Author: me

So the shanghai property market has doubled in the last 3 years (kicking self). property prices are now similar to London, but  rental is hasn’t caught up, and renovations are cheap. So i’ve rented a 1980’s workers building and i’m having some fun with it. Well at least thats the plan…

Ideally i would have taken a ton of before and after shots. but i didn’t get my wide angle lens until they’d knocked down a wall. (much to the landlords surprise)

This is all i have from before i rented it, a screen grab from a video i took on my phone. Apartment short (Quicktime 2MB)

Then into google sketch up to workout what size i want everything!

Love google sketch up, premade models of everything you want and easy to make the other bits and bobs, like the cheese graters!

Then before i had the chance to confirm the price and exactly what it was i was going to be doing, I walk in the house to this…

What i hadn’t realised, and to be fair neither had my builders, all the wiring the the flat had be via the shortest root above the false ceiling. The very same false ceiling i wanted removed, which meant i had rewiring the whole place was now part of the job!

Here you can still see the ceiling.. but no going back now.

Day 3, and they removed the kitchen walls.

It’s worth clicking on this one and checking out the pipes that were in the wall. and the metal box now hanging in mid air… Yup that’s the gas main into the house. You can also see how nice the original Shanghainese kitchen is… mmmm.. Although not truly original, in it’s 35 year life i would say this is the apartment’s 3rd major renovation.

There used to be a door on the left and a wall on the right. I’m told neither are supporting walls.

Below is a before and during photo that made me think… OHHH SHIT. WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING TO MY FLAT… i’ve only rented it for 3 years it’s never going to be liveable.

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You probably won’t notice so i’ll point it out, the taps on the bath are plumbed twice, through the wall AND again from the white pipes over the tiles, which means the whole place needs to be replumbed from scratch. This i’d budgeted for though (not enough, but i had)

New wood for kitchen floor and skirting boards. If i’d been a bit more organized i’d have used reclaimed wood.

Full gallery here

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so as you can see, i’m getting there….

Will update with the after shoots… erm… after? and a house warming  party of course!

Update

2 months after i started, i’m there… see the result

So I’ve have the honour of  speaking at the One Night Design Salon happening this Friday at Node, a club and art gallery in Red Town

I’ll be joining a few people i know and a few people i don’t.

In particular, Sam Jacobs from the achingly cool Jellymon and Ben Walters from Ospop.

Come along, i’ll be trying to talk about design in shanghai, while being translated into Japanese and English!

I am using some Shanghai design studios to showcase Chinese talent. One of the studios I am featuring is Thread and I was hoping that I might be able to send one of your team members a small questionnaire to complete. It is only five questions in length and it would go a long way in aiding my understanding of life within the design industry in China.

Question 1

In this new decade, how would you characterise China’s rank in the world of international graphic design? Is it catching up, falling back or setting the bar?

ME: Simply catching up. Everyone is being inspired by each other, but few are creating anything new.
There is also very little understanding of the foundation of traditional graphic design, typography etc, and like in all mediums, without the basics it’s difficult to push boundaries.

Question 2

More and more Western designers are now moving to the East. What would you say is so appealing about Shanghai’s design and advertising world for industry professionals? Is there a sense that China is the next ‘place to be’ for designers?

ME: For many it’s just a great place to be. Fun exciting, always new and a huge amount of opportunity to do something new, be someone, get your work out there. No one is here because it’s the place to be for graphics!
In the short term a little western talent goes a long way, the local designers are eager to learn, but in the long term, once we’ve served out purpose, we won’t be needed anymore. This is the same with product design and engineering in 1970’s Japan and 1980’s Taiwan.

Question 3

On the Thread website, it refers to the design world in Shanghai as a ‘commercial battlefield’. What qualitiesdoes a successful design/ad need to have to make it stand out amidst thousands of other designs in the city, each fighting for the consumer’s attention?

ME: Chinese people are exposed to more new brands each day than any other nation, you can’t stand out so there’s no point trying. It’s a case of targeting the right people in the right places.

Question 4

China has a love of technology and it’s online community is the biggest in the world – this has led to some new and innovative forms of advertising. In terms of the wider picture, would you agree that in the years to come the central focus of Chinese graphic design will be behind the screen rather than on the printed page?

ME: Not really. If digital technology stayed the way it was 2 or 3 years ago then yes. Traditional graphics won’t be as important in the coming digital era. Information flow and user interface design will be. Accessing and sharing information will be the goal, not big graphic heavy flash websites, (nike adidas etc.)

I’d like to think that China’s heritage or printed material will stay with them, though we’d all probably run out of paper.

However, I do think we’re going to see a big shift in attitude towards Chinese film and associated graphics with that.

Question 5

In the future, do you see Chinese cities like Shanghai as having a major influence on design and advertising the world over, as well as being frontiers for the latest trends and technologies? Will it be the city all designers will look to? If so, how many years will we have to wait before it becomes a reality?

ME: Yes. Again, I think it’s interesting to look at Japan and Taiwan. 40 years ago (or so my uncle tells me) everything had a Made in Japan sticker on it. They were mocked in the west as being the factory of the world, making cheap shitty electronics and toys. No morals on copyright and certainly no ideas of their own.

By the 1990’s Tokyo was the coolest city on the planet. Sadly it’s not moved any further forward since then.

We have young designers in our office with so much raw talent. Everyone tells me “my grandfather was an artist”. But they’re slow to get up to speed and find it hard to talk about ideas (in English or Chinese). This generation won’t be creative directors until their late 30’s or more.

My view is that it is the failings in the school system, where by being creative and asking questions of your teacher is frowned upon. Failings in social education, where by 18 year olds are staying home with their parents to study all evening instead of drinking budget cider and smoking weed. If you don’t know yourself, your mind, and have an understanding of people, it’s impossible to create something that talks to people, and more importantly, to sell that idea to your (also) closed minded client.

Thank you for taking the time to complete this questionnaire.
ME: No problem.

Designed in google sketch up!

Paint wires and graters from Ikea

Drilled by my local metal worker

1 garden table ruined

Wires into holes Wires into holes Wires into holes Wires into holes

The least fun part.

TaDaaa