Nathan Yong (b. 1971, Singapore) graduated in industrial design from Temasek Polytechnic in 1991. He began a career working in the purchasing and product development departments of various companies in Singapore. Through these assignments, he travelled around India, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and other countries seeking manufacturers and craftsmen with a view of developing furniture designs and accessories for the home. He was also able to discover and acquire various skills and production techniques. In 1999 Nathan opened a small store, Air Division, to sell his own experimental creations produced by Asian craftsmen. He achieved both commercial success and critical acclaim, in Singapore and abroad.

Nathan subsequently resumed and completed his studies at the University of New South Wales, Australia, gaining a Masters in Design, summa cum laude. For two consecutive years from 2006-2007, Nathan was awarded the prestigious Red Dot Concept Design Award with his conceptual designs of a mass production coffin and a portable heating unit. Inspired by observations of the visual environment, his design creations – furniture and industrial objects - routinely challenge the physical forms and functionality of everyday interior objects. Instead of superfluous details, he captures the poetry of products through a stripping process. Objects lend qualities that are informed by a lightness of restraints.

In 2008, Nathan was awarded the prestigious Singapore President’s Design Award – Designer of the Year, the highest honour accorded to Singaporean designers from all creative disciplines. Currently based in Singapore, Nathan runs a multi-disciplinary design consultancy spanning fields such as graphic, industrial, interior and architectural design, along with strategic planning in product development, manufacturing processes and branding. He is the founder of FOLKS FURNITURE, a furniture brand that produces modern contemporary wooden furniture that is exported worldwide, and is also the co-founder of GRAFUNKT, a retail-based company that specialises in contemporary brands of furniture. Since 2021, Nathan has been the Programme Leader for the BA (Hons) Product Design of LASALLE College of the Arts, University of the Arts in Singapore.

With his exceptional background in design and craftsmanship, Nathan’s interest in challenging and bridging the formal expressions of art and object design has been at the forefront of his exploration with industrial materials over the years. Amongst his most recent projects was an installation, There in the middleness, commissioned by the National Gallery Singapore in 2021. The installation was set monolithically within the vast greenery of The Padang and distanced peripherally by the city's modern skyline. It aimed to draw viewers to its peaceful inner sanctum, lifting the spirits of the viewers to then collectively as a society reimagine new possibilities for the future. His last solo art exhibition in 2021, Farewell to Reason, featured a series of architectural objects that pay tribute to Brutalism. These thoughtfully engineered pieces are a nod to Modernism, fusing human savoir-faire, the natural beauty of onyx and state-of-the-art technology.