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Interview with Qin Zhen

Home > Designer Interviews > Qin Zhen

Editor Frank Scott (FS) from DesignPRWire has interviewed designer Qin Zhen (QZ) for A’ Design Award and Competition. You can access the full profile of Qin Zhen by clicking here.

Interview with Qin Zhen at Thursday 27th of September 2018

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?
QZ: Yes, I made up my mind to be a designer when I was a kid. From junior high school to graduate school, I have been receiving art education in art academy, which has a profound impact on my design.

FS: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
QZ: We are a cross-boundary creative team from Guangzhou, China to create multi-dimensional brand experience. We stick to the combination of business and design, use innovative design thinking, gain insight into consumers, focus on brand touch experience, create user experience and connect brands and consumers.

FS: What is "design" for you?
QZ: For me, the power of design is infinite. We have been committed to promoting an open, collaborative and multidisciplinary blend of innovation, through the user-centered design principles, together with the present situation of market demand, rapidly find the opportunity, a common design solutions, system and strategy, the concept is presented in the form of tangible and intangible, create value, measurable design influence.

FS: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
QZ: I like challenging design and am committed to finding an open, collaborative and multidisciplinary approach to change and solve design problems. I think design can create great value that we can't imagine.

FS: What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?
QZ: Sorry, I haven't thought about it.

FS: What was the first thing you designed for a company?
QZ: What I started to do in the company was brand visual design. Later, I found that visual design could not solve all problems. It could only play a role after thinking based on service design.

FS: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?
QZ: My favorite design platform is Dezeen, which updates a lot of information about different design majors every day.

FS: When do you feel the most creative?
QZ: I think late at night is when creativity is at its strongest, especially before bed when you can recall something that happened today, an idea, or a problem that you haven't solved yet. This is when you need to create a quick shorthand in your mind. When you have time to look through your memos, there's a lot of inspiration in them.

FS: Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?
QZ: In the design process, I pay more attention to the balance between the needs of users and the actual commercial practice. In my opinion, user-centered design principles cannot ignore the current market demand and brand value proposition. Design is about business.

FS: What kind of emotions do you feel when you design?
QZ: When I design, it contains passion and patience. Because design, while exciting, always goes through the process of testing, adjusting, and frustrating. Need to stay warm and calm.

FS: What kind of emotions do you feel when your designs are realized?
QZ: When my design was realized, of course, I was excited. Service design from 0 to 1 carries many challenges.

FS: What makes a design successful?
QZ: I think it is inseparable from a good starting point of innovation, team collaboration and the support and cooperation of other stakeholders.

FS: When judging a design as good or bad, which aspects do you consider first?
QZ: First of all, I will consider whether the design is really needed by users, and second, I will judge whether it has a certain sense of beauty or sustainability.

FS: From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?
QZ: I think designers should consider whether the design is extended and sustainable before creating. Second, consider whether the design will lead to waste of resources. Is it good for the environment?

FS: How do you think the "design field" is evolving? What is the future of design?
QZ: I think the previous design is to solve practical problems, but now the design is to pursue better experience. Design will be paid more and more attention in the future, playing an important role in various fields of business and society.

FS: When was your last exhibition and where was it? And when do you want to hold your next exhibition?
QZ: 2018, IF Design Award Exhibition, Germany.

FS: Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?
QZ: The inspiration of my design comes from the accumulation of daily life. When I encounter interesting things or phenomena, I will take photos or take notes, and I will look through the album when I have time.

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?
QZ: My design has no special style, and it mainly meets the needs of the brand and core user needs. What is needed by service consumers is the best 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?
QZ: I live in guangzhou and I think there's an impact. China is a country with profound history. Guangzhou where I live also has many traditional crafts, such as cantonese, singing and paper-cutting. When I need to enrich the culture of my project or refer to some visual elements, there will be a lot of references. I am also very happy to extract the essence of cantonese culture to design and spread. As for the advantages and disadvantages, I think the advantage is that there are many industries in China that need to be designed, and there are many opportunities. The bad thing is that China has a large population and a large gap between the rich and the poor.

