PChouse：I am very interested in your design philosophy, say, for fun. How important is the fun element in your design? When you have fun, you do things which you are ok with making mistakes. It’s like with a child. You go to kindergarten which is all soft, and where they are taught to play, so they are constantly learning. So when you have fun, you discover new things. It’s super important to have fun, and it’s important to have fun with the right people. You might have more fun with some friends than with others. You might have fun with some professionals more than others. The key is to have fun with the right people. But it’s just as important to have the same temperature with people. For example, if you like to be in a room of 22 degrees, and I like to be in a room of 30 degrees, and she likes to be in a room of 13 degrees, it’s very hard to collaborate. So we all have to have the same temperature. PChouse：How was it happened when there were so many solutions? Basically what do is a bit scientific. You create multiple solutions, and then based on those multiple solutions, you select the one you like and work on that. And then you discover that there’s something here you also like, so lots of our solutions are two things coming together. So it’s not about one thing and another thing, but about two things blending together to create something new. PChouse： As you have said, language of today is digital. More important is integrating the technology into products. How do you see the possibility and sustainability? All of you, what did you have dinner last night? Sushi, noodles…But you could have a tablet, which gives you vitamins, proteins that can substitute your dinner. But would you do that? No. Because that sushi gives you an unique experience. I have different tools, like if I’m writing something, I use my sketchbook, if I want to create some quick ideas, I go to posters. Different functions for different mediums. So digital is very useful, but it’s a language. Different languages you use depend on different needs. So answer your question, digital will grow, but traditional things we use will also prevail. PChouse： I love your philosophy about failure. But in our education, especially design education do not like failure. So if you were the one to create a design school, what you would do? So I think what I would do and it’s worked really well is compacting one-hour class into three minutes. Because when you have very little time, you lose the sense of failure. For example, you have to cook something in three minutes, and you would have guests too. If you are to cook potato chips, you would say, look I only have three minutes to make it. If you have one hour, you would be like, what should I make, how should I make it, does it taste nice… You are allowed to make mistakes in three minutes, but an hour, you are not. So I will try to compact classes in five minutes, so students can have constant new ideas in a very short period of time, which naturally you will make mistakes, naturally you will fail, and naturally you will be ok with it. I think in Asia and also where I come from, failing is terrible. But in America it’s the opposite. I recently met some one who said, when I interviewed some one, I look for people who have failures in companies, because he will have experience to basically bring values in our organization. Most companies want to grow quickly. But when they grow quickly they become flat, for example Apple. So if you fail, fail again and fail again better, you are constantly evolving because you learn something at each failures which take you up further. |
