Interview with Fu Zhih-Chi

Fu Zhih-Chi ("FZ") interviewed on Thursday, 3 May.

Could you please tell us about your experience as a designer, artist, architect or creator?

FZ : As the founder and the Chief designer of GearCell and Pawfurst, another brand for designing premium pet related products, I have been nominated by 2013 IF Concept Award and 2017 Taiwan Fashion Design Award. Graduated from Shih Chien University, the Department of Fashion Design, however my design concept is hugely affected by my biology background which I had studied for 3 years before I started my fashion study.

How did you become a designer?

FZ : It started by the idea of I wanted to escape from my biology study. I discovered that although I enjoyed doing all the research on the biology field however, I don’t know what I should do in the future with it. Along the path discovering my interests, I found out that I like to create things and I would like to transcend the positive vibes through my design to my audience. I hope that when people see my design, they could feel happy, excited and interested. Since then, I started to consider how to do something positive and meaningful by design.

What are your advices to designers who are at the beginning of their career?

FZ : There are numerous frustrations and difficulties on the way to become a designer, you need to either fight against or compromise with your own ideas, you need to force yourself to leave your comfort zone and keep learning. You will struggle from lacking ideas and inspirations, at the same time the pressure from the society will force you to face the reality.. However, I still consider becoming a designer as one of the best choices I’ve ever made in my life.

You are truly successful as a designer, what do you suggest to fellow designers, artists and architects?

FZ : Know who you want to design for really well, be determined, experiment and fail (A LOT)

How do you know if a product or project is well designed? How do you define good design?

FZ : A good design is that is does not only provide what you want, but also discover your potential needs that you desire.

What is your biggest design work?

FZ : The main concept of the award winning collection- CODE:PROTOTYPE is “Modular’. The jacket was deconstructed into three parts, “The Collar”, “The Body” and “The Sleeve”, the jacket does not have a fixed look, the users could compose the jacket based on their own preferences. This is also the reason why we named this collection the “CODE:PROTOTYPE”. What we provide is only the parts, however, the consumer is the person who completes the jacket.The Modular design not only increased the flexibility for the consumer to adjust the style and the function, meanwhile, it also provides the new solution for the consumer. When the jackets were partly damaged, the consumer only needs to replace the damaged parts instead of throwing the whole jacket away.Currently the “CODE:PROTOTYPE” is under the made to order collection in GearCELL. Except the three currently available parts, consumers could also customize their own parts through reserving an appointment with the studio.