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Designer To Watch: “Creative Sky” Winner Chico Wang

Three years ago, Chico Wang was a successful visual merchandiser at Lane Crawford, where he designed the visual displays for top global designers such as Alexander McQueen, Christian Dior, and Yves Saint Laurent. However, Wang, who has a degree from the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, decided he wanted to someday be one of the designers of the clothing for which he was designing displays. In 2011, he took a chance and went on China’s version of Project Runway, a show called Creative Sky (创意星空).

Read the interview at Jing Daily

Fashion Design, Interviews Shortlink
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Freeman Lau’s Book List—A Conversation with Zara Arshad

Internationally renowned product and graphic designer Freeman Lau (Lau Siu-Hong), with more than 300 awards to his name, has designed everything from posters and books to prize-winning water bottle packaging and a series of intertwining chairs and stools. He is also recognized for his work as an educator and curator, and in 2011 was a curator of the Beijing International Design Triennial. Lau’s book CMYK (2012) was just released in Hong Kong and Beijing this past December. Design China’s Zara Arshad, in an interview for Designers & Books, sat down with Freeman Lau recently to talk about reading, writing, designing, and publishing books in Hong Kong and mainland China.

Read the interview at Designers & Books

Graphic Design, Interviews Shortlink
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Xander Zhou: Instagram

The Rising Chinese Designer Shares His Visual Diary of London Collections: Men

Taking in fittings and model castings, backstage show-day chaos, and the wonders of Soho and Shoreditch nightlife, celebrated young Chinese designer Xander Zhou documents his intimate experience of debuting at the inaugural London Collections: Men.

Exhibiting his minimalist take on menswear in the capital for the first time, the Beijing-based aesthete moved into the illustrious St. Martins Lane Hotel a month before fashion week and set up a temporary studio in the West End to finish the preparations. The designer has shown 11 collections in China, launched his eponymous label in 2007 and has dressed leading celebrities like actresses Zhou Xun, Fan Bingbing, actor Chen Kun and Edison Chen. Zhou closed the Friday evening of London Collections: Men with Fleurdelism—his spring/summer collection of deconstructed silk suits and paneled satin T-shirts, inspired by boy scouts and lilies.

“Design is an international language; it doesn’t matter where you’re from, it matters what you do,” he explains. “My generation’s background is very complicated—I was born in China, I studied in the Netherlands, I came back to China again. I travel a lot so I’ve seen many things, and I think this generation of Chinese young people is more confident to share its ideas with the world.”

Via www.nowness.com

Fashion Design, Interviews Shortlink
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Meet Alex Lim

Alex Lim’s career spans over 18 years across Singapore and China. He was ranked Asia’s Top 10 Creatives by Media and voted one of the 20 Hottest Creatives in the region by Campaign Brief Asia 2003.

Alex had stints at Wunderman, BBH, BBDO, Leo Burnett and has won over 100 major awards including The D&AD, One Show, Cannes Lions, Clio, ADC, New York Festivals, Spikes, London International and AdFest.

Some of Alex’s works include The Levi’s 501 Re-cut for women where it made the No.1 Gunn Report and Pizza Hut home delivery campaign where it was the 8th most awarded in the world.

Alex is currently the creative lead for EnergyBBDO in China where it first opened its doors to Asia in 2011. Operating as an Asian Hub for the SC Johnson brands across China and 12 other markets, concurrently looking after China’s Pepsi Co. brands like 7-up, Mountain Dew and Mirinda.
Via www.dandad.org

Articles, Interviews Shortlink
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Xiao Wen x Dana Lixenberg

China’s Quirky Star Model and Marc Jacobs Muse Disrobes After Fashion Week

Bare-faced and beguiling, current fashion world darling Xiao Wen Ju lets her guard down for renowned Dutch photographer Dana Lixenberg, unwinding after a gruelling Fashion Week schedule of fittings and shows in this series of intimate and raw portraits.

“It’s always a bit challenging to do a natural portrait of a model,” says Lixenberg, who shot Ju in Manhattan’s Lafayette House hotel. “Somehow youth and beauty dominate, so it almost helped that she was exhausted and had come from a rehearsal.”

Twenty-year-old Xiao Wen, who hails from the ancient city of Xi’an in China, signed with IMG in 2010 and quickly climbed the ranks both in her home country and internationally, featuring on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar China that May as well as walking for designers including Hermès, Louis Vuitton and Prada the following year, ultimately scoring Marc Jacobs’ Spring campaign in 2012.

“There’s a playful element to her,” says Lixenberg, who has shot for publications including The New Yorker, Newsweek and The New York Times Magazine and exhibited in solo shows at Amsterdam’s FOAM and the Nederlands Fotomuseum. “She looks like a little dancer: petite, almost Audrey Hepburnish and very slim and flexible like a kitten. She had a quiet charisma, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it popped up in film.”

Via www.nowness.com

Fashion Design, Interviews Shortlink
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Smith & Norbu High-End Horn Eyewear

Brussels-born Benoit Ams arrived in China in 2000, and spent the next decade learning Mandarin, distributing Belgian products – beer and chocolate – and writing a book called « Doing Business in China ».  He has recently launched his own brand of high-end horn eyewear known as Smith & Norbu. In the following interview he tells us how it all started.

