1. It is important to focus on design, marketing, and production, and adhere to oneself

Today's Furniture: Originally designed as the first popular lighting product, it also shifted the brand's focus from industrial design to home design. How do you view the development of original design after the transformation?

 What do you think are the similarities and differences between industrial design and home design?

Zhang Fei: Actually, when I started doing home design, there was no subjective transformation in the design process. Just like many designers have the idea of designing daily necessities, but they didn't have the opportunity to do it. 

Similarly, during my time working in industrial design, I was very busy and did not have complete time to immerse myself in unfamiliar fields. Most importantly, once the design is completed, who will produce it for you? 

If it is produced, where will it be sold? These few questions usually come to an end here. Looking back now, I am one of the lucky ones. At the beginning, I tried small-scale production and was invited to participate in the Young Talants

exhibition, quickly establishing my own brand awareness. In fact, I don't think there is much difference between industrial design and home design fundamentally. 

If we have to think about the difference, it may be that when doing home design, we need to invest more "emotional" elements, while when doing industrial design, we need to invest more "rational" elements. 

If enough emotional investment is made, users can actually feel it.

Today's Furniture: Not long before the design, a store was opened in Tianmu, Hangzhou, which was deeply loved by consumers. What considerations did you have when choosing a store? 

What principles should be followed for store design?

Zhang Fei: When choosing a store, we mainly consider the matching degree of the audience, foot traffic, and the relevance of the surrounding business. 

A major factor in choosing Tianmu is the consistency and recognition of the concepts of both parties. For the design of the store, I basically have a framework that is consistent with the product design ideas, uniform colors, 

and never overly decorated, which is consistent with the tone of our exhibitions.

Today's Furniture: You have established your own processing factory. What are the requirements for choosing a carpenter? What factors need to be considered for the wood of the product?

Zhang Fei: I have my own standards for choosing a carpenter. I don't care how many years he has worked as a carpenter, but mainly depend on his patience and meticulousness in his work. 

The meticulousness is actually related to his habits and is difficult to change. Some people are naturally meticulous, while others cannot be meticulous at all. Patience requires a period of observation, 

and those who do not possess these two qualities will eventually be asked out. The wood of the product has always been determined by me. Wood has different origin grades and different brands have different standards. 

At the beginning, I didn't trust any brand and could only keep trying, looking at the product and asking the master. After a period of time, we identified a foreign origin manufacturer and imported directly from a German manufacturer. 

After a few years, it basically remained unchanged. Even if other brands lowered their prices and offered me cheaper prices, I would not accept it. I like to cooperate with suppliers who consistently adhere to consistency standards.

2. Honest design, meticulous simplicity, and a "calm heart"

Today's Furniture: In addition to being a designer, you are also a teacher at Zhejiang University of Technology. During your student years, design was always imaginative, but practical design requires sufficient rationality. 

How do you teach them to think rationally? How do you think we should balance sensibility and rationality in design?

Zhang Fei: I am a person who came from my student days. The main reason for my wild imagination during my student days was that I did not understand the craftsmanship and the difficulties of production and processing. 

I have always believed that this wild and imaginative mentality is actually very valuable. Many people become less brave after being exposed to processing and production. What I advocate the most in school is "physical sampling", 

because only in this way can students experience the difficulties of craftsmanship and processing. Only in this process can new problems be discovered and solutions may be found. 

"Rational thinking" emerges in this process. In fact, what is more important in design is the ability to bravely face difficulties, as well as uncertain experiments and challenges.

In design, it is very important to balance sensibility and rationality, and bravely face difficulties. It is normal to encounter some processing or technical difficulties. In order to achieve some desired details, 

it is also worthwhile to overcome some processing or technical difficulties. Only in this way can the product make breakthroughs. 

Many times, it may take up 90% of the entire design process just to make a screw invisible to the user or to achieve a perfect interface.

Today's Furniture: Making the original design a "century old brand" is your expectation. What qualities do you think a century old brand needs to possess? 

If we use three words to describe the original design, which three words do you think should be used?

Zhang Fei: A century old brand must have moderation, adhere to some unchanging concepts, and also keep up with the times, constantly iterate, and require the persistence of several generations. 

It is not easy to think about. If we use three words to describe the original design, honest design, meticulous simplicity, and subtraction.

Today's Furniture: You seem to enjoy looking at problems with a "calm mind", and the results often bring surprises. What do you think is the help of a "calm mind" in your daily design and life?

Zhang Fei: Actually, I haven't realized that I have such a habit yet. My subconscious has a vague and distant goal, which has a general direction but is not specific. 

I think these factors may have led me to have a "calm mind" when looking at problems. Upon careful consideration, this seems to be helpful for both design and daily life, especially for the sustainability of design passion. 

Expectations that are too high often lead to more disappointment, which is not conducive to sustainability. Many things are actually influenced by uncontrollable factors,

so I have become accustomed to looking at problems with a "calm mind".

Today's Furniture: You once said that the core brand value of design is "minimalist design with details". Does it take a long time to polish the details of a product in daily life? 

At what moment will you feel that this work has truly been completed?

Zhang Fei: Sometimes things go smoothly quickly, and sometimes difficulties can take a long time. Even colleagues in charge of marketing may not understand and complain about the slow progress.

I remember the paper clock made of 100% recyclable pulp last year. I was always dissatisfied with the error between the two matching parts and the overall strength,

so I kept modifying the mold and had the mold master modify it again and again. After a whole year, the mold was modified about 4 times, and the mold cost was more than twice the normal cost. 

When I encounter difficulties that I cannot solve, I can only put them aside for now, and then try again when I face them again. It wasn't until a year later that I learned about a new process and suddenly solved the problem.

Many times, I can hear two voices in my heart: one is on the side of my colleagues, urging myself and the team to speed up the experiment and find a solution, and the other is on the side of the picky users - this is not enough, 

we must improve these few details to make the product come out. I really enjoy spending some time alone with the prototype product. Sometimes I put it in the passenger seat for many days, and when it's stuck in traffic, 

I can look at it and think for a long time.

3.To create a design that touches people's hearts, the first step is to impress oneself.

Today's Furniture: Many details of the original design will interact with users and even provoke contemplation. For example, the design principle of the "egg" product has sparked heated discussions. