I majored in Product Design and Manufacture in university and that’s the first time when I truly involved with design. When I was young, the field of ‘industrial design’ is not familiar with people, when we talk about a designer in China, 8 years ago, we thought of graphic design and fashion design. So I’m not always wanted to be a designer since I barely know about this field when I was young, but after I engaged in this field, I got infinite passion with it and I think interaction and industrial design is the future of the world.
Currently we don’t have a company or studio. Jeff (Yi-Teng Shih) is a design associate professor in the University of Nottingham Ningbo china, while I was one of the graduates from that department. Basically, the course was a combination of design and technology (engineering), we graduated in an engineering degree. So in the first two years we studied basic mechanical and manufacturing engineering, the next two years was more about industrial design.
There is no boundary of our design work, as long as it’s worth designing (when existing design cannot fulfil the current needs or there is still space left for designing), we will start working.
I feel tense before an idea was generated so it keep my brain active and always in the mode of thinking. But after I finally think of something I like, I feel relief and happiness – the moment I enjoy most in my life.
From every day experience. I keep a record of the problems I notice every day and think of the solution time to time. So I have my own list of design resources.
For me, a good design must with either or both of the following characteristics:
1) to solve a problem in a simple and smart way
2) to remind the user / make people think about something that they didn’t think of before
That’s the philosophy I follow in every design of mine.
I’m currently in Hangzhou China. Cultural heritage is definitely something I wanna explore more in my designs.
Pros: I guess china has plenty of resources of design: lots of manufacture plants, model making is relatively inexpensive and the market is huge. The government is now emphasizing more about design and creativity than any time before.
Cons: the education before university is lack of flexibility. We have to take compulsory courses like maths, physics, history etc. our work load in high school is extremely high, which left no space and time for creativity work for most of the Chinese students.
+ you will be so pound to tell people what you do for a living. A designer is cool and I think every field needs designer. We are a group of people with infinite possibilities.
- sometimes it can be really tiring and hard. And bad for your health
For me (Jiani), I graduated in the University of Nottingham Ningbo China with first class honors in 2015. My subject was Product Design and Manufacture (BEng). From July 2013 – July 2014, I took a one-year exchange program to the University of New South Wales in Australia. I’m an industrial designer with solid engineering background.
For Yi-Teng Shih, he is a design tutor / associate professor in the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, in the department of Product Design and Manufacture. Before the current job, he got more than 10 years working experience in Industrial design field and has developed a number of successful products in Taiwan and overseas.
When I had to choose a subject in the second year from all the engineering subjects, I chose Product Design. After that, I found myself with infinite passion with Design.
Both of their designs should be unique and delightful.
A great designer can always discover the problems in daily life and try to solve it in a simple way, design for him / her is an easy task to do since there are plenty of resources and inspiration accumulated overtime.
A good designer finishes his / her work within the deadline. His / her work should be aesthetic delightful: with a comfortable color and shape etc. But design to him / her can be sometimes a tiring work to do.
A good design is unique, when people see a good design, they will think “why I never think about something like that, it’s so smart”
A good design should surprise people.
I want to establish a fashion brand breaking out the traditional definition of fashion.
Primary themes can be:
1) fashion goods which is highly functional
2) fashion + healthy life style