Larry Peh's Desire To Chase Exceptional Ideas Rather Than Fame

Larry Peh’s successful career in branding and advertising is grounded in a desire to chase exceptional ideas rather than fame.

- Luo Jingmei

Larry Peh has a penchant for telling soul stories. He can capture a brand's essence and make meaningful human connections through evocative yet honest visual and experiential storytelling. Together with his team, the founder and creative director of branding agency &Larry spends time to dig deep into the why before coming up with the how.

For example, when tasked to bring out “the actual heart of the brand story” for Bynd Artisan – a modern retail concept arm of Singapore’s oldest bookbinder – he celebrated its heritage rather than break from it. It was in the flagship store that I first met the well-groomed, bespectacled, and boyish Peh. Together with interior design firm LAANK, he conceived the handsome space decorated with an old letterpress machine, brick walls, and posters, layering bookbinding supplies with photographs of its master craftsman.

Peh considers this one of his pivotal projects. It won a President’s Design Award in 2014. “It really opened the way for us as a true branding consultancy,” he says. But Peh is being humble. Two years prior, he won a President’s Designer of the Year Award for his body of work. It is one of the manifold international and national accolades Peh has amassed over the last 15 years.

Many of Peh’s works have become ingrained in Singapore’s collective psyche. His clients include Louis Vuitton, Sincere Fine Watches, Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, Takashimaya, The Marmalade Pantry, and boutique developer SC Global for whom he designed identities for Petite Jervois and Cuscaden Reserve.