Dine. Travel. Design.

“Ding” by Office for Product Design is a reinterpretation of traditional Chinese cookware. Well done.

via Core 77

An interesting and insightful interview with Jia Wei, director of LKK Design. Read the complete interview at visionunion.

Q: How do you view the current state of Chinese design?
A: We’re not short of good designers in China, nor good design agencies and good clients. What we do lack is a systematic approach to design, a design process with a particular cultural basis. I’ve always believed that it’s the underlying economic foundation that determines what can be built. The current boom in the Chinese art market is a result of the expansion of the economy.
I am convinced we will soon be seeing a similar boom in Chinese design. The important thing for a designer is to be able to use economic, artistic, cultural and scientific methods to make design something three-dimensional. Design that only considers artistic or scientific aspects is not good design. So many designers now fail to use this three-dimensional approach when they design a product. They only consider aesthetic aspects and try to copy that clean European look. That is someone else’s creation and they’ve been developing the style for decades now. Even if we do design like that really well, that’s not being creative, it’s just continuing what’s gone before. We ought to be creating an age of three-dimensional design
that is our own thing.

Q: What kind of designer would you like to become?
A: I don’t think China is short of good designers, what it does lack is professional ones. There are no professional standards by which you can measure this industry. I think a professional designer needs to have passion for design, a sense of responsibility and sincerity in their job, and the will to learn. Design is like digging a well. If you haven’t found water it’s because you haven’t dug deep enough. All you have to do is keep on digging deeper and eventually you’ll find fresh water.

Q: Do you have any advice for young designers?
A: Study. Keep at it. Love life. A designer should be a person who really knows how to live.

via visionunion

I’m sitting at the airport waiting for my flight to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City).
Seems that there could be improvements on the way that travelers use their movile devices:

Here are a few photos I’ve taken in the past 5 days…

The circa 1920 Mah Jong set below was on display at the National Heritage Museum during my visit to the Raymond Lowey exhibit. This item seems to be a good transition into my trip to Hong Kong.

I’ve just arrived in this vibrant city filled with as much old as there is new. An ancient form of Chinese poker as a past time has turned into souvenirs for foreigners to bring home and a way for contemporary lifestyle stores like GOD to continue to create novel products by transforming and reinventing an old tradition to seamlessly fit in today’s contemporary lifestyle.

I’m extremely disappointed that I probably won’t be able to visit London before the closing of the China Design Now exhibit in July at the V&A.

Instead, for my birthday last week, I bought myself a present: the book. I’ve only briefly flipped through it, but there is a lot of great background information on the influences of current Chinese design and how design has changed in 3 major cities in China: Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzen. Needless to say China is the spotlight. Like many, I’m excited to see how design will continue to evolve and mature. Hopefully native Chinese along with those raised elsewhere, like myself, will continue to embrace their heritage and culture.

Exhibit review by Core77.