Interview with Bryan Wong

I'm motivated by problem-solving. I love looking at products and ponder how I can make it better, what aspect can be improved upon, and how it's made.

I subconsciously chose to become a designer without knowing the occupation exist when I was growing up. I've always loved tinkering with things and studying how components are assembled.

I design everything, may it be packaging, furniture, consumer electronics or shoes. I wish I can design more consumer electronics as it allows the design process to involve a big team to discuss and share ideas, while each person utilizes their own expertise.

Young designers should play with materials and don't be afraid to get their hands dirty. Nowadays, a lot of designers are carried away with CAD, renderings and 3D printing that they forget the basic skills of being a designer.

A good designer creates products for consumers, while a great designer creates products that even the consumers didn't know they wanted it or takes the extra step and challenge us.

A good design is when people can use it without thought and is accessible for everyone to use.

I think the value of good design is intangible and can't be easily quantified. It's something that looks good, feels good, functions perfectly and you feel great using it. To non-designers, it's an object that gives them value without question or doubt.

I would like to design furniture or products for G-Star Raw. They are one of my favorite brands and I love their aesthetic and approach in their clothing line that I would love to do a collaboration with them.

My dream project would be designing a chair and table that I can sit in and work on daily.

My secret recipe is in designing normal, mundane objects. We take a lot of things for granted, and it's the simple things that are easily overlooked or ignored. With my design works, I redesign ordinary products and made them extraordinary.

To name a few; Ron Arad, Marc Newson, John Ive, Naoto Fukasawa, Jasper Morrison, and Che-Wei from CW&T.

My greatest design so far is the Zirconia Sharpener. It's a reinterpretation of an analog pencil sharpener that we’re already familiar with, a product that we trust and use everyday. By utilizing zirconia's material property, the blade doesn't need to be changed and offers a smooth sharpening experience.

I've spent a month analyzing my skills and looking at what is it that I wanted to achieve. It wasn't an easy process as I had to think critically without bias. After that, I've started building on skills that I wanted to improve and completely changed my design style and philosophy.

If I hadn't become a designer and can calculate complex math questions, I would've become a mechanical or robotics engineer.

To me, design is a transformation of objects into a preferred state.

My biggest supporter is a friend and design partner of mine, Chengtao Yi. We've done multiple collaboration projects and we compliment each other's skillset, while challenges each other to reach higher.

Having an open mind while being investigative helped me. You need to have an open mind so you can take feedbacks or gain new knowledge, and at the same time, you need to be driven by curiosity to question the information and conduct your own educated guess.

One of the biggest obstacles was defining my design philosophy, as well as improving upon my design skills. It takes a lot of critical thinking to fully develop it, as well as the discipline to abandon the old mindset.

I think designers should present their work the same as how they present themselves. Their work is an extension of their own image and should be treated as one.

My next design project is an environment's musical instrument. It's easily one of the hardest projects I've done as it involves a lot of hidden knowledge that's not accessible, as well as piles of research done behind the scene.

My ultimate goal as a designer is to have designed everything; such as clothing line, interiors, planes, buildings, gardens etc.

Apart from showcasing my design, I think people or fellow designers would also like to see my design process for each project. That was one of the biggest wishes I had when I was a design student and I also tried to do so for my own projects as well.

As designers, we have the ability and responsibility to change and shape our society and environment. We're on the front lines pushing innovation, driving change in multiple levels, no matter how big or small.

I'm very excited about the musical instrument that I've been developing for the past few months, and I can't wait to publish it. It was a big design challenge for me and I've very satisfied with my final design.

My Aluminum Heatsink Laptop Stand gave me the most satisfaction. It first started off as a problem I was experiencing with and I thought my initial solution for it was a silly idea; however, that same silly idea also became my design solution without the use of power while remaining silent.

I would love to see a shift in design industry towards sustainability by design products cradle-to-cradle, and not cradle-to-grave.

