Interview with Tianyi Shi
Tianyi Shi is a furniture and product designer. Currently she is a MA student doing furniture design in Central Saint Martins in London. She has an interest in materials, e.g.
Design Legend Interview
25 October 2016
I am currently pursuing postgraduate studies in furniture design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London. And before, I learned industry design for four years in Beijing. Because of this background, I am concentrating on designing household products and furniture.
Of course I choose it by myself. Because I love painting and beautiful things since I was a child. In that time, I would like to be a designer. When I started my BA program, I chose design without hesitate. Then I became a designer and enjoyed design all the time.
I am doing furniture and product design. I gradually took interest in material, handicraft and Chinese traditional culture and have been trying to utilize them in modern home life.
I wish my design cannot only cater to people’s needs, but can also arouse people’s interest and resonance.
I wish my design cannot only cater to people’s needs, but can also arouse people’s interest and resonance.
I think great designer are both talented and experienced.They need have the ability to control process of design, time, detail. They also need to know what is tasteful, and what is not. So maybe the talented discernment is the distinguish.
A good design should be full of innovations and is thorough down to the last detail. As for myself, I will evaluate a design from its starting point to see if it is innovative enough. Is the idea interesting? And then I will check its details. If it have refined details, we could say it is a mature design.
Good design could provide us more possibilities and improve the standard of living.
I do not have any secret recipes. I just enjoy it and keep doing with the passion of life.
My favorite design is named 'You Can't Lay Down Your Memory' Chest of Drawers. It is a conceptual design which is made of old drawers collected from other furniture. It is a work about memory. ‘It encourages us to reconsider questions of value, and to think about the histories of the furniture from which the drawers came, and the lives of the people who used them.
It should be my mom. She gives me a lot of support, mentally and physically.
From the project soft light, I have started to explore the material foam. Because during the process of playing with foam I found it is a material which has a very good plasticity. Enlightened by this idea, I try to use foam to break formal conventions of upholstered furniture.
It is a very important role to help me to achieve my design. But sometimes it also could be my inspiration.
I use CAD, photoshop and Rhino most. The basic equipments are the equipments in 3D workshops.
The book is ‘Designing design'
It is a book I have read a lot of times. When I lose my direction of design, I will read it again.
It is a book I have read a lot of times. When I lose my direction of design, I will read it again.