Graduate Showcase is a new feature on design droplets that aims to help recent graduates (within the last year) get their name out into the wider design community. Graduate Showcase is a series of questions that seek to showcase who they are as a designer and where they are headed. If you would like to be featured in Graduate Showcase then let us know via the contact page. Alternatively if you are a prospective employer and would like to get in touch with one of our Graduate Showcasees then let us know via the contact page.
1. Welcome to Design Droplets, Please give us a quick rundown on yourself.
My name is Lawrence Yuen. I completed my bachelor of industrial design in Dec 2008 and spent part of 2007 on exchange in Foshan, China. I am a passionate designer who loves to resolve real problems with practical design solutions. I always have the genuine needs of people as the major focus in my design work. I am considerably interested in and skilled at working through the industrial, graphic and animation design processes.
2. How did you end up in design?
I knew from a young age that I liked to create things, whether tangible or conceptual, to ‘help’ around the house. I also liked to do things differently, to be creative and had an eye for drawing, so I pursued these interests in high school and finally funnelled into industrial design at RMIT University in Melbourne.
3. Can you tell us a bit about your latest project? or a favorite project of yours?
I am currently finishing Down is up, a short animation which addresses depression from an alternate angle. It is primarily designed as a counselling aid for health care professionals, depression workshops and chaplains. The storyline of Down is up focuses on acceptance, companionship and hope. Its main aim is to provide viewers with an alternate way to relate to the characters in their respective journeys to recovery.
4. What role do you think design/designer’s will play in the next 10 years?
Sustainability (environmental) is unavoidable, whether or not we see its relevance yet. As designers already play an incredible role in everyday living, and because the various design disciplines are merging, it will be the design mind that people value more than the design tools themselves. Designers have a habit of objectively assessing and understanding problems.
5. What do you think design currently contributes to society?
I feel designer’s should take the needs of society and create solution’s. Designers in many respects still ‘invent’ things, but more and more, it’s to satisfy what the consumer wants. This can be a problem, especially when the consumer suggests they consume what the designer wants them to consume. It’s a shame there isn’t more focus on what we need rather than what we want.
6. Which part of the design industry do you think you will venture into?
I feel many paths of design overlap, so where I end up isn’t as important to me as what I’m contributing to people. I am still very open, but because of my genuine interest in animation, perhaps somewhere down that track. I also wouldn’t mind working in a industrial design consultancy so as to get a more solid grasp of the design process on a variety of projects
7.What is your favorite design tool? (traditional, software, hardware or something else?)
As long as my creativity is not restricted by the tool, I will use anything. I like to have all tools at my disposal and not be bound by a single one. I still greatly treasure traditional hand drawn concepts in early stages of projects, to get the ideas flowing from head to paper. In the later stages I use Computer Aided Design tools as I am competent and confident using them.
8. Where do you draw your inspiration from?
More and more, from everything. I don’t see design as a separate discipline from everyday living – hence I’m not a great reader of design magazines and books. If I must pick a key inspiration source, it will be people with genuine needs (eg health, elderly, vulnerable, sustainability).
9. How do you keep up to date with the latest happenings in the industry?
Well, I guess the design industry is just a bunch of professional designers and manufacturers – by themselves they are useless – what needs to be paid attention to is the wider world – the client, the customer. So yeah, news, radio, magazines, chatting with people.
10. Do you have a favourite design, designer or design studio?
Not really.
11. Can you give us an idea of the processes you go through to create a new idea, design or concept?
First consider whether the project is worthwhile. I will always go back to the client to ensure my visions of a design clicks with theirs. I have a tendency to go beyond what the client wants – and then pitch it is as a worthwhile change. This is the fun and rewarding part about design, otherwise you’re just a slave to the consumer.
12. What would be your dream project?
To create a series of animations which inspire and stir the way people think about life, living and the self.
13. What are your five all time favorite books, magazines, films or websites? Why?
I think good films are good for a reason – so here are some good films that many people know, that I also love:
The Sound of Music (themes of faith, hope and values that almost everyone can relate to).
Braveheart (contrasts of human strength, human weakness, hope vs despair etc).
Lion King (classic – themes of responsibility, of courage, of purpose – great soundtrack too).
Gandhi (realistic retelling of an almost unreal person).
My Life (puts life in perspective – life is short – life itself is a gift – everything else are non given bonuses).
14. What and where was the last awesome meal you ate?
At a La Mien (Stretched Noodles) joint in Foshan, China. Simply incomparable. Pity it’s a few thousand kilometres away.
15. Thanks for privileging Design Droplets with this opportunity to interview you, any final thoughts?
Designer’s have a phenomenal impact on the world as we see it – because we are, by nature, visionaries. In my years as a design student, I’ve learnt the importance of having a vision, or in non design terms – a goal. And to achieve a worthwhile goal, I must ‘degrade’ my imagination to an almost childlike status, but from this, I find I have the capacity to turn the goal into a reality, because once motivated by passion, all percieved barriers of the ‘real world’ are overcome.
