ddp design fair

If there was a memorable moment during this fair, what would it be?

This is my fifth time working with the DDP Design Launching Fair, and I feel a strong sense of responsibility the more I do it. I can say that I feel stronger as I experience how the participants are affected and changed by the curatorial process. Along with this responsibility, it was the face-to-face mentoring that provided many of the most dramatic moments. During the COVID pandemic, I remember being very taken aback when I saw the results of the online process, which were completely different from the direction I had advised. The intensity of the in-person, one-to-one mentoring was intense, as I listened to the participants` questions and drew deep for the advice I gave them. It was a lively discussion, and I was personally excited to see what they would come up with at the end of the mentoring.   

There must have been a lot of frank advice during the mentoring.

Oh, there`s one thing that I and the participants I mentored overlooked, and that`s the mockup process! It doesn`t have to be perfect, it`s literally a rough sample of your idea points, and very few teams made it. Most of them drew it on their laptops in a program, but when you make it by hand and look at it a bunch, you get a sense of what`s lacking and where you need to fill it in. It`s the best way to gauge the size of the product, and even though we`re in an era where AI is doing a lot of the work and everything is going digital, I still want to make sure you make a mockup. No matter how much you run a three-dimensional product through a program, when you look at it on a monitor, it`s still flat and 2D. 

What does it mean for designers to live in the age of AI and GPT? 

There’s no tools better for collaboration than them. You can use AI`s techniques to make things different and richer, and you can use them to save time and mistakes, and you should. But you have to take pride in the fact that only humans can do things that aren’t typed and keep moving forward, and that`s what originality is, and that`s something that even the smartest AI can never, ever match.

What does valuable partnership mean to you?

As a designer, you have to be socially responsible, and that includes ethics and morals. You have to think about the impact and ripple effect of your products on other people`s lives, and then you have to be careful about what you say and do. If you do, then the value of your work will be even higher.

What life advice would you give to young lighting designers?

The old saying "where there`s a will, there`s a way" is so true, and if you want to be remembered as a designer who creates lighting that many people love and cherish, the only way to do that is to keep going with a positive mindset that you can succeed even if you have failures and setbacks. It`s hard, of course, but I don`t think there`s anything too hard that you can`t overcome. Don`t compare yourself to others, don`t be envious of others, and be true to yourself!