Interview with Yu-Chi Chien

My studio is named CYC which is taken from my initials. It focuses on bringing concepts to different media. My work is not limited to scale and materials. It can be live sized sculpture, body adornment or small jewelry.

Design is serving a purpose to people, environments or concepts.

I like works with meaning in it. For me, the message hidden in the works is the soul of the design.

I really enjoy the wall sculpture I design for Hillside Family Center in Rochester. It is inspired by the life journey of their students. It looks minimal and simple but it is well considered for the special students of the school and how it can interact with weather and site.

The first thing I designed for a company was a fashion jewelry line. It was a Christmas gift project. We came out with some charms and stackable bands to match the market of younger targets.

It depends on scale. For the medium to larger scale work, I like to use copper and aluminum. They are malleable and match the cost. For the small project, I usually work with K gold and silver for jewelry.

When I am alone and quiet in the midnight. I came out with many ideas from my small studio. I like to reach outside and gather ideas from the daytime. Organize and develop when I go back to the studio.

I focus more on the functionality and how I can express the concept completely.

I feel excited when having a sparkle of the concept, but feel calm when realizing it.

I feel cheerful and can’t wait to see feedback from the market or customers.

A successful design is fulfilling people’s need.

I consider the functionality first. If it’s a piece of jewelry it has to be wearable. If it’s a piece of art, it needs to express what it wants to say.

Not only a designer but every person has responsibilities for the sustainability of society and the environment. For jewelry designer, what we can dedicate on is trying to use recycled precious metal and ethically sourced gemstones.

Within the technology evolving, the design tool has been lowered its limitation. I think a job as a designer will disappear in the future. Everyone can utilize tools and produce their own product.

My last exhibition was at Peters Valley School of Craft from April to May 2019. One of my work was featured in the exhibition, Nuance: Craftsmanship, Imagination, and Innovation. I’m open to any opportunity of exhibition and collaboration.

Other than nature and architecture, I’m pretty interested in the relationship between human, animal, society, and environment. These all could be my inspirations and nutrition.

My design style tends to be minimalism. I remove meaningless decoration and keep important messages. Every element should stand for a reason to carry out the concept.

I live in NYC now. Asian culture didn’t affect too much on the form of my style, but it influenced the way how I transform my idea. I use more metaphor and subtle message in my design. The pros to be in Taiwan is having more resources from local factories and designers. The con is the size of the market in Taiwan is smaller.

I receive design requests from customers, and adjust the design by the production capability of the company. It involves many conversations between customers and companies.

Know what’s your need clearly and prepare all materials that designer needs. The communication skill and being organized is pretty essential to be a good designer.

I usually start with brainstorming which can be based on my idea or customer’s request. I will develop several rough directions first and improve the details after communicating with the customer.

The vessel, furniture, light, clock, and kitchenware.

Start a quick shower in the morning. Brainstorming when I commute to work. Develop ideas on the day time, and burn the last energy at the gym after work.

I’m a young designer. I would tell myself don’t step back for any chances. Grab the opportunity and see how it will lead you in the future.

The positive is you can easily see things clearly through the training of design. You can quickly catch the core idea of a thing, but it’s also a con. Because sometimes you will be trapped by over analyzing. Not everything is suited for rational thinking.

Stick with your concept. Do not become formalism.

Imagination and associative ability. These are powerful sources of a designer.

Google, my notebook and Matrix, the software to build up 3D models.

Design development never ends. You always can find improvement in details. It’s better to set up a goal and achieve it as close as possible before digging into the details.

It depends on pieces and the complexity of situations. Shorter can be a few days, and longer can be more than half a year.

Can you help me with Photoshop?

It is when I was an assistant designer for a fashion brand. I learned lots of skill sets other than design from that period.

Private collector, Jeweler, Gallery

I enjoy collaboration work a lot. I like the chemical effect between various people.

I hope to have some extra time to develop my own jewelry line.

It depends on the scale of the project, but mostly I work by myself for jewelry.

I am working on a series of resin jewelry which developed from the phenomenon of how technology influences people nowadays.

Instagram: cyc.studio or ycchien.com

No. It was a pretty good interview. Thanks.