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Product Designer

Maison & Objet Asia | Raising Asian Talents

Maison & Objet chose Singapore, a strategic hub for the Asean region, to organize their Asian version of one of the most popular luxury design tradeshows. The show can be accessed within the prestigious Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Center, from March 10 to 13, 2014. The new annual trade event Maisin & Objet Asia features 272 European and Asian exhibitors showcasing across 6 000 m².

The goal of RISING ASIAN TALENTS awards is to support young designers coming from Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines, Hong Kong or Singapore. These six very promising young designers have been selected and given the opportunity to present their works in the «Rising Asian Talents» section of the MAISON&OBJET ASIA tradeshow.

Abie Abdillah, Indonesia

Since his college years, Jakarta-based designer Abie Abdillah, has been passionate about working with rattan. Though some 80% of the world’s supply of rattan comes from Indonesia, the popularity of rattan furniture has been waning. Abie’s passion goes beyond just rattan as material for his designs. Through his contemporary furniture designs, he hopes to rejuvenate interest in rattan as furniture and thus, also revive the rattan industry in his country.

For his furniture pieces, Abie focuses on rattan’s inherent qualities; strength and flexibility. He combines modular units of bent pieces into well-ordered shapes. He draws inspiration from a variety of sources: His Pretzel Bench is based on a bowl full of the snacks; his Doeloe Lounge Chair is modeled after the Oplet, a popular car in the Jakarta of the 1970s; and his Madu Lounge looks to honeycombs.

Abie has a Bachelor in Industrial Design from the Insitut Teknologi Bandung. He has exhibited his works in his home country as well as in Germany and Singapore, and speaks throughout Indonesia about his rattan craft and sustainability.

Abie-Abdillah


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Monica Tsang, Hong Kong

A Product and Industrial Design graduate of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Monica made an important contribution to a well-received Siemens VDO project at Germany’s Kunsthochshule Berlin-Weissensee. She then went on to earn her Masters Degree in Ceramic Design from Staffordshire.

Monica likes mixing cultural influences, having experienced life living in the UK, Germany, Italy and China. Everywhere she has lived, studied or worked has profoundly influenced her design aesthetic. Hong Kong is her base. Berlin opened her mind and universe. England taught her culture, craft and self-expression. Working in China was a practical lesson in production and humility. The interaction with different kinds of people has been a source of her creativity. University, UK.

In addition to a 2006 Red Dot Design Concept Award and Hong Kong Young Design Talent Award. Her other career highlights include earning a placement at the prestigious British ceramics brand, Wedgwood. In 2013, she launched her own studio in Hong Kong to develop her own collections in addition to commissions for private and industrial clients. Her designs are sold and exhibited worldwide.

Monica-Tsang

OUTOFSTOCK, Singapore

The multi-cultural design collective was born out of a fortuitous meeting in Stockholm, hence the name Outofstock. Gabriel Tan and Wendy Chua from Singapore, Gustavo Maggio from Argentina and Sebastián Alberdi from Spain met at Electrolux Design Lab 2005. They decided to collaborate in 2006 and what started out as a creative experiment grew into an integrated practice offering product, furniture, lighting and spatial experience design.

Operating from Singapore with branch offices in Barcelona and Buenos Aires, Outofstock works with international clients such as Ligne Roset (France), Saazs (France), Bolia (Denmark), Industry+ (Singapore/ Japan) and Environment (USA), designing product, furniture and lighting for their collections. Apart from art direction of photography and short films, Outofstock also crafts dining experiences through their restaurant designs.

The Outofstock team was featured in W allpaper’ s Graduate Directory 2009 and awarded the Elle Decoration Spain’s Young Designer of the Year 2008. Other accolades include ‘Naked’ chair with the Furniture Design Open Category Grand Winner in 2009 and ‘Black Forest’ table that was awarded the President’s Design Award 2010 – Design of The Year. More recently, Outofstock was named Asia Talent 0f 2014 for their lightpiece, Luna.

OUTOFSTOCK


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Poetic Lab, Taiwan

Based in London, Poetic Lab design studio was founded by Taiwanese designers, Hanhsi Chen and Shikai Tseng. The duo share a core design philosophy; ideologies and materials to write poetry with objects. Having acquired very diverse experiences before they decided to work together, this enabled them to shape products, lighting and furniture from multiple perspectives.

Shikai Tseng has a Bachelor of Product Design in the Taiwan Ming-Chuan University, an MA in Industrial Design from the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology and an MA in Design Products Course, Royal College of Art, London. Hanhsi Chen has a Bachelor of Science from the National Taiwan University and an MA in Design Products Course, Royal College of Art, London.

The team has won awards including the Design Report A ward, Salone Satellite A ward and Elle Deco International Design A ward Chinese Edition’ s Y oung Designer Talent of The Year 2014. Their works also had become permanent collection of Vitra Design Museum in Germany, and they been invited to show in major exhibitions around the world.

POETIC-LAB

Zhang Zhoujie, China

Chinese designer Zhang Zhoujie was trained in classical arts in the city of Ningbo and founded his eponymous digital laboratory in 2010 after graduating from MA Industrial Design at Central Saint Martins. When he returned to Shanghai and set out to produce his innovative designs, every factory and workshop refused him, claiming that what he wanted to create was impossible. Undeterred, he spent 18 months learning welding, cutting, polishing and manufacturing. He gained an intimate understanding of the manufacturing process and created an inhouse workshop.

Zhoujie’s works is based on the concept of ‘Spontaneity’. It pays respect to the logic of mathematics and objects are generated following the law of the digital environment. It is designing without anticipation, He believes that his role to be a designer is ‘Actionless’, to interfere as little as possible and give space for imagination. In his work, he reveals the true properties of material and forms, and he blends Chinese traditional art perspectives, western design methodology, digital engineering and handmade craftsmanship into a single project.

Zhang has shown at over 30 exhibitions, including in London and Milan. In the last three years, he’s acquired prestigious awards including the ELLE Deco Young Designer of the Year, the IF Design Award China and the SHDC 50/100 Young Talent of the year.

Zhang-Zhoujie

Wonmin Park, Korea

Wonmin Park was educated in Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands and worked with a couple of design companies in the Netherlands before he established Studio Wonmin Park in 2011, based in Eindhoven. He has exhibited his works in Korea, the Netherlands, Italy, German and USA. His awards include the 2014 Wallpaper* Design Awards 2014 as Winner, best Transparency and 2014 winner of the Global Star Designer, Korea Institute of Design.

Park’s furniture designs are sculpture-like, that appeal to the visual senses. To maximize the visual appeal of his pieces, Park uses resin, and the end results are visual feasts, reminiscent of an abstract painting. His design furniture demands equal consideration as both practical commodity and fine art.

Park will soon be exhibiting solo shows at the Carpenters Workshop Gallery in Paris and London and he will also be working with a French premium luxury brand.

WONMIN-PARK


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