By Zhangtong Cheng, Junior Project Manager of Art-Science
On 15th October, our 22nd monthly Café des Sciences series lecture was successfully held at the event space of swissnex China and live broadcasted via Zoom. Themed on Rethinking Design, we have invited two ÉCAL alumni designers to share their experience. Mr. Hongchao Wang (王鸿超) is the Creative Director and Co-founder of Benwu Studio. Mr. Jean-Philippe Bonzon is a Swiss product designer and the Founder of Jpbdesign Studio.
Due to time constraints, we could only present a limited number of questions. If you have further questions for our speakers, please email us at artscience@swissnexchina.org. We will try our best to forward them to the speakers.
We would like to express our appreciation to our speakers Mr. Hongchao Wang, and Jean-Philippe Bonzon for giving us a tour into the design world. Meanwhile, we are also grateful for the support of ÉCAL for this event.
The video recording of the webinar is here.
The presentation slides are available to download here.
“From Playing to Designing”
Born and raised in China (1989), educated in the U.S. and Switzerland, Hongchao graduated with a master’s degree in design for luxury & craftsmanship from ÉCAL (École Cantonale d’art de Lausanne), where he studied under the tutorship of Designer Nicolas Le Moigne, Thilo Brunner, Jaime Hayon, and Bethan Wood. Hongchao had worked in design studios such as Stephen Burks, Søren Rose, and Fabrica. In 2012, he founded Benwu studio in New York City with Peng You. He is also a lecturer at the IND department of XJTLU since 2015.
Co-founded by Hongchao, Benwu Studio is characterized by its playful style. As hinted in Hongchao's humorous personality, design is playful to him. Meanwhile, Hongchao is very open towards the definition of design. He thinks that design is logical and aesthetic. Design focuses on emotions and experience. Design works on color, material, and finish. Design considers functionality and manufacturing. To him, design embraces enormous possibilities.
However, before establishing Benwu Studio, Hongchao has been developing his playful philosophy since his student days. He shared with us the early influence on Benwu's playful design works. He was greatly inspired by several tutors who mentored him like Bethan Wood, Jugen Bey, Jaime Hayon, and Maywa Denki on the growth of his playful concept. He learned to free his ideas and play with them in different kinds of experiments.
Then Hongchao applied the playful methodology in Benwu Studio when working with brands. Born and raised in China, he understands the Chinese market and Chinese consumers' mindset. Combining with his design strategy to merge business and creative objectives in a meaningful way that moves design beyond just an aesthetic exercise, Benwu Studio has achieved good results. With its effective business goals, Benwu Studio has kept expanding its business scope. Nowadays, Benwu Studio provides service on product design, interior design, and set design for renowned international clients.
Benwu studio has been pursuing to integrate design processes and design thinking into the larger business goals of its companies or clients, it elevates the concept of design to a strategic tool that businesses can leverage.
“Design Process Behind the Scenes”
Jean-Philippe Bonzon is a Swiss designer based between Lausanne (Switzerland) and Shanghai. He is developing his design brand call Jpbd based on a radical aesthetic and simple functionalities for products and furniture. He has received many awards including the Swiss Design Awards.
On the other side, Jean-Philippe is doing some workshops at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou (CAA), following the master's degree at the Design School of Nantes Atlantic and some workshops at the Tongji University in Shanghai.
Jean-Philippe Bonzon is also exploring different horizons like scenography and art installations. Paper, bamboo, enamel, and jade are part of these Chinese materials he used to create and define his playful design with his point of view with an inspiration of the Asian Culture.
Jean-Philippe Bonzon dug more into the research of design works. He revealed the formation of his design concepts and the manufacturing process behind the scenes. Though it is difficult to overcome the language barrier, he tries his best to integrate himself into the Chinese culture. With his great passion, he has learnt traditional Chinese handcraft art, explored different Chinese materials and manufacturing techniques from local Chinese artisans. Finally, the elements he acquired in those experimental researches has been integrated perfectly into his design products.
Besides, Jean-Philippe Bonzon also attaches importance to practical needs. He balances aesthetics and utilities. His chair design for Endless Form is one of the best illustrations. He satisfied the requirements for economy, functionality and artistic quality in his design. His mask design for Bring Your Own Mask Project (BYOM) also demonstrates his considerate design philosophy. Meanwhile, it is worth mentioning that the BYOM will be exhibited in Shanghai during the Yangtze River Delta International Cultural Industries Expo (YRDICIE) in, from 19 to 22 November 2020. It will be the best chance to experience Jean-Philippe Bonzon’s design in person.
Discussion and Q & A
The intriguing presentations given by the two designers ignited many interesting questions in Q&A Session and most of them focused on the practical aspects of design.
Regarding the question: “How do designers see the mass production of their design works?”, Jean-Philippe thought it was natural for designers to always think about the manufacturing requirements in their design process and modifying their designs accordingly. Hongchao also agreed that compromises are inevitable during the process. But he emphasized that designers must strive for their dignity and prove their professionalism in design, and adopting the right business strategy will enable designers to have the freedom to go further.
As social media is getting more and more important, the two designers were asked about their opinions on social media strategy and its impact on the design process. Interestingly, the two designers showed opposite attitudes. Jean-Philippe was optimistic about social media. He felt that social media brings great opportunities for designers’ work to gain more exposure. While Hongchao held a negative view. He argued that the popularity of social media gets ideas copied more quickly. The life circle of trends is shortened, and the originality of design is lost. Moreover, he thinks that experiences with design works on social media cannot compare with going to see the design products in person.
Design is not only about ideas and products; it also embodies designers’ personalities. When rethinking design, we are also uncovering the fascinating side of humanity.