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Interview with Hung Yuan Chang |
Home > Designer Interviews > Hung Yuan Chang |
Editor Frank Scott (FS) from DesignPRWire has interviewed designer Hung Yuan Chang (HYC) for A’ Design Award and Competition. You can access the full profile of Hung Yuan Chang 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?
HYC: always wanted to be in the design field. I’ve been in other field for several years which I did not feel I fit in very well then I turned to architecture and spent 5 years, that’s where I started my passion of doing design. I’ve done many different projects including bridge design, road design, park design and of course building and interior design. After that I decided to do something a little bit more niche and that’s when I started my journey in RIT.
FS: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
HYC: Instead of calling it a design studio, my working space is more like my “laboratory” in which I experiment all kinds of different techniques, combining what I learned in RIT for making furnitures and my training in architure world. It’s a small space packing with all my crafting machines and works, big and small.
FS: What is "design" for you?
HYC: For me, “design” is a process of finding a solution to a particular case or creating something new that has never been done.
FS: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
HYC: I have ideas for different type of things such as buildings, bridges, furnitures and music.
FS: What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?
HYC: Fender Stratocaster, which is one of the best guitars in the world. Not only because it’s easy to play and comfortable for the player but it’s also one of the most classic industrial design in the whole instrument development history. The most outstanding characters of Fender ST is modularization which is easy to be mass produced and very easy when it comes to repair and maintain.
FS: What was the first thing you designed for a company?
HYC: It’s quite a comprehensive project which includes bike lane, parks, hiking trail, public restroom and vista corner.
FS: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?
HYC: I like both wood and metal and is my favorite technique.
FS: When do you feel the most creative?
HYC: When I interact with my people.
FS: Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?
HYC: I like to focus on how to break the traditional techniques and transform the work into something creative.
FS: What kind of emotions do you feel when you design?
HYC: Both exciting and painful.
FS: What kind of emotions do you feel when your designs are realized?
HYC: It reminded me when I saw my babies were born - it is both exciting and touched.
FS: What makes a design successful?
HYC: A successful design should be creative but not to sacrifize it’s logic.
FS: When judging a design as good or bad, which aspects do you consider first?
HYC: Creativity, structure as well as whether it is logical when combining the materials.
FS: From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?
HYC: Solving the problems in a form that’s workable is the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment.
FS: How do you think the "design field" is evolving? What is the future of design?
HYC: I could see there are many aspects when talking about design field evolvement: how to respect and feedback to mother nature more and how to utilize more new materials. The progression of the society and technology is going to toss a lot of problems as well as opportunities to the designers and that’s what the designers should keep in mind when sailing into the future.
FS: When was your last exhibition and where was it? And when do you want to hold your next exhibition?
HYC: Last one was in 2016 in Rochester New York and I’m planning to have another few more in the next 18 months.
FS: Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?
HYC: The majority of my inspiration comes from my observation of people’s daily life. A lot of times creativities come from criticizing imperfect things or limitation which leads to finding a solution via make.
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?
HYC: My style is clean and minimum when it comes to design and visual presentation. I guess it’s originated from my past live designing buildings and bridges, I found a form that’s most economic and reasonable, and it could go with any different external setups.
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?
HYC: I was born and raised in Taiwan, a small country in East Asia. Taiwan has a very unique culture which combines both western and eastern cultures due to the history that the country had gone through. Although I do not feel the culture that I am from influence my works visually but it did impact me dramatically when I am processing my creativity. It gives me a very multi and depth point of view. But because of the history and economy situation of my country, Taiwanese tend to put return of investment in front of everything.
FS: What are your suggestions to companies for working with a designer? How can companies select a good designer?
HYC: There Are different kinds of “good designer”, he or she could be either cooperative and listen to the client companies all the time or super unique and carrying his/her own thoughts. Of course there are different pros and cons working with different types of designers. At the end of the day, the company should go back to it’s goal honestly and looking for/working with designer that could reach the goal based on the goal.
FS: What are 5 of your favorite design items at home?
HYC: My iPhone, which I could not live without. My Fender guitars. Subaru SUV, Festool crafting tools and bikes made by Giant.
FS: Can you describe a day in your life?
HYC: Morning is the most lively time of my day, I usually cannot wait to go to my studio and get my hands onto my design projects. I might do all sorts of different things in the morning, work or not work related, it’s the time that I have the most ideas. I might do different things during the rest of the day - I might do crafting, researching or sometimes just spend time with my friends. In the evening I walk my dog after I get home, sometimes I cook for the family. During the night I usually go back to research again after my two baby girls go to bed.
FS: Could you please share some pearls of wisdom for young designers? What are your suggestions to young, up and coming designers?
HYC: Dare to play hard. Observe the world with your own eyes. Challenge things and try to solve problems.
FS: From your perspective, what would you say are some positives and negatives of being a designer?
HYC: Sometimes people see the work that designer creates could be seen as too simple which doesn’t worth the value without considering the details behind the design. But entering the designer world and being able to create and craft something that’s beautiful and useful is the most positive thing for me as a designer.
FS: What is your "golden rule" in design?
HYC: Always challenge myself whether I do my best to make the work the best and the most unique.
FS: What skills are most important for a designer?
HYC: I don’t think there are any particular skills that are definitely important for a designer - some designers are good at making things beautiful, some are good at making things practical and some are good at coming up great and unique ideas, they are all different skills and they could carry different level of importance for different type of designer.
FS: Which tools do you use during design? What is inside your toolbox? Such as software, application, hardware, books, sources of inspiration etc.?
HYC: I rely on Autocad and Picasa quite a lot which help me on defining sizes and structure of my works. And of course I have tons of tools for crafting, electrical ones and manual ones plus piles of paper and pencils.
FS: Designing can sometimes be a really time consuming task, how do you manage your time?
HYC: It is difficult to manage time but my rule of thumb is my sleep time has to be sufficient. Only when I have a good night sleep that I could perform my best. As for the rest, I just follow the flow, do whatever I need to do.
FS: How long does it take to design an object from beginning to end?
HYC: It various, different type of designs could take different length of time. Take my chair as an example, it took me 3 months from having the idea to finish it.
FS: What was your most important job experience?
HYC: Designing a bridge when I was in Taiwan.
FS: Who are some of your clients?
HYC: I don’t have a profile of my clients, they could be anyone.
FS: What are your future plans? What is next for you?
HYC: My plan is simple - keep on designing and crafting! I set myself a goal to make 300 chairs and furnitures. As for next steps, I hope to have more exposure and make my furnitures be seen by more audience.
FS: Do you work as a team, or do you develop your designs yourself?
HYC: All by my own development.
FS: Do you have any works-in-progress being designed that you would like to talk about?
HYC: I am working on a new design of drawer that could be used on a lot of different furnitures which I haven’t seen people doing that before.
FS: How can people contact you?
HYC: Internet is the best channel - email or Instagram.
FS: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?
HYC: Not at this moment, we’ve covered quite a lot.
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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