Francis Chu

Francis experience in product design span over twenty years and across Europe and Asia. His human-centered approach has led to many breakthroughs and award-winning designs. He is credited as the inventor of more then 15 international patents in a diverse field including health, lifestyle and digital media.

Francis graduated from Hong Kong Polytechnic (in Product Design) and received a Master’s degree in Industrial Design from the Royal Collage of Art, London. His career started in Eindhoven, Holland, where he started work at Philips Design in 1989, before moving to Singapore.

Francis is interested in bicycle, creativity education and generally eco design.  He serves as a member of the Advisory Board for the School of Design in Nanyang Polytechnic. He commutes on bicycle and is an active member of Safe Cycling Taskforce in Singapore.

Celia Law

Celia is a home grown designer who has had several years of experience in Design consultancy firm and as an In-house designer in designing and develops new products. Her enjoyment on facing challenges and problem solving spirit has brought her several Design awards in Good Design Japan, IF Design award, red Dot design award and also Singapore Design award.

Now let us take a look at what they have to say…

Q&A

What makes u tick? Why are u doing this?

Francis: Exploring the unknown, learning new things, meeting interesting people in LTG are the main motivations for me. I am excited to meet the bunch of designers who are crazy enough to sink their own fund into making this exhibition a possibility. This is a group of passionate people I don’t want to miss. On my own, I have been designing for “customer” for so many years. It is refreshing to design for my own this time.

Celia: Share and trigger inspirations with people to drive better relationship between human and objects.

What is your design inspiration?

Francis: Since young, I enjoy watching the clouds and doing nothing. I was fascinated by the changing clouds seamlessly morphing from one shape to another. The impression of the different shapes triggers my imagination. I had a dream to bring a piece of cloud into my room.

Celia: I am intrigued with the creativity that our grandparents had in the olden days. They are able to make use of very simple tools to create the best aromatic coffee out from it. Although it is just a simple pot of energy booster drink, but it mean a lot to the whole family. Currently such skill set and culture had gone together with grandma.

Therefore, it is worth to trigger awareness in appreciation of unique coffee making skills and culture to many modern families. I would like to bring the humble brewing tools from kitchen to the living room. Where the families are able to gather together and enjoy the fun and process of coffee making after meals. Just like Chinese tea reception.

If you can turn back the clock and do 1 thing all over, what would it be?

Francis: The exact path is what brought me to here, including the mistakes and accidents. I won’t want to do it differently.

Celia: There are always moments that we would feel ” I should have done this or that the other way”. But without all these mistakes and experience, we are unable to grow and appreciate what have been given or done. I feel what is most importantly are to learn from mistakes and treasure the moments, make things better.

Designing for memories is…

Francis: Inevitable.

Celia: Moments of flashed back during my childhood days and lifestyle being brought up by grandma. I was very young then and can hardly remember much of her. But the most aroma-therapeutic coffee remains deeply in my memory.

Francis’s idea:

As a little kid, Francis likes watching the sky and the movement of the cloud. He believe that the most precious things in life has always been with us all the time, the air we breathe, the water we drink and the health that enable us to enjoy living. That triggered him to design a “cloud” air filter to clean the indoor air. It does not stop there, he even has plan for the “cloud” to produce a soft glowing light, just like moonlight in the countryside!

Celia’s idea:

Her design for this upcoming exhibition is a well integrated coffee appreciation set with play of mix materials that sits nicely on a serving tray, which not only serves its functions, but also visual appeal. The reason behind this is to expose younger generations and making them understand on the unique inexpensive way of brewing coffee in Asia.