Interview with Blend Design

Blend Design ("BD") interviewed on Sunday, 3 May.

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

BD : I studied for diplom degree in visual communication design in Germany. After graduation, I have several years of German working experience and returned to China to operate a studio with like-minded partners for ten years. Most of our clients are cultural and art institutions: Confucius Institute, Central Conservatory of music, Goethe Institute, Hanns Seidel foundation of Germany, Beijing reading festival, etc. These customers accompany us to grow together, we trust each other and achieve each other.

How did you become a designer?

BD : Becoming a designer and taking design as a career is mainly due to academic background and my own love. I just came back to China and did a few commissioned projects well, so I persevered.

What are your priorities, technique and style when designing?

BD : First of all, we must consider the industry attribute of the project (the first choice for cultural and art projects), then comprehensively evaluate the workload and pay back, and the embodiment of communication cost and designer value is also an assessment standard.

Which emotions do you feel when designing?

BD : It's easy to get excited about the projects that we are interested in, and we'll do our best to do it with confidence. However, no matter what project we sign the entrustment agreement, we will keep a happy attitude to face it. Otherwise, the design process will be boring. The final implementation results are executed according to the design plan, and we will have a full sense of happiness.

What particular aspects of your background shaped you as a designer?

BD : My love of fine arts, my experience of studying in Germany, fortunately to meet the partners of studios who are complementary and have different skills.

What is your growth path? What are your future plans? What is your dream design project?

BD : I majored in design in China. After getting my bachelor's degree, I studied for diplom degree in visual communication design in Germany. After graduation, I have several years of German working experience and returned to China to operate a studio with like-minded partners. In the future, we plan to do the product design of the Blend brand, and apply the graphic design to daily life, such as notebook, mobile phone shell, bag. The dream is that Blend brand products are accepted by many people.

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

BD : It's better to go to a large design agency just after entering the industry, to understand the process of design rationalization and enrich design thinking; It must be determined to insist on independent work for designers who already have some design experience.

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

BD : Everyone has different standards of success. Only by liking and sticking to them can success be possible. You should follow your heart, and integrate design into everyday life.

What is your day to day look like?

BD : The business has been basically saturated. Once in the studio every day, we will first sort out the progress of the project in our hands, track the time nodes, summarize the problems, then have a cup of coffee to quietly look at the listed problems, and find reasonable solutions one by one to enter the daily work. I browse the social information during the noon break. On the weekends that are not busy, I will take a look at the design industry information. When the business is not much, do something II like, travel, read, cook, grow flowers.

How do you keep up with latest design trends? To what extent do design trends matter?

BD : We don't follow the design trend deliberately, but we must understand the aesthetic changes of the public, the emergence of new technologies, the emergence of new consumption mode. Designers should always maintain their sensitivity to the society, and the cognition of beauty is classic,

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

BD : Design is not a skill, but a sense ability and insight ability to capture the essence of things. Design basically has no power of self-expression, and its foothold is more focused on society. The essence of design is to solve the problems that most people in the society face together. In the process of problem-solving, that is, the values or spirits that human beings can feel together in the process of design, as well as the feelings caused by it, this is the most attractive part of design.

How do you decide if your design is ready?

BD : As for the readiness, I judge more by designing and displaying the effect after implementation. I am not satisfied with merely conveying information to people, and I hope that people can have a strong feeling for the content and respond positively.

What is your biggest design work?

BD : Biggest? It should be the most socially significant design. We are responsible for the visual design of the three Frankfurt Book Fair attended by Confucius Institute. The first is to introduce Chinese children's picture books, the second is to introduce Chinese food, and the third is to introduce Chinese architecture. The nature of the project is what I like and am good at, and we share the same vision with the team of conccept and organization. Through this project, Chinese culture has been presented on the world stage, so that people around the world can increase their understanding of China. It's a very fulfilling thing. Good design requires not only function, aesthetics and attitude, but also emotion, memory and enough humanistic care.

Who is your favourite designer?

BD : My favorite graphic designer is my professor Niklaus Troxler. The posters of the Jazz Festival he made are colorful, lively and have strong visual impact. His innovative ideas and persistent spirit of design have a great impact on me. I also like the design of architect Zaha Hadid. I admire her as an Iraqi female designer who has a place in the history of world architecture, and has ruled out the difficulty of putting ideas that are cleverly conceived into reality. In addition, I also love the works of Xu Bing, a Chinese artist. His works integrate the eastern and Western cultures cleverly, which is profound and thought-provoking.

Would you tell us a bit about your lifestyle and culture?

BD : I live in Beijing now. Beijing is the center of Chinese culture. At the same time, it integrates a wide range of international culture, art and design resources. There is a lot of information about the latest art, design activities and exhibitions. It is a city with international perspective, national judgment and feelings. So the reason of occupation, life art, art life.

Would you tell us more about your work culture and business philosophy?

BD : Design creates culture, culture shapes values, and values determine the future. We like to work with people who share common values, love design and have fun, and strive to make our consumers' lives better and easier.

What are your philanthropic contributions to society as a designer, artist and architect?

BD : I hope to participate in the design of some projects related to children, and I hope to plant the seeds of beauty and design cognition in the young mind.

What positive experiences you had when you attend the A’ Design Award?

BD : The process of participating in A'Design Award is a little complicated. But I got a lot of exercise in the middle. During the preliminary evaluation, I learned how to conduct design performance more completely to improve our preliminary evaluation score; during the nomination confirmation stage, the process was rigorous, and the copyright, declaration and permission were carefully checked. Let me realize for the first time that such a professional competition needs to pay attention to these materials. After the award is confirmed, there are many preferential activities, such as joining the club free of charge, industry interviews and so on. I am looking forward to the follow-up results.

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