1Please give us a brief bio of yourself, your company, job profile, etc.
I am the design director of MisoSoupDesign, Taipei city based design studio, as well as the assistant professor of the Interior Design department of Chung Yuan Christian University.
At MisoSoupDesign, we produce a range of high profile design projects in architecture, interior, furniture and product. I am responsible of coordinating all the design work from our studio.
2Tell us a bit about your business and what you do.
Currently our major focus of business is the residential and commercial interior design. We work simultaneously on interior projects in Taiwan and other Asian countries. Along with interior projects, we also develop our own furniture design series, utilizing sustainable material such as cardboard.
3Congratulations! As the winner of the 2019 MUSE Awards, what does it mean to you and your company and team to receive this award distinction?
We are very excited about winning MUSE Award! It means a lot to us to receive international recognitions in our one of favorite project, Spiral Stool.
4Can you explain a bit about the winning work you entered into the 2019 MUSE Awards, and why you chose to enter this project?
We submitted our first mass produced furniture design, Spiral Stool, which incorporates only 3mm cardboard material and no requirement of any hardware to assemble.
We chose Spiral Stool to enter the MUSE Awards since we are very proud of this design and we hoped we can earn more recognition for this design.
5What was the biggest challenge with this project?
The biggest challenge for this design was to design the structural system for the sitting device by using only cardboard material. We have tested different details to experiment the possibilities of the joint system to carry a huge weight.
6How has winning an Award developed your practice/career?
We won a few international awards in the past, which gave us a huge boost to pursue our design practice. It is also very important for us to track the trends in international design, so that winning awards can allow us to see other designs and be inspired by them.
7What are your top three (3) favorite things about our industry?
1. Realizing our own design
2. Collaboration with others
3. Always challenging
8What makes your country specifically, unique in the creative industry?
Taiwan is unique in a sense that we can work very closely with local manufacturers. The manufacturing industry is sportive for creative designers and can offer cost effective solutions for producing top tier design works.
9Where do you see the evolution of creative industry going over the next 5-10 years?
Digital technologies are shifting our design industry quite a bit. We feel like if we are not keen on it, everything will turn on a different direction. However, at the same time, we feel the tradition of our industry could be dismissed. It is most important that we keep balance to create more creative and interesting work.
10If you were a student entering this industry or an aspiring MUSE Award submitter, what advice would you give them?
Try the best you can!
11What resources would you recommend to someone who wants to improve their skills in the creative industry?
Obviously the traditional medium such as books and magazines, and also advanced digital media such as internet sites. Nowadays, we find a lot of information via social media as well!
12Who has inspired you in your life and why?
My teachers from Japan, USA, and Spain inspired me a lot.
13What is your key to success? Any parting words of wisdom?
Patience is the key of success.
14Do you have anything else you would like to add to the interview?
Thank you to MUSE Awards for the opportunity!