of the institution is that education should continuously morph to meet the needs of tomorrow’s world.

INTI International College Subang signs MOU with Future Design Star Award

Exclusive interview with Dr. Jane Lim & Tong Yin Ang

How do you think the Future Design Star Award initiative will benefit your students at INTI International College Subang?

Dr. Jane: We try to bring in a lot of industry practices back into the classroom and try to be [as] close to the industry – understanding the needs, the requirements, and at the same time, we bring [the] industry into the classroom as well, to give the students exposure and learn from the experts. I think collaborations [like FDS] are a two-way benefit because the industry wants [nurtured] designers who are ready for the workforce. To [foster] them only when they get out might be too late, so why not collaborate with institutions to see how we could nurture them from year one itself, right? The knowledge that they get [from FDS] will give them better exposure when they graduate.

Tong Yin: Through competitions [like FDS], we can ensure that our students design for function, for meaning. These [involvements] in their portfolios will set them [apart] from the others. In the art and design industry, competitions [are] not about winning. It is about experiencing, about trying, about what is going on out there [to] benchmark themselves against. From there, they [the students] would learn better. We have observed the group of students who actually go out for competitions – when they return, they have more ideas and it [helps] their studies as well. Sometimes they think what they think is right, “This is how it’s supposed to be,” but when they meet up with people, they see how others present or design. When they come back, it gives them a little bit of inspiration.

What do you want to see more out of FDSA moving forward?

Dr. Jane: A special scholarship! ACGMEDIA [has] partnerships with so many designers. There are some very good designer students, but they might have challenges in finances to progress into [a] degree and all that. We are happy, as well, [for] any programmes that are not just targeting students, but also lecturers. At the end of the day, to [nurture] future designers, it all starts from [the] institutions, and the institutions start from its teachers, right? If the teachers get the exposure, training and all that, they are the ones who will actually work with the students, and in return, this will create [an] ecosystem and cycle. When we talk about mentorship programmes, those can be [aimed] for the students, and at the same time, the teachers as well!

Tong Yin: Bootcamps can put the winners from the previous year [to] come into INTI [for] mentoring. At the end of the day, we would like to let our students and the industry know [that] design is a profession to go for, and we have to actually practice it professionally with standards!

Introducing the Future Design Star Award

The 15th installation of the DOTY Awards will see the introduction of an exciting new category: the Future Design Star Award! This new award initiative seeks to discover and platform young talents within verified design institutions across the nation whose work reveals an immense level of potential for the industry.

With a unique system in place, ACGMEDIA works directly with a handful of distinguished schools and academies across Malaysia to bottleneck only the very best projects — eliminating the ambiguity of participants and solidifying the relationship between the institution and its award candidate students.

The Future Design Star Award evaluation process requires each member institution to submit a fixed number of their very best student projects. The top three students of each school will then present to a panel of esteemed judges to compete for the ultimate prize: winning at the DOTY level. Following this, the three student projects that led the institutional stage will receive their win at the DOTY 2025 Gala Dinner, where they gain access to a crowd of Malaysia’s most elite design studios and industry partners.