Designer Q&A with Feng Zhu – FZD School of Design

While you may not have heard of Feng Zhu, it is highly likely that you have seen his work in any number of films or games including Transformers and Star Wars: Episode III. Or you will know of at least one of his extremely high profile clients, examples include the likes of Electronic Arts, Sony Games, Wacom, and Microsoft.

While Feng is without a doubt a highly talented designer, the achievement this interview is focused on is one of Feng’s most recent, founding his own design school in Singapore – FZD School of Design. In this fantastic interview we had a chance to ask Feng Zhu about his new school, as well as get his thoughts on the present state and future direction of design education.

Highlights

• “The entertainment industry has exploded in the past 10 years, but many schools haven’t caught up to it yet. I’ve reviewed hundreds of portfolios from students who want to enter this field, but these portfolios don’t have the proper content.”

• “Schools need to educate students to work hard and not take any shortcuts or excuses. I find too many schools are teaching the latest software instead of old-school fundamental skills.”

• “There are no secrets or “magic” buttons to push. Focus on the fundamentals and don’t get caught up on superficial stuff.”

1. Feng Zhu, welcome to Design Droplets. Thank you for taking the time to talk with us about your new design school, FZD School of Design in Singapore. Although you are well known through out the design community for your extensive contributions to the entertainment industry, could you please give us a quick introduction on yourself.

Hello and thank you! Well, I started working in the entertainment industry about 12 years ago, for a game studio called Origin Systems. Prior to that, I attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena (ACCD), California and studied Industrial Design. After jumping around from various game and film companies, Feng Zhu Design was formed in 2003 to cater to our clients. In 2006, I help co-found a game development studio in Beijing called Possibility Space. After selling our game to a US publisher in 2008, I decided to start the FZD School of Design in Singapore in the spring of 2009.

2. Can tell us a bit about your new school ?

FZD School of Design is aimed at bringing the type of education I had at Art Center over to Asia. I’ve visited many schools all over Asia, but felt none had the “hardcore” industrial design courses I’ve experienced at ACCD. Since I’ve experience in teaching; over 5 years (both at Gnomon and ACCD), I decided to use that experience and form my own school. FZD is NOT an art school, but purely aimed at teaching Design. We cater heavily to the Entertainment industry, but the foundation skills can be utilized in any design field. We offer both full time diploma programs and part-time professional certificate courses.

3. Can you talk a bit about your motivations for founding FZD School of Design? What is your vision for FZD Design School?

Prior to starting FZD School, I actually wanted to start another design studio in Asia. However, the lack of talent in the design sector here really surprised me. There are a lot of “highly skilled” artists in Asia, but they lack a strong understanding of the fundamentals. Without these foundation skills, it’s very hard to become a lead designer. Most of the skills taught at local schools are for “pipeline” work – such as key-framing animation, 3d modeling/texturing, lighting, etc. However, designers are always part of the spearhead of any project. They define what the pipeline is going to be. This type of education is very rare, not only in Asia, but all over the world. I set up this school specifically to train elite designers. Our vision is to mold our students into top industry professionals.

4. What was you reasoning behind setting up the school in Singapore? Why not another Asian hub such as Beijing or Hong Kong?

Singapore offers many advantages. For one, it’s bilingual. This is very important since many of our lecturers and students are international. We teach strictly in English, but having Chinese allows us to penetrate the large Chinese design sector. Secondly, the central location of Singapore puts us in arms reach to all the countries around us – such as Taiwan, China, Korea, Japan, South East Asia, etc. We even have students coming from Europe. Third, the government of Singapore is very supportive. They have made a strong push towards digital media, and it all starts with good education. And lastly, both my wife and I love Singapore. The people are super nice, the environment is clean, and there are so many places to explore in and around Singapore.

5. There are many design schools around the world that teach various mixes of design, sketching and computer graphics. What makes FZD School of Design unique?

FZD caters specifically for the Entertainment industry. Many of the design schools focus on either Product or Transportation design. However, there aren’t many which focus on designing for games or movies. The entertainment industry has exploded in the past 10 years, but many schools haven’t caught up to it yet. I’ve reviewed hundreds of portfolios from students who want to enter this field, but these portfolios don’t have the proper content. Showing a bunch of product sketches is not going to get you a job on Transformers or at Electronic Arts. FZD School directs our students to build up the right portfolios by assigning entertainment based projects and teaching them how to create designs which “sell” in this field.

