Designer Interview

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Interview with Yi Teng Shih at Saturday 22nd of October 2016

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?
YTS: I majored in Product Design and Manufacture in university and that’s the first time when I truly involved with design. When I was young, the field of ‘industrial design’ is not familiar with people, when we talk about a designer in China, 8 years ago, we thought of graphic design and fashion design. So I’m not always wanted to be a designer since I barely know about this field when I was young, but after I engaged in this field, I got infinite passion with it and I think interaction and industrial design is the future of the world.

FS: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
YTS: Currently we don’t have a company or studio. Jeff (Yi-Teng Shih) is a design associate professor in the University of Nottingham Ningbo china, while I was one of the graduates from that department. Basically, the course was a combination of design and technology (engineering), we graduated in an engineering degree. So in the first two years we studied basic mechanical and manufacturing engineering, the next two years was more about industrial design.

FS: What is "design" for you?
YTS: Design for us was to observe daily life, find a problem and solve it.
Design is simplicity.


FS: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
YTS: There is no boundary of our design work, as long as it’s worth designing (when existing design cannot fulfil the current needs or there is still space left for designing), we will start working.

FS: What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?
YTS: It’s really hard to say. Currently I don’t have my own “favorite” design yet, but there are many excellent designs by other designers.

FS: What was the first thing you designed for a company?
YTS: I know Jeff designed his first product: a detachable toy car (as his undergraduate final year project) for a company in Taiwan. It was sold overseas.

FS: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?
YTS: 3D modelling software. But I really think physical model making like 3D printing is the tendency for the future.

FS: When do you feel the most creative?
YTS: In my dreams.

FS: Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?
YTS: Research and concept generating.
For us, a good design should be very creative and it’s all about an excellent idea.


FS: What kind of emotions do you feel when you design?
YTS: I feel tense before an idea was generated so it keep my brain active and always in the mode of thinking. But after I finally think of something I like, I feel relief and happiness – the moment I enjoy most in my life.

FS: What kind of emotions do you feel when your designs are realized?
YTS: Happy. Cannot wait to get some feedbacks from the users.

FS: What makes a design successful?
YTS: Unique, attractive, good promotion channels and money!

FS: When judging a design as good or bad, which aspects do you consider first?
YTS: Does it solve a complex problem with a simple solution?

FS: From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?
YTS: Solving problems!

FS: How do you think the "design field" is evolving? What is the future of design?
YTS: Absolutely. In the future, integration design will be the dominant. And good designer should be well-rounded with several skills including coding.

FS: When was your last exhibition and where was it? And when do you want to hold your next exhibition?
YTS: My last exhibition would be my Final year project Exhibition in Ningbo China. I don’t know about the next yet

FS: Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?
YTS: From every day experience. I keep a record of the problems I notice every day and think of the solution time to time. So I have my own list of design resources.

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?
YTS: For me, a good design must with either or both of the following characteristics:
1) to solve a problem in a simple and smart way
2) to remind the user / make people think about something that they didn’t think of before
That’s the philosophy I follow in every design of mine.


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?
YTS: I’m currently in Hangzhou China. Cultural heritage is definitely something I wanna explore more in my designs.
Pros: I guess china has plenty of resources of design: lots of manufacture plants, model making is relatively inexpensive and the market is huge. The government is now emphasizing more about design and creativity than any time before.
Cons: the education before university is lack of flexibility. We have to take compulsory courses like maths, physics, history etc. our work load in high school is extremely high, which left no space and time for creativity work for most of the Chinese students.


FS: How do you work with companies?
YTS: As a normal employee…

FS: What are your suggestions to companies for working with a designer? How can companies select a good designer?
YTS: Choose someone never delay a project!

FS: Can you talk a little about your design process?
YTS: 50% of the effort is in research and idea generation, the rest is to fulfil the concept.

FS: What are 5 of your favorite design items at home?
YTS: Ipad mini
The toolset to open pecan
My pencil case
Beats wireless earphone
My carrot doll from IKEA


FS: Can you describe a day in your life?
YTS: I can’t.

FS: Could you please share some pearls of wisdom for young designers? What are your suggestions to young, up and coming designers?
YTS: I am a young designer myself and I’m looking forwards for advices.

FS: From your perspective, what would you say are some positives and negatives of being a designer?
YTS: + you will be so pound to tell people what you do for a living. A designer is cool and I think every field needs designer. We are a group of people with infinite possibilities.
- sometimes it can be really tiring and hard. And bad for your health


FS: What is your "golden rule" in design?
YTS: Solve a complex problem in a simple solution

FS: What skills are most important for a designer?
YTS: Your design thinking: smart idea!

FS: Which tools do you use during design? What is inside your toolbox? Such as software, application, hardware, books, sources of inspiration etc.?
YTS: Solidworks, Adobe PS AI ID Lr etc.

FS: Designing can sometimes be a really time consuming task, how do you manage your time?
YTS: I can’t and that’s the problem I want to solve for myself.

FS: How long does it take to design an object from beginning to end?
YTS: Depends. Days or years.

FS: What was your most important job experience?
YTS: Well, I only had one job so far, I can’t say if it’s important …

FS: What type of design work do you enjoy the most and why?
YTS: My personal project, without guidelines and limitations.

FS: What are your future plans? What is next for you?
YTS: I’m going to take a master degree.

FS: Do you work as a team, or do you develop your designs yourself?
YTS: Sometimes a team with Jeff.

FS: Do you have any works-in-progress being designed that you would like to talk about?
YTS: Yes many but I don’t want to talk about it. Maybe you will know if I won another A’ design next year :P

FS: How can people contact you?
YTS: For Yi-Teng Shih: yi-teng.shih@nottingham.edu.cn
For Jiani Zeng: zengjiani@yahoo.com


FS: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?
YTS: No, this survey is long enough
But thank you

FS: Thank you for providing us with this opportunity to interview you.

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