Excerpts from our yearbook interview with Mr. Michael Tsang

If you have not yet seen our special reports from the 2010 yearbook, here is an excerpt of an interview with Mr. Micheal Tsang, director of AGC Design Ltd, the company that designed the Boutique cinema @Windsor.  Boutique Cinema @ Windsor was a winning design in last years 2010 design awards.

How do the aesthetic and practical aspects of the design interplay with each other?

Mr. Tsang: We intergrated aesthetics and function at the same time.  For example, in the foyer ceiling feature and cinema house wall panels, which have an integrated functional lighting design, while the patterned glass feature is used for screening and shading.

What design research went into this project?

the design concept is usually from inspiration rather than figures. this involves how aware we are in our everyday lives. Pablo Picasso said, “I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them” Which is my design motto.  Of course, the cinema is located at a very familiar place for us in Hong Kong, a place that I pass around three times each week.  So awareness of the surrounding environment was, to me, never an issue. On top of this, based on my experience of over 20 cinema projects during which I had direct dialogue with top management teams, marketing and front line staff as well as end users’ requirements.  This feedback can be taken from listening to people all around.

Awards Team Meets Claude Bérubé

Last week, the Awards team attended a lecture on sustainable architecture.  The speakers had a lot to say about the future of sustainable living, especially in reference to China. We were lucky enough to have a quick word with one of the Jury Members of the Asia Pacific Interior Design Awards for Elite, Claude Bérubé. Claude is very well known within the interior design community, and currently serves as the Head of Interior Design to Sheikh Khaled Alqassimi, Director General of Sharjah Public Works in the United Arab Emirates. He is invested in the industry of nanotechnology working to develop nanotechnology for architectural and design fields.  When we asked him about his views on successful design, he said that he believed the most successful types of design improves the human condition and has a positive impact on our environment. A successful design must apply new discoveries in technology in an efficient and innovative way.

Calvin Deng Discusses Concept Behind Trophy Design

Calvin Deng

Calvin Deng, a designer at CBi China Bridge International talked to the awards team about how he began to design the 2011 Successful Design Awards – China Trophy and the concept behind it.

Calvin began his design by asking what the design should represent, and how the design should make people feel when they see it. He then begins to craft the guideline and scale for his design.  He then discusses the design associates with others to form a cohesive design concept. This year, Calvin wants the design to emulate chinese tradition as well as chinese modernity. The trophy will be made out of ceramic, and will be simple and modern in its style.

Thanks for the update Calvin!

Successful Design Awards – China Team Meets Jamy Yang Mingjie

Yesterday, Successful Design Awards – China Awards team had the opportunity to talk to Jamy Yang Mingjie, a well known designer in China. Yang Mingjie is an award-winning designer with accolades ranging from the Red Dot Concept Gold Award to the Design for Asia Silver Award. Jamy Yang Mingjie currently serves as the design director of the company he helped establish, Jamy Yang and Associates Design.

Jamy Yang Mingjie’s company is currently working on thirty to forty projects focusing on electronics and household appliances. Jamy spoke enthusiastically about his study of industrial in Germany.  He said that due to the fact that the German design market is much older and more developed than the Asian market, so it provided him with a solid foundation and in depth exposure to many different types of projects. His design philosophy is focused on the needs of the consumer. He believes the most successful designs are the ones that maximize the benefit to the consumer. His research strategy is based on the demands of the client, and the type of product they are asked to design.  Jamy characterized the shanghai design industry as more financially focused and predicts that the trend will continue in that direction.

Successful Design Awards – China Meets Carl Liu

Yesterday, Successful Design Awards – China Team Members had the special opportunity to speak with Carl Liu. Carl Liu is a well-known industrial designer, receiving his training at the famous Art Center College of Design in the U.S and Switzerland.  He currently works as the partner and design director of Idea Dao Design Shanghai.

Carl Liu discussed the differences between the Asian and Western design markets. The most significant difference between the Asian and Western market, he said, was the focus of each market. The Asian market is far more business oriented than product oriented.  The Asian design market is still quite new in comparison to the West, and in order to develop the market, Asian businesses must be more concerned on what the product can do to grow their business. The West can afford to focus more on the creative elements of design.  Carl intends to bridge the business and creative focus in China through his own brand. In terms of research, Carl said that his research is based on client needs, but that research is not an important factor in innovative design, joking that Apple and Ikea do not even employ a research team for their products. This is because they are focused on creating something that is so innovative that the market has not even considered it as a possibility.