6. Could you share your thoughts on the future of design education. What fundamentals or methodologies do you think are important to ensure design education continues to produce designers who can solve problems?

The fundamental skills required to succeed in the industry haven’t changed at all. Skills such as a strong understanding of perspective, proportions, lighting, values, forms, functions, etc. all remain the same. However, I think a lot of the younger generations lack the patience to learn these skills. We now live in a time of instant gratification (thanks to the internet), and people want instant results – even in education. However, to excel at something, you need to put in thousands of hours of hard work.

To give you a quick example: ten years ago, I used to receive emails which asked questions such as “how do you learn perspective?” Or “where can I learn about lighting?”  These days, the top questions are “How much money can I make in this field?” and “what software version do you use?” They just want some type of instant result without doing the work.

Schools need to educate students to work hard and not take any shortcuts or excuses. I find too many schools are teaching the latest software instead of old-school fundamental skills. Designers are thinkers. And to express those thoughts, they need to draw well. Education needs to cater to both of these essential skills and not focus on the superficial stuff (software, type of pens, paper, rendering methods, etc). Professional designers also need to learn about time management, presentation, social skills, networking, team-work, etc. Drawing and designing is just 50% of what we do.

7. FZD School of Design has a very industry focused curriculum. You have several industry veterans on the staff and class projects are linked with industry partners. While this certainly allows students to be highly prepared for working in the industry, do you think there are any disadvantages to this approach?

It is our intention to make our curriculum super hardcore and industry focused. The understanding of foundation skills is our number one priority. Fundamental skills allow you to enter into any field and give you a huge advantage. We don’t accept any students who are just “curious” about this field, but people who really want to become professionals in design. Thus, our education must be strict and focused. I actually believe the disadvantage comes from schools which are not focused. As a result, students graduate with a “random” portfolio which shows a lot of stuff, but none are heavily geared for getting a job (I’ve reviewed hundreds of portfolios like this). I want our students to have cool spaceships, futuristic cities, crazy vehicles and character, etc. in their portfolio – stuff that’ll make potential employers say: “wow! Cool!”

8. At the FZD School of Design you are teaching students to utilize many principles of Industrial/Product Design to create conceptual designs for movies or computer games. Do you think there are methodologies or principles that Industrial/Product Design could learn from conceptual design (for movies or games) in order to enhance the practice?

Great question! Actually, at the end of the day, we are all doing the same thing – designing products which can sell to the public. The entertainment sector has a huge influence on the product design industry. Entertainment designers tend to think outside the box more (because our products don’t need to exist in the real world). As a result, you typically see more wild designs and ideas. BMW for example did the leather-car concept (something I saw at ACCD 12 years ago). Or real-life touch screens with interactive UI; first seen in Minority Report. And games such as World of Warcraft and the Sims have influenced the lives of millions of players. Many of these ideas can be carried over to the product/industrial design sector. As we move into the next 10 years, the gap between real-life and virtual life are getting smaller and smaller; and as designers, we can address these new challenges.

9. FZD School of Design is quite a young school, Can you talk about your plans for the future of the school?

Our goal is to first establish ourselves as THE school to attend for strong fundamental design skills. We must place our first batch of students into high profile jobs. Once we accomplish this, we can expand our diploma program to include more specialized courses and offer additional part-time classes. The goal is not to grow the size of the school, but the quality of the education.

10. Feng, thank you very much for taking the time to talk about your fantastic new design school. Do you have any final thoughts or advice for Design Droplets readers?

Thank you for the interview. My final advice is the always the same. Working in the entertainment industry is really fun (sometimes it doesn’t even feel like a job), but to get here, you have to put in thousands of hours of hard work, blood and sweat. There are no secrets or “magic” buttons to push. Focus on the fundamentals and don’t get caught up on superficial stuff. The latest versions of Photoshop or the coolest MAC/PC are not going to solve your problems. Put away the excuses and the urge to always have the newest things – instead, just work hard.

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August 13, 2009