Bras Basah Complex – a great place for arty people

Can you imagine finding these three books at almost unused condition that costs in total for about $20?

Wow right? Yeah, thats what I thought so too.

Its been a while since I’ve been to Bras Basah Complex. I used to go there some years ago while undertaking digital design course in a distant lifetime. I love this place as it has a plentiful of things for people who are interested in books, design, or just looking at stuff. I used to patronise there to print for posters and namecards designs.

I think its really worth it. For $2.50 you could print an A3 sized poster and for $10 you could create a stack of 100 cards which are as beautiful as moo cards.

I stopped by this place on the third floor, called ‘Book Point’ where there were loads of treasures that you could find. You do need is a little bit of patience as the place was rather large, and will take a while if you have a specific book to find. I was hooked for a couple of hours in the literature segment looking for some books that I wanted to read. There were some books with some scribbles in them, after all, this *was* a second hand bookshop. But most of them were almost pristine.

I still couldnt find The Metamophorsis by Franz Kafka nor Godel Escher Bach; An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter which Cartcart has recommended me to read. In the meanwhile, I’ll keep trying to find them :)

Exploring the rest of the floor, I find myself at ‘Art Friend‘. My gosh, this is a great place for crafts. There were so many tools for art here, I could go crazy. Everything that you could want for art is here, from painting, to pottery, to sewing, to welding … to things that I dont even know of!

I was almost inspired enough to create my own Nimmo and friends plushie. But the only thing is, that they dont really have exactly what I want to create a decent sized plushie. I think a better place for it would be at the area near the Sultan Mosque where mum, a seamstress, gets her materials for sewing clothes.

And at length, I stopped by the fourth floor to take a peek at the famed graphic-book bookstore, Basheer. I poured for a long time over their beautiful, colourful and artistically designed books. Its a great place to get ideas by looking at the creativity of other designers.

That was when I find myself stuck reading this book. Design Basics Index by Jim Krause. It has loads of info about composition, concept and component. Although I wasnt a designer per-se, I thought that this book was a very facinating read. On a whim, I decided to buy it.

But zomg. This book costs $47! Its almost as expensive as the $60 computer book that I bought some years ago.

How come graphic and computer books are so expensive?

Anyway, do drop by Bras Basah Complex if you’re anywhere in town. Its a great place for the creative soul :)