I think the design field has been heading towards wearable and 3D printing. It seems to be the biggest trend and receives the most mixed opinion about it. It's also exciting as this is the time when the industry will define what they are for the next decade.

It usually takes me a few months to finalize on a design project. I spend the most time in research and making sure my work is designed for manufacturing.

I always start by creating some preliminary parameters for myself and create hypothesis with educated guess. Once those are defined, then I would go into research to validate them.

"Head, Heart, and Hand"

I think it goes both ways, but I think a great designer sets the trend.

Depending on the project, technology can be a tool or a driving force.

I heavily use SolidWorks, Keyshot and Adobe Suite, as well as 3D printing.

CMF plays an important role as it gives us a perception of an object before we approach and touch it. We judge if it's heavy or light, expensive or cheap, durable or fragile — all via visual inspections.

I wish people asks me about my initial thoughts on projects, and what are the things I was correct and which are incorrect. It shows the lack of information I initially had and new knowledges I've gained.

I'm always skeptical, so I try to think critically if the design has any use, is it needed, and how is it innovative when compared to others or existing design.

I'm a big believer in collaborations as it allows people to complement their own skills with each other. My ideal design partner would be someone who is the exact opposite of me, and would constantly challenge me to validate my concepts.

One of my professors at Pratt influenced me the most on my design. Since I took his class and was exposed to his methodology, it greatly improved my design skills and form a new design philosophy.

I spent most of my time reading different articles and researches on different topics, as well as viewing other designers' work. This allows me to build a visual library where I can pull sources and inspiration from whenever I need.

I would love to meet Leonardo da Vinci as he was one of the first industrial designers and created a lot of innovative designs ahead of his time.

I don't consider myself to be famous as I'm still young in my career and there's a lot more that I needed to learn.

Blue, Hong Kong, dim sum, Spring, consumer electronics and Muji.

When I was a design student and presented concepts of a kiosk that goes with an advertising campaign, one of the guests said I did well but I should've also included the dimensions and floorplan of the kiosk. As soon as she finished commenting and turned around facing towards me, I handed her the floorplan with all the dimensions.

I'm heavily motivated by solving different problems, no matter how big or small. As a designer, I had the skills to approach different problems and create different solutions. This excites me and drives me.

I knew I would be involved in the creative industry, in some form or another, but I never would've expected to be an industrial designer.

I think a lot can happen in the future, but the most exciting thing I would like to see is the development and implementation of sustainable materials and the recycling support from the industry.

I never stop designing, it's a gift and a curse for industrial designers. People interested in my work can go to my website www.bryanwongdesign.com or follow me on social media.

To me, "design" is a transformation of objects into a preferred state. There really isn't a "correct" or "only" answer, but rather it's about whichever makes the right choices for the right thing.

I enjoy designing normal, mundane objects. We take a lot of things for granted, and it's the simple things that are easily overlooked or ignored. With my design works, I redesign ordinary products and made them extraordinary.

My favorite design is an iPhone, or any smartphone in general. Smartphone allows me to perform multiple tasks, such as; contacting people via phone or email, browse the internet, taking pictures etc. As technology advances, the smartphone gains more features and are supported by different apps. It makes everyone more connected and performs tasks better.

One of the first things I've designed was homeware products for a homeware, lifestyle company in London. I've designed cups, vases, sculptures etc.

My favorite material is aluminum. It's highly recyclable, easy to work with and possess great material properties. Depending on your needs, you can easily manipulate the properties with different alloys and finishes. To me, aluminum is simply amazing.

At night when I'm so excited about the project that I would stay up and work late to push all my ideas out on paper or research on it. It's either that or filling myself with lots of coffee.

It depends on projects on a case-by-case scenario, but in general, I would spend more time on research to validate my concept, hypothesis, as well as creating a controlled environment to run tests. If you have sufficient amount of data to support your claim, it creates a stronger image for your deign.

