Interviewe mat Hyeonil Jeong

I am an industrial designer currently based in New York. I have worked for a wide range of product design from popular American living brands such as Bed Bath & Beyond, Homegoods to high-end home decoration product lines including Two's Company, Dransfield & Ross, Cosmopolitan home. Also sometimes had a good opportunity of working with a brand new start-up company like Gantri.

Before moving to states, I worked as a computer rendering and cad specialist of interior design projects for many years. I devoted myself to the computer-based work for a long time and just found myself interested the more to work with the real and physical pieces rather than the images on the monitor. Finally, I managed to study Product Design Major in Parsons School of Design and turned my career entirely into the industrial design.

First, defining the project is the most important. I always assert that 'What must be simple is not the form but the idea.' So I tried to define the main idea of the project as clearly as possible.Second, I believe the real development can only be made on the real piece. So I usually conduct the sketch and first CAD work phase in a quick and dirty way to get the first physical prototype as quickly as possible. Then I can start to make a real design development based on the real piece.Third, I believe there is not such a thing as 'finished project.' I want to keep my eyes on my design in the real world and keep my mind open to for the further modification matching to the continually changing world.

I enjoy myself the most in the development stage. Whenever I come up with little solutions of the previous prototype, I feel the pride and pleasure of designing a good product.

I have enjoyed Bboying, a type of street dance, for a long time on a non-professional level. Because the bboying itself is a relatively new cultural activity, I could see all the fast-changing aspects and the rise and fall of some cultural movements. As a result, I feel myself having a sharper point of view about the artistic and cultural movements.

In my teenage days, my dream was not becoming a designer but a mechanical engineer. From the very early school years of mine, I was into all the different mechanical features around me such as the volume control knob of daddy’s portable radio, few different hinges found in our kitchen cabinet and the little motors and gearboxes inside my toy cars. All of those experiences got me into my first college year in the engineering major. Later on, I happened to move up to design major but those engineer focused experiences and mindset made me stand out in the other students from the art schools.

Be professional in non-design skills. To be called as a professional designer, just doing the design practice well is not enough. You must also be great at taking care of your schedule, communicating with your client in a nice way, keeping your health condition good enough to get into a intensive design work smoothly, and so on.

I studied Human Environmental design in Korea and worked as 3d cad/rendering artist in an interior design company. After the years of work in a cubicle, I got sick of the 'computer only' work process and got more into making a tangible piece out of my idea. So I decided to study industrial design and came to New York to take product design major in Parsons the New School for Design.

I am not working as a company / company, for the time being. I have a full-time designer job during the business hour and invest my evening and weekend time on my own freelance projects or the other side works. That's the reason why I named my instagram account not as a design studio but 'Hyeonil Jeong Design Garage'

Design is the strongest method of communication to interact with the others. To me, design is like a doorway to the world.

I love designing furniture the most. That's the category represents the relation of the human body and the object.

I like the furniture designs of 'Nendo.' To choose my favorite one out of their amazing pieces I would pick the 'Cabbage Chair' (2008).

I designed a piggy bank with the posture of a pregnant woman for a New York-based company Le Mouton Noir. It was a fun project and everything came out successful in the end.

I personally choose molded plywood as my favorite material and technic.

There are moments of hitting up design ideas during the spare time even without pen and paper with me. Sometimes I need to document them using the voice recording feature on my phone.

I always spend most of my energy making a 'proper big picture.' I just found that I can never make a set of coherent decisions without a well-defined background idea.

Design process makes me feel like building a small world in a little corner of space.

When I was young I just was very excited to see the first sample piece out of the production line. These days, I feel a bit nervous to face the marketing/sale challenge at the same time.

Good understanding of the target audience and their needs. That actually is more than 90% of product design.

Level and quality of communication. I usually think mostly about how well does the project communicates the idea to the audience.

As a member of in the society, we need to speak out about the positive results possibly caused by design practices. Despite its possibility, a design still not considered very well as a solution to the social and environmental problems.

I think the border between designer and user will get weaker and weaker. Thanks to the advanced interactive digital environment, the user group will affect the design process with their active and strong feedback.

I was in Wanted Design 2015 with my prototype in New York. Currently, I have an idea for my solo exhibition in Seoul in the next couple of years.

It is not about a specific object or space but I would say that every moment I feel something is wrong, I came up to a design idea.

I usually focus more on the big picture rather than the detail. For this reason, I tend to concentrate on finding out the best structure and mechanism and try to show it off in the as intuitive way as possible.

I was born and raised in South Korea for 30 years and currently live in New York. The cultural and economic development of South Korea in the last few decades taught me many things about the progress of culture and society. Now working and living in New York, I can get unlimited inspiration from many different racial groups with their endless stories. Cultural richness and diversity is the most powerful reason to live and work in this city. The downside is the toughness of survival due to the competitive environment.

Of course, I work with companies in the business based relationship. However, I try my best to be a friend with them at the end of the project not only for the expansion of my professional network but also for learning and getting some inspiration.

Avoid sticking to the detail too much. You will realize that, in the most of the projects in the real world, designers cannot adust every single detail. Let's say, you will hardly have a chance to design a device with custom-made screws for the specific device you are working for but usually will be requested to use the standard screws instead. What you can do is design a good piece not depend only on the details of screws. That's why I highlight the big picture the more than the detail in my process.

Pros, I feel creative enough when I am thinking about my next project. Cons, I just realize I cannot be creative enough to bring it into the real world.

Calculate and organize the schedule tightly and double the expected timeline before diving into the project.

Looking around, Chatting around and taking note.

It depends on the project. Usually, it takes as much as defined on the term on the paper. If it is a six months project, I spend six months of time to try, fail and learn again and again.

I have designed for the American retail stores such as Bed Bath & Beyond, Homegoods, Burlington and higher-end brands including Two's Company, Tozai and Cosmopolitan Magazine. Among them, Gantri, the San Francisco based start-up which is specialized in 3d print table lamp was the most impressive one of the recent clients.