Online Design Forum | The Observer of Commodity Chain

The value of design is not only about creating a beautiful appearance for the product, but also about optimizing the use of materials, processing methods and functions. For designers, the values of design reflected in rethinking existing manufacturing methods, improving the process and the production, and making the supply chain transparent. 

Moderated by Siyun Tang, curator at Design Society, Brendan Cormier, a Senior Design Curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum; Deng Qiyun, founder of Engraft and product designer; Formafantasma, an Italian-designers duo; Hao Zhenhan, artist; Studio Swine, architect and artist duo; Thomas Thwaites, a designer and author of The Toaster Project and GoatMan to will share their critical reflections on the design industry. The speakers are skilled at using the integrated thinking of design to consider the whole life cycle of design. They establish connections between everyday life and the making, the styling and the materials to develop a more sustainable design practice. 

Zhenhan Hao is a mixed-media artist seeking wonder and magic from the unappreciated, unfamiliar or hidden qualities of common materials, anonymous craftsmen and minor, related trades. By bridging different elements and exploring their separate contribution within a system, Hao generates the freshest of aesthetics and explores innovation in the manufacturing process. Hao’s practice spans a wide spectrum of objects, spaces and multimedia. To date, Hao’s projects have shown in many prestigious galleries around the world, such as Christie’s gallery and M+ museum Hong Kong. 

Brendan Cormier is a Senior Design Curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum. He led the curation of the V&A’s partnership gallery at Design Society in Shenzhen, China, and last year curated the blockbuster exhibition Cars: Accelerating the Modern World. Prior to being at the V&A, he served as the managing editor of Volume. He regularly writes for various architecture publications. 

Andrea Trimarchi (1983) and Simone Farresin (1980) are Studio Formafantasma, an Italian-designers duo based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. In perceiving their role as a bridge between craft, industry, object and user, they are interested in forging links between their research-based practice and a wider design industry. Whether designing for a client or investigating alternative applications of materials, Studio Formafantasma apply the same rigorous attention to context, process and detail to every project they undertake. The added nuance for the duo is that they do so with an eye to the historical, political and social forces that have shaped their environments. 

Studio Swine was established in 2011 by Japanese architect Azusa Murakami and British artist Alexander Groves. Straddling the spheres of art, design, and cinema, the duo’s work has explored themes of regional identity and the future of resources in the age of globalization. Studio Swine pursues an innate human desire to use art to connect with and revere the natural systems on which our existence depends. “Ephemeral Tech” explores this intrinsic driver of creation using technology to evoke both primordial origins and future worlds. 

Thomas Thwaites is a designer interested in the social impacts of science and technology. His work is in the permanent collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Asia Culture Centre in South Korea. His work is exhibited frequently and internationally at major galleries and museums worldwide, including at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, the Science Museum (London), the Cooper Hewitt in the USA and La Triennale di Milano (Italy). He is the author of two books: The Toaster Project and GoatMan.  

Shirley Xue, Senior Editor of Lifestyle Section, FTChinese.com, Financial Times 

- Livestream link：http://t.cn/A6UXVSpr

Shenzhen Design Week (SZDW) founded in 2017, is an international design festival hosted by the Shenzhen Municipal Government, organized by Shenzhen International Culture Exchange Association, Shenzhen Innovation & Creative Design Development Office, Foreign Affairs Office of the People’s Government of Shenzhen Municipality, Greater Bay Area Office of the People’s Government of Shenzhen Municipality, Education Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality, Innovation Committee of Science and Technology of Shenzhen Municipality, Bureau of Industry and Information Technology of Shenzhen Municipality, Culture, Radio and Television, Tourism and Sports Administration of Shenzhen Municipality, with Shenzhen City of Design Promotion Association (SDPA) serving as Secretariat. SZDW aims at building an international, cross-categories, and professional platform for the design industry. This platform will facilitate international culture exchange, city branding and promotion, showcasing design achievements, and public education on design thinking and consciousness. This event is a cultural celebration open to the public with over ten days of creative activities taking place across the city, attracting ten of thousands of designers, enterprises, students, media, and citizens from local and global communities.

Design Society is an innovative cultural platform founded by China Merchants Shekou (CMSK), with the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) as its founding partner. It has already built an extensive network of partners, contributors and supporters from China and around the world, across academia, business, governmental affairs and education, as well as through collaborations with major museums, residential programmes and archival institutions. With the advice of industry experts, the growth of this network demonstrates the overlapping creative practices - closely bound to society and industry – vital to the sustainability of Design Society. An extensive membership programme offers exclusive industry opportunities and career acceleration activities, elevating Design Society as a leading resource on both a local and international scale.

Design Society has curated Minding the Digital, Craft: The Reset, Y Comic X? and Values of Design: China in the Making. Our learning platform Design Society EDU takes Design with the Society as its mission, encourage audiences to make, create and connect with design.

China Merchants Shekou Industrial Zone Holdings Co., Ltd (CMSK, stock code:001979), a flagship subsidiary under the China Merchants Group, a leading state-owned enterprise under the direct supervision of the central government, is dedicated to comprehensive urban development. It is also the Group’s asset integration platform for real estate and important business collaboration in China. Committed to be “the better life carrier”, CMSK develops comprehensive solutions for urban development and industrial upgrading and also provides diversified products and services covering full life cycle.