Read the interview at Nicely Made in China

Interviews, Product Design Shortlink
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China’s Most Striking Men

Thomas Giddings Gets An Intimate Look at the Far East’s Top Male Models

Emerging faces Rui Wang, Liu Chang, Hao Yun Xiang and the firmly established Zhao Lei are profiled in Thomas Giddings’ elegant short filmed during the spring/summer 2013 menswear shows in Paris. Inspired by an enigmatic scene in Paul Schrader’s 1980 film American Gigolo, Giddings filmed discreetly in order to capture both the models’ true personalities and the minutiae of the everyday.

“I wanted to capture the downtime and follow each of the boys in a subtle way,” says the photographer, “telling the story through their characters, rather than through the clothes.”

Giddings began his career shooting behind the scenes at fashion shows forPOP and i-D, and has since gone on to photograph for British Vogue, Twin and Russian Interview, as well as hold numerous exhibitions of his work. Demonstrating the growing influence of China on the fashion industry, the four boys have risen over the past few seasons to work with some of today’s most influential designers, including Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel, Kris Van Assche for Dior and Dolce & Gabbana. Giddings’ Paris short features intimate access at high profile runway shows for Louis Vuitton, Dior, Dries Van Noten and Mugler, offering unique insight into the usual high-octane sheen.

“I work differently to a lot of other photographers backstage,” explains Giddings. “It’s about communicating existing moments rather than stepping in to direct.”

Via www.nowness.com

Fashion Design, Interviews Shortlink
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Interview with JinR

“I don’t think of myself as someone who has done all that much. I look at accomplished people and I’m in awe. I actually think of myself as rather laid-back. What does move me though to the next step is being comfortable with myself. I think of music, for example, as a ladder to the soul, as a way of understanding who we are. Art can lead us to true peace. It can make time stop. As an artist, I’m looking for the moment. It’s the moment which words cannot describe, but I know when I’ve reached it.”

Read the interview at GettingHomeDesign

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Triple Major in Shanghai

Ritchie Chan is the founder of Triple Major, the massively hip Beijing-based design studio and fashion store that recently made the move south to Shanghai’s Shaoxing Lu. As well as own-label items and fabulous collaborations, the shop stocks the likes of Danish talent Henrik Vibskof, British brand Lazy Oaf, Finland’s Daniel Palillo, and closer to home, Beijing’s Digest Design Studio. As designers and retailers, Triple Major has turned heads far and wide, and has already proved a hit with the capital’s creative crowd, showing twice at Beijing Design Week.

Read the interview at CreativeHunt

Fashion Design, Interviews Shortlink
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Interview with Aric Chen

“There are great museums that have great objects and items in their collections relating to Asia but that’s usually with Asia being sort of ‘other’, on the periphery,” Chen told Dezeen. “For us, Asia is in the centre and I think that’s a very different perspective than any other museum has taken.”

Read the interview at Dezeen

Architecture, Interviews Shortlink
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Interview with Carl Liu

“I found Industrial design by accident when I was fifteen years old.  My uncle loved books and he always brought books and foreign magazines. One time he brought a magazine called Design World. I was very attracted by all the pictures and articles in the magazine. One of the articles was written about a design firm in Australia. Designers worked in a bright and spacious modern glass house drawing new stuff what I had never seen it. I pictured myself setting in the room and sketching…  My dream started from that moment. ”

Read the full interview at EightSix

Interviews, Product Design Shortlink
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Designer To Watch: Yirantian Guo

Recent London College Of Fashion graduate (and newly admitted MA student) Yirantian Guo (郭一然天) may be young, but she’s already gaining accolades for her unique sense of design and style. Recently, the Chinese site Fashion Trend Digest caught up with Guo to discuss her development as a designer, fashion inspiration, and dream collaborators. Interview translated by Jing Daily team.

Read the interview at Jing Daily

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China Is One Of The Most Exciting Places To Be An Architect Right Now

Founded by Ken Shuttleworth in 2004, Britain’s Make Architects has swiftly established itself as one of the UK’s leading architectural firms, working out of a global network of studios in London, Birmingham, Beijing and Hong Kong as well as registered offices in the Middle East. Engaging in a wide range of projects around the world, Make Architects designs everything from large-scale urban masterplans to private luxury residences.

Continue Reading →

Architecture, Interviews Shortlink
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Gensler’s Chris Chan on the Sustainable Shanghai Tower

In 2008 Gensler broke ground on the sustainable Shanghai Tower in the Pudong district of Shanghai, China. The tower is currently in construction and it’s one of three supertall buildings in Pudong, including the Jin Mao Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center. The elegant structure spirals up to the sky, and once it is completed in 2014 it will become the second tallest tower in the world — only second to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The 632 meter tall structure is a testament to both modern architecture and the potential of engineering, and it also sets a precedent for sustainable super structures. The tower will take the form of nine cylindrical buildings stacked atop each other, enclosed by layers of glass, and hosting public space for visitors including atriums, gardens, cafes, restaurants, retail space, a hotel, and 360-degree views of the city. The building will also include a rainwater recycling system and a series of wind turbines able to generate up to 350,000 kWh of electricity per year. But most notably, the tower’s glass façade was designed specifically to reduce wind loads on the building by 24%, which means that fewer construction materials are needed (including 25% less structural steel). We recently spoke to Gensler‘s Chris Chan, Design Director and member of the tower’s design team, who gave us some insight on what it has taken to get the Shanghai Tower built, and how Building Information Modeling (BIM) has played a crucial role from concept to construction. Jump ahead for our fascinating interview with Chris!

Via Inhabitat

Architecture, Interviews Shortlink

“In the past, China hasn’t really respected design a whole lot. They’re known for copying and manufacturing. So does that mean you’re trying to change the culture of those you’re doing business with?”

Read the interview at Fast Company

Interviews Shortlink