Charmaine Chen

Old World Charm is a Singapore-based sign company created by sign and scenic painter Charmaine Chen. Charmaine was born in Singapore to parents of Chinese descent. With their support, she first developed a thirst for design as a teen, while enrolled in design school. In 2008, she relocated to Sydney, Australia, where she went on to graduate with a Bachelors’ of Industrial Design.

During her eight years spent in Sydney, she worked with industrial designers and artists alike, where she found that she deeply relished the beauty of woodworking and the handcrafted element and tactility of design.

While working on various jobs, painting in her local community in Sydney, Charmaine fell deep into the art of sign painting and gilding, and considers herself lucky to have learnt from masters of the craft from all over the world. She has since been finding ways to keep the craft of traditional sign painting and gold-leaf gilding alive, especially in Singapore.