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Today's featured designer is Jiani Zeng. Jiani Zeng is the creator of iconic designs such as Unream, Tag Tag and Dual. |
| We had the rare opportunity to interview the exalted designer Jiani Zeng who was recently announced as the Designer of the Day by the A' Design Award and Competition. Jiani Zeng is the creator of iconic designs such as Unream, Tag Tag and Dual. We got exclusive answers to our questions about Jiani Zeng designs and design philosophy. |
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Jiani Zeng, how did you become a designer?
Jiani Zeng: Let me be very honest, about 9 years ago, as a Chinese high school graduate, I had no idea what I was going to do and I didn't know what is industrial design. I was really into photography. One day I saw a picture of a camera, Leica M6, the classic one with blue leather skin, I got hooked... it was the last day I had to decide my major, so I went through the list - I choose the one looks like it - product design. It was the best coincidence and I feel like it's destiny. |
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Jiani Zeng, what are your priorities, technique, and style when designing?
Jiani Zeng: Most of my work explores design opportunities associated with new technology. I like creating new materials from bits and atoms. Like my work "illusory material", my partner Honghao and I invented a computational workflow to create material that cannot be made with any traditional manufacturing method. I believe computation and technology will play a big part in how designer designs... |
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Jiani Zeng, what particular aspects of your background shaped you as a designer?
Jiani Zeng: My time at MIT. I understand design differently now... |
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Jiani Zeng, what is your growth path? what are your future plans? what is your dream design project?
Jiani Zeng: Become the designer to be remembered for centuries...
Jiani Zeng, what are your advice to designers who are at the beginning of their career?
Jiani Zeng: Design freely and don't get stuck in 'Design thinking'... |
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Jiani Zeng, how do you keep up with the latest design trends? to what extent do design trends matter?
Jiani Zeng: Now I read a lot in Technology review and some academic conferences... |
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Jiani Zeng, how do you know if a product or project is well designed? how do you define good design? Jiani Zeng : A good design should be inspiring, it extends people's imagination...
Jiani Zeng, what is your biggest design work?
Jiani Zeng: Illusory Material. It envisions the future of industrial design with multi-material 3D printing. "Illusory Material" is a computational workflow that allows every designer to play with CMF or even material properties that never existed before in the design process, creating dream-like material and apply them into real-world product design. This project is an envision of future design methodology using computation power with the most advanced 3D printing technology in the world: multi-material voxel printing.
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| Imagine designing everyday products with "impossible" materials that only exist in the digital world; Imagine a future where designers can manipulate the color, texture, and reflectivity of materials across time and different viewing angles; Imagine the future of color creation is not based on layers of chemical paints, but a combination with optical 3D printed optical lenses and simple color blocks; imagine a physical material can display dynamically by itself without electronic input; imagine an invisible object that is informative, a hard object that feels soft....... |
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Jiani Zeng, who is your favorite designer?
Jiani Zeng : Ross Lovegrove and Tokujin Yoshioka.... |
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Jiani Zeng, would you tell us more about your work culture and business philosophy?
Jiani Zeng: I have the best partner in the world: Honghao Deng. We combine our knowledge of industrial design and architecture. Finding a good partner is the key factor to get success in the design... |
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Jiani Zeng, what positive experiences you had when you attend the A’ Design Award?
Jiani Zeng: Media exposure. Means a lot to us... |
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Jiani Zeng, can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
Jiani Zeng: My partner Honghao Deng and I started our design studio "Illusory Material" in 2019, research on creating "impossible" materials in a controlled manner, with computation and multi-material voxel printing. We envision a future where designers can manipulate the color, texture, and reflectivity of materials across time and different viewing angles... |
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Jiani Zeng, what is "design" for you?
Jiani Zeng: Design is about exploring new opportunities beyond the limit of current manufacturing and materials, imagine freely, and create freely... |
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Jiani Zeng, what kinds of works do you like designing most?
Jiani Zeng: 3D printed objects/artifacts; technology-driven products; AI & IoT product; new material-based product... |
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Jiani Zeng, what was the first thing you designed for a company?
Jiani Zeng: It was a cat litter box, you can see it at https://www.jianizeng.com/furrytail... |
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Jiani Zeng, when do you feel the most creative?
Jiani Zeng: Midnight! And when I'm desperate... |
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Jiani Zeng, what kind of emotions do you feel when your designs are realized?
Jiani Zeng: I get ready for the next challenge... |
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Jiani Zeng, how do you think the "design field" is evolving? what is the future of design?
Jiani Zeng: The future of design should not be fixed by design thinking or any fixed guidelines. Design is about users but also about designers themselves, be selfish, and design freely... |
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| Jiani Zeng, thank you for giving us the opportunity to interview you... To learn more about Jiani Zeng and check more designs by Jiani Zeng as well as to see more Jiani Zeng designs such as Unream, Tag Tag, Dual, Glasses Plus and Luna visit designeroftheday.com/?216931 |
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| We hope you enjoyed our interview of Jiani Zeng. This interview was made possible by the contributions of A' Design Award and Competition - The World's largest and most influential design accolade. A' Design Award is an annual, international design award open to both concept stage and realized works by designers, artists, architects and brands worldwide. A' Design Award and Competition aims to create a public awareness and understanding of good design by promoting the best designers such as Jiani Zeng and their design works worldwide. Visit designaward.com to learn more. |
 REFERENCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY:
https://competition.adesignaward.com/designer.php?profile=216931 https://competition.adesignaward.com/design.php?ID=104797
https://competition.adesignaward.com/design.php?ID=52293
https://competition.adesignaward.com/design.php?ID=52467
https://competition.adesignaward.com/design.php?ID=44179
https://competition.adesignaward.com/design.php?ID=67734 |
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This article was added on Monday, 26th of October, 2020 at 09.56 am by author 
