Cangshan

Specialized in Design.

Cangshan

About Cangshan

Cangshan was created from a love and passion for good design, what they define as a conversation of balance between forward thinking aesthetics that speak to the design conversations happening in the market now and the foundational, practical function needed by professional creatives. The design orientated company is headed by its founder Henry, who has strong relationships within the manufacturing community and a background in engineering. Henry has always been about quality. He believes in starting with the best and giving the best. This has pushed him to build a young, forward thinking and early adopting creative/administrative team while also leading him to stray away from building tiered models of basically the same product with similar features. Instead Henry focuses on continuing to improve current products and business processes and design new, unique items for the market. Thanks to online marketplaces Cangshan is able to directly engage their customers allowing them to design and build cutlery that provide the functions and aesthetics that are desired today. Collaboration is foundational to Cangshan’s design process so all opinions, ideas and input of value are sought out from the whole team, from warehouse worker to career designer and ultimately user. Everything is listened to, digested and if there is a possibility to create and share value the whole Cangshan team works together to bring life to possibility.

  • Winner of the A' Design Award.
  • Specialized in Design.
  • Original Design.
  • Creative, Diligent and Innovative.
  • All Designs

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Extended Interview with Cangshan

Could you please tell us about your experience as a designer, artist, architect or creator?
At Cangshan our team is purposefully diverse with many members coming from non-traditional design backgrounds, some with educations in engineering, business management and communications. A common thread of passion for design emerged within our organization which has facilitated building an environment where members are valued for their tangible skills and contributions to the end product and not necessarily on their job titles or previous work experiences. Currently our design team is split between China and America with 9 industrial designers working on location at our factory in China and the rest of our team working in our offices in America.
How did you become a designer?
Our passion is to create beautiful function. This drives us to constantly identify opportunities to push, improve and innovate our current products and processes. Our whole team loves being able to create and share value by utilizing and coordinating our varied skills.
Which emotions do you feel when designing?
We design everything we can, from our knives, to our eCommerce website to our credit application forms, we just love to design. Everyone at Cangshan tries to make sure nothing is throw away, nothing is a place holder, if we can design a product or process to be more efficient and effective than that becomes our goal.
What particular aspects of your background shaped you as a designer?
We wholeheartedly believe in pursing passion. One of the best places for a young designer to start is to drill down into the things that get you excited, to see how and if they connect to your values. Conversations with peers and mentors, personal reflection and experimentation are great places to start engaging these questions. This dialogue can be used as a tool that allows a person to focus their efforts, to begin to understand, identify and utilize their own unique voice within design. Then follow talk with action, knowing what you are about is equally important as doing what you are about. Following passion helps build momentum as the excitement, enjoyment and fulfillment a person experiences pursing their passions helps to push them through the difficult and scary parts of learning and doing something new.
What is your growth path? What are your future plans? What is your dream design project?
Ego. Everything comes down to ego, good and bad. Ego can be the driving force that pushes a designer to go beyond and make something they believe in despite obstacles in their way or it can lead a designer to push their own agenda to the detriment of their goals. Ego must be balanced against values that reflect the passion and vision of the designer.
What are your advices to designers who are at the beginning of their career?
Our main metric for great design is our tagline, Beautiful Function, that wonderful, relevant balance point between forward thinking aesthetics and practical functionality. Balance is the key to great design. Going beyond pure function or aesthetics to find a place where a design becomes the best of both worlds. A great design pushes towards new while still answering today’s questions. It is not just one thing, it is many things done exceptionally well and balanced with one another.
You are truly successful as a designer, what do you suggest to fellow designers, artists and architects?
Good design is about adding value through improvement and innovation. At the heart of good design is an antagonism to the status quo, to allowing things to stay the same. The drive of good design is always forward, it is the belief in and pursuit of something greater and we believe valuable advancement is found by pursuing and bringing life to this desire.
How do you know if a product or project is well designed? How do you define good design?
Focus on the details way too much. Sweat those tiny meaningless details that only seem to matter to you, because maybe they do only matter to you and maybe they are as important as you think. Our team is given a lot of freedom to pursue their own solutions, ideas and interests. They are given the opportunity to do new things and provided the space to fail or succeed, to prove value. If it matters to you find out why, then prove that it does matter or accept when it is time to move on.
Would you tell us a bit about your lifestyle and culture?
Honesty and dialogue are two of the most important factors to improving as a designer. The ability to listen, to change and to push past failures and successes comes from the ability to honestly assess yourself and others. Being able to identify what works and what does not is the key to healthy, positive growth. We believe this is best utilized through dialogue. Honest conversation with oneself and others can allow people to get beyond their ego and assumptions and to work on the skills and goals that will lead to improvement.
What are your philanthropic contributions to society as a designer, artist and architect?
Design is the intentional and constant process of identifying opportunities for innovation and evolution through various forms of back and forth dialogue between maker and user that leads to tangibly valuable iteration.

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