Design & Inspiration

Interview With Yang Yan From China

Interview With Yang Yan From China

Yang Yan

Yang Yan’s journey of being a designer/artist stems from his yearning for beauty in art and life during his youth and it became a driving force to surpass himself.

I am Yang Yan. I come from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (GAFA) background. I have graduated and stayed at the school to teach. Until now, GAFA has been a very important coordinate in my life. It gave me the origin of professional knowledge and starting point of my career. As a teacher, I am still engaged in teaching and professional practice.

It stems from the yearning for the beauty of art and life in youth. In general, the persistence of love, curiosity, and the driving force formed over the years make me constantly surpass myself, and I hope to be a designer who maintains creativity.

I have been designing spaces for over 30 years. Before the official establishment of Yan Design Firm, we were a design studio with 4 or 5 people. In 2015, I founded Yan Design. Currently, we have more than 20 people, and the team is composed of multi-professional, multi-background, and energetic partners.

The Yan Design team has always adhered to inter-professional design practices. Our project types involve urban research, architectural design, landscape design, interior design, brand visual design, exhibition planning, and execution.

Design is a language for the team and me. By designing this language, we tell stories, construct spaces, and store memories. We create conversations with items, environments, and objects. Design is the value carrier that we have accumulated through past practice.

Kindness. I believe a designer's intention is to take care of the needs and perceptions of users. Whether it is a space environment, specific objects, utensils, or even a switch or a doorknob, if it has a "feeling" and a "sense of narration," it will fascinate me.

Our design philosophy is the 3Rs, rediscover, redefine, resolve. A good design shall include these three qualities.

Our designs are not applied in a particular style. If our finished project seems to have a specific style, it is the reflection, exploration, and presentation of the specific cultural background.

We have a principle in design. Based on our research, understanding the project, the customer and the end user and now there is another dimension: understanding the medium of information.

Yes, of course. I am Cantonese and Cantonese culture is a very influential regional feature in Southern China. The nature, climate, customs, language, food, and traditional arts and crafts of Guangdong culture are all deeply projected in our design.

We are delighted, proud, and gratified. This rewards many years of hard work and represents a new starting point.

We hope to break through the previous heights for each project, define design, and recognize project requirements from a new perspective. In the limited project time, breaking the habit and the habitual method is the most difficult.

Winning the award is an affirmation and encouragement to the team. It has been an inspiration and creative motivation for our partners.

This industry offers us, designers, the opportunity to satisfy curiosity and imagination and transcend cognitive boundaries.

China's history, culture, customs, and people from various regions.

More progress in digital informatization, artificial intelligence, and interactive technology. On the other hand, I hope that the design or creative industry can let people maintain the basics of being a "human," such as longing for and cherishing nature, profound experience of authentic relationships, and emphasis on the details of life.

Design is easy, as long as you love life, pay attention to the surroundings, and care about the relationship and state of people; design is complex; once you decide to become a designer, want to become a qualified or even excellent designer, think about design Attention and attention must become as instinctive as breathing to enter the "atmosphere" of the design world truly.

Travel more, make more friends, and protect your interests and hobbies as much as possible.

I have a half-normal hearing in one ear; maybe this makes me pay more attention to the external environment and details.

My teachers and artist friends, my plants and two cats.

Keep doing what you love, and keep doing it with the people you love.

I hope the MUSE Awards can pay attention to and understand the design industry in China. Events can be held to promote exchanges between Chinese designers and designers from other countries.

Winning Entry

SUPER Z Shopping Mall | 2022
SUPER Z Shopping Mall | 2022
SUPER Z Shopping Mall is a cultural and consumer landmark with a multi-dimension inspirational… (read more...

Read more about this interview with Ashley Mardesic from Australia, the Silver Winner of the 2022 MUSE Design Awards.

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