FS: How do you work with companies?
QZ: It's usually teamwork. Make a plan together and then arrange the division of labor.

FS: What are your suggestions to companies for working with a designer? How can companies select a good designer?
QZ: A good designer can help a company to improve its brand service and reputation. I think a good designer should be creative, enthusiastic, good at solving problems with global thinking and good at summarizing self-reflection.

FS: Can you talk a little about your design process?
QZ: First, we apply service design methodology to gain insight into consumers and focus on touch experience. Then, we propose ideas to innovate user experience and connect brands and consumers so as to create innovative value and communication value from 0 to 1 and from 1 to infinity.

FS: What are 5 of your favorite design items at home?
QZ: Eames chair, The Chair, Juicy Salif, PH Lamp and a tea set which my friend gave me by her handmade.

FS: Can you describe a day in your life?
QZ: I usually get up at 7 am to wash up. At 8 am, I go out for breakfast and arrive near the company. Check and reply email first in the morning, and meet with the client. Lunch at 12:30 p.m. Start work at 2 PM and check project progress. I eat dinner around 8 o 'clock at home and sometimes go to the gym. Wash up at 10 o 'clock at home, prioritize unfinished work, and spend another hour looking at the news and projects. Sleep between 1 and 3.

FS: Could you please share some pearls of wisdom for young designers? What are your suggestions to young, up and coming designers?
QZ: Young designers grow up in the era of Internet development, with many learning resources and young innovation. I hope young designers can keep their original intention and make full use of modern technology to bring a better world.

FS: From your perspective, what would you say are some positives and negatives of being a designer?
QZ: As a designer, the advantage lies in being better at discovering the subtle places in life that need to be designed. The downside is that you can't change the design you encounter in life.

FS: What is your "golden rule" in design?
QZ: Human centre and then as sustainable as possible.

FS: What skills are most important for a designer?
QZ: As a service designer, the most important skill is to have an empathy to observe and understand users. Also need to have a global thinking to review, verify their design is feasible.

FS: Which tools do you use during design? What is inside your toolbox? Such as software, application, hardware, books, sources of inspiration etc.?
QZ: In the design process, I will use some thinking methods of service design to help me better sort out logic and keep clear of thinking. For example, user journey map, stakeholder map, persona, co-creation workshop, etc

FS: Designing can sometimes be a really time consuming task, how do you manage your time?
QZ: I will make a work plan before the design work starts, and arrange my time and tasks at each stage to ensure the design plan can be implemented smoothly.

FS: How long does it take to design an object from beginning to end?
QZ: Depending on how complete the design is, it can take anywhere from three months to two years, and iterate over and over again.

FS: What is the most frequently asked question to you, as a designer?
QZ: What can users do more conveniently? If it was me, what would I do?

FS: What was your most important job experience?
QZ: Listening is important.

FS: Who are some of your clients?
QZ: Government agency, startups, Like-minded companies.

FS: What type of design work do you enjoy the most and why?
QZ: I like to do the work of user analysis, because the preliminary research can let me understand the psychological dynamics of each user and better grasp the user's empathy.

FS: What are your future plans? What is next for you?
QZ: My future plan is to accumulate more entrepreneurial projects to enrich my experience, learn more knowledge of disciplines while practicing so as to better apply service design to life.

FS: Do you work as a team, or do you develop your designs yourself?
QZ: Team.

FS: Do you have any works-in-progress being designed that you would like to talk about?
QZ: Recently, I was working on a project to let more people know about circular economy, which was a big challenge for me.

FS: How can people contact you?
QZ: You can visit our company's official website, which contains our address, contact information and some cases.

FS: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?
QZ: It’s a nice experience, thank you very much for the interview.


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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