Awards Philosophy

At Successful Design Awards – China, we seek to honor the top international designers and enterprises for their designs that are most successful in the Chinese market. Designs are judged by looking at an all-encompassing view of the design from its conception to its commercial outcome.

Successful Design Awards – China is created to empower, celebrate, and elevate our Industry of Design. It is guided by the vision to improve the value provided to business and society through successful design.

A successful design is judged by three criteria:

Strategy- was an objective and specific strategy utilized for the design? Did the design utilize creativity to successfully deliver the results and meet the strategic goals?

Process-During the course of the project, was design management systematically used and implemented? Were the team, its resources, and knowledge well recorded, organized, and communicated during the design process?

Results-Does the design accomplish the original strategic objectives and deliver beyond the defined customer needs? Does the design create benefits in the context of the user, socially, as well as commercially

What do you think is an example of a successful design?

Meet Our Awards Team

Successful Design Awards – China Team has been working everyday to organize design entries, elect a jury panel, and promote our awards through social networking and other avenues of multimedia. Every member of the team plays an important and active role in increasing Successful Design Awards – China international influence in the industry of design.

Our Team at the Studio

Meet Last Year’s Jury

Julia Chiu

Cathy Huang

Brian Walker

Lyndon Neri

Larry Keeley

Roger Martin

Cai Jun

Elaine Ann

Thomas Lockwood

Geoff Vuleta

Lou Yong Qi

Igor Peraza Curiel

Here at Successful Design Awards – China, Our Jury is comprised of dynamic leaders in the business and design industry. The jury members are internationally reckognized and serve as just one way Successful Design Awards – China honors its international emphasis. Meet the kind of leader our Award’s Jury Panel attracts by reading up on the bios of last year’s jury members:

Cathy Huang: Founder and President of CBi China Bridge. She has also served as the first marketing director of GE/Fitch China, and as the former project manager of Haier Design Center. Cathy has been president of the IF Design Award China Jury Panel and the judge for numerous other design award competitions

Roger Martin: Dean of the Rotman School of management.  Also serves as the director for motor company and is a columnist for the BusinessWeek.com Innovation and Design Center

Julia Chiu: Executive Director of Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization (JIDPO).  She has previously served as Director for International Design Center, NAGOYA.  She also taken on the role of the judge in many other design competitions

Igor Peraza Curiel: the architect responsible for the design of the spanish pavilion at the Shanghai Expo 2010

Brian Walker: President and CEO of Herman Miller, Inc. Serves on Board of directors for the Federal Reserve Bank of Detroit and Briggs and Stratton Corporation.  He served as president of the Business and Institutional furniture manufacturer’s association from June 2006-May2008

Cai Jun: Professor and Phd supervisor of the Department of Industrial Design, Academy of the Arts design, Tsinghua University.

Elaine Ann: President and Founder of Kaizor Innovation. She also teaches at Hong Kong Polytechnic University school of design. She also serves ont he executive comittee of the Hong Kong Designers Association

Thomas Lockwood: President of the Board at DMI, also a visiting professor in the graduate school of the Pratt Institute in NYC.

Lyndon Neri: Founding Partner of Neri&Hu Design and Research office. Also was the director for Projects in Asia and an Associate for Michael Graves and Associates in Princeton

Larry Keeley: President and co-founder for Dublin Inc. Chosen by Business week in 2010 as one of the 27 most influential designers worldwide

Geoff Vuleta: Ceo of Fahrenheit 212, also former worldwide board director of Saatchi and Saatchi

Lou Yong Qi: Vice Dean of College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University.

Jewelry Exhibition in Shanghai

Hello Design Award Fans!

Members of our team headed out to Pudong to attend the Jewelry Exhibition today in Shanghai! There were so many beautiful designs, we talked to many companies and designers about their designs and spent some time promoting our Successful Design Awards – China. We saw unique designs made from jade, coral, diamonds, and gold.  We even saw a watch encrusted completely in diamonds! Maybe this year, we will have jewelry designers enter the competition! If you have a jewelry design that you would like to submit, check out our awards registration online at designsuccess.cn.

Kin: cafe concept store

Gary Wang aka DJ V-Nutz

Kin