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Interview with Naai-Jung Shih |
Home > Designer Interviews > Naai-Jung Shih |
Editor Frank Scott (FS) from DesignPRWire has interviewed designer Naai-Jung Shih (NS) for A’ Design Award and Competition. You can access the full profile of Naai-Jung Shih by clicking here.
FS: Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?
NS: a professor in the Department of Architecture giving lectures on 3D scan, RP, and design studio I/II i always want to design on different input and output mechanism.
FS: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
NS: Department of Architecture, NTUST
FS: What is "design" for you?
NS: re-interpretation, problem-solving, viewpoint exploring
FS: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
NS: concept-storming, viewport-exploring
FS: What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?
NS: a design that redefines popular view point
FS: What was the first thing you designed for a company?
NS: As the background of architecture, programming with the requirement of client should be the first thing to work with.
FS: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?
NS: Parametric adjustment with RP production process is appearing to me currently.
FS: When do you feel the most creative?
NS: When I ‘m able to connect design issues with different viewpoints.
FS: Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?
NS: It’s more architecture-oriented, the functionality and aesthetics.
FS: What kind of emotions do you feel when you design?
NS: A mixture of different kind of emotions, but happiness does not always go first.
FS: What kind of emotions do you feel when your designs are realized?
NS: A mixture of different kind of emotions, but happiness always goes first.
FS: What makes a design successful?
NS: Frankly I guess a design can hardly 100% success. Fulfilling design requirements always goes first.
FS: When judging a design as good or bad, which aspects do you consider first?
NS: Fulfilling design requirements always goes first.
FS: From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?
NS: I guess it has become solid design requirements for society and environment, not just moral responsibilities.
FS: How do you think the "design field" is evolving? What is the future of design?
NS: I guess it’s going to be cross-culture, cross-discipline, and cross-paradigm interactions.
FS: When was your last exhibition and where was it? And when do you want to hold your next exhibition?
NS: I am a professor for 3D RP and design studio. I usually manage a exhibition near the end of each semester like December or June. Some of them were held outside university in a local gallery, some are inside campus.
FS: Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?
NS: I did a lot of 3D scans of temples, urban open spaces and street blocks. The static buildings and dynamic pedestrians have created a very energetic inspiration for my works. I never consider as being creative. It’s the development of concepts makes me feel great.
FS: How would you describe your design style? What made you explore more this style and what are the main characteristics of your style? What's your approach to design?
NS: Frankly I would rather call the style as a history of interaction with architectural and urban spaces. I’m so afraid to define my style because I guess any style is strongly related to a personal self-development stage. By looking back to style just like opening files of old archives, it’s a collection of interactions that should be think about before approaching a design.
FS: Where do you live? Do you feel the cultural heritage of your country affects your designs? What are the pros and cons during designing as a result of living in your country?
NS: I live in Taipei, Taiwan. I have done lots of 3D scans and few RPs for cultural heritages. I guess it is personal preference that I haven’t been influenced by the cultural issues. It’s still quite open to all possibilities.
FS: How do you work with companies?
NS: Being in academics, I didn’t work with many companies. The companies I have been worked with come with specific requirements to be accomplished.
FS: What are your suggestions to companies for working with a designer? How can companies select a good designer?
NS: It’s like a marriage; there are no specific rules to me.
FS: Can you talk a little about your design process?
NS: Very typical. Like a spiral development of concept, any selection of alternatives would redefine former problem space and thus lead to a new perspective.
FS: What are 5 of your favorite design items at home?
NS: Oh my, you got me.
FS: Can you describe a day in your life?
NS: By being a full professor, it’s really a typical 9-5 routine every day, except I can arrange most of the time when not in lectures.
FS: Could you please share some pearls of wisdom for young designers? What are your suggestions to young, up and coming designers?
NS: Frankly I don’t have something for young designers. Actually I'm still learning from any designer.
FS: From your perspective, what would you say are some positives and negatives of being a designer?
NS: I do not consider myself as a designer. I guess the positives and negatives of being a title is the title itself, since a person can be limited by predefined notions.
FS: What is your "golden rule" in design?
NS: interpretation in terms of interpretation
FS: What skills are most important for a designer?
NS: observation with open-mind
FS: Which tools do you use during design? What is inside your toolbox? Such as software, application, hardware, books, sources of inspiration etc.?
NS: I have 3D scanners (Leica HDS, Artec, MS v2), RP machine (Microjet, Plus2), 3D software (Geomagic Studio), and frequently visit web pages and news (3ders, SPAR, Engadget) for the inspirations that come from class assignments given to students or even the moving figures in traditional market.
FS: Designing can sometimes be a really time consuming task, how do you manage your time?
NS: This is a very common situation since I was an architecture student. There is no easy solution to that.
FS: How long does it take to design an object from beginning to end?
NS: from a few years to a few weeks, sometimes former designs were brought up because of new interpretations
FS: What is the most frequently asked question to you, as a designer?
NS: Actually I would rather be called a problem-solver or an explorer who provides concepts and methods of execution.
FS: What was your most important job experience?
NS: arca show room design for British Office Taiwan and being architectural design studio chairperson for 90 students and 10 instructors
FS: Who are some of your clients?
NS: One is show room design, as a team work, for British Office Taipei for the purpose of culture promotion. Most of the clients are academics like Ministry of Science and Technology , Taiwan.
FS: What type of design work do you enjoy the most and why?
NS: In all the architecture building information modeling (BIM) level of development (LOD) 100-500 (conceptual/programming to reality), I guess each level has great potential and can be played with.
FS: What are your future plans? What is next for you?
NS: I would like to apply current RP technology to explore some designs that cannot be made before.
FS: Do you work as a team, or do you develop your designs yourself?
NS: Most likely designs are developed by myself. I also work with students as a team.
FS: Do you have any works-in-progress being designed that you would like to talk about?
NS: Design has become a hobby. There are sketches in my note I can get them done in near future.
FS: How can people contact you?
NS: email would be fine
FS: Thank you for providing us with this opportunity to interview you.
A’ Design Award and Competitions grants rights to press members and bloggers to use parts of this interview. This interview is provided as it is; DesignPRWire and A' Design Award and Competitions cannot be held responsible for the answers given by participating designers.
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