Joy, I love the design process involved. When everything comes together like fitting a jigsaw puzzle, that's one of the most satisfying feeling that I get from it.

Fear. I don't fear the failures on my designs, but rather I fear that people think my designs are perfect. "Perfect" implies that the design is absolute and can't be improved upon. As a designer, I think that we should always strive for innovation and improvement, as well as discuss with people to receive feedback. If a product can't be improved upon, then that's the end of a designer.

To me, a design is "successful" when people can use it without thought and is accessible to everyone. If the design is useful and innovative, it should be used everywhere and by everyone.

The first aspect I would consider first is the attention to detail. If the details are not considered, it shows the carelessness of the designer.

As designers, we have the ability, and thus the responsibility, to change and shape our society and environment. We're on the front lines pushing innovation, driving change in multiple levels, no matter how big or small.

I think designers are slowly forgetting their roots and discarding one of the most important design practice — design products that age with grace. Currently, designers are designing products that are only meant for mint condition and it either requires case protection or limits the interaction from the user. The products are designed only to be used for the first few months, and once it got scratched, its value immediately reduced. Pocketwatch is a great example of aging with grace. The back of the watch receive scratches from coins and keys in your pocket, and those marks add characters to it and accentuate it to an heirloom piece.

As a Third Culture Individual who grew up in countries across the globe, I gather inspiration from traveling the world, immersed in nature's profound beauty and various cultures. This global experience gives me unique insight and experience upon which to draw from in my design work.

My design "style" is to design simple products that can trigger a deeper connection between users and materials — making the ordinary extraordinary. I find pleasure in exploring how different materials and manufacturing methods can accentuate designs of an object. This micro-consideration shows the level of detail taken into account of people's lifestyles and how it enables the user to do better, complex work as well as eliminate frustration.

I'm currently living in Brooklyn, NY. As a Third Culture Individual who grew up in countries across the globe, it allows me to see the world differently and respecting different cultures.

Currently, my "golden rule" in design is to design products that are useful, innovative and can be mass produced by a factory. As an industrial designer, we have the ability to conceptualize, design, and manufacture products for people to use; however, if we only design conceptual projects that can't be manufactured, there's a lot of missed opportunity and gives people false hope.

The most valuable skill for a designer is the ability to think objectively and logically. Sketching, CAD and renderings are tools, a means to an end. Being able to draw the best doesn't mean your concept can be manufactured or is useful in real life scenarios. Being able to create concepts without bias and supporting your claim with data is far more important and it creates true, tangible values that can be related to the consumer.

I use a lot of different tools to get the result I wanted, but the most heavily used tools are sketching, google scholar, SolidWorks, Keyshot, and 3D printing.

It all comes down to self-discipline. I try to set goals for each week to make sure that the project is always moving forward, or doesn't get delayed. Since I value more about quality than quantity, I try not to force myself to spend a certain amount of time each day on specifics as they should flow to me like water in a river.

In general, it takes me a few months to design from scratch to finish.

The most frequent question asked is what do I design and which industry am I in. It's an intriguing question as I believe that as a designer, I should be able to use my design practice, experience and approach to solving any challenges. A shoe designer should be able to design clothing lines, just as

One of the most important experiences I had was competing as a contestant on Intel's tech reality tv show, America's Greatest Makers. It was a competition compose of 24 teams developing innovative products using Intel's Curie Module. My team designed a smart wearable baby monitor, and throughout the entire competition, I've gained a lot of valuable knowledge and worked with people with different disciplines to create the product from concept to production.

I enjoy designing

I plan on continue designing different projects, and I don't know exactly what's next for me. There's a lot that I'm interested in designing, and I'm looking forward to what the future holds for me.

Currently, I'm working on 2 projects; a food container and a musical instrument.

People can view my website www.bryanwongdesign.com or email me directly to bryanwongdesign@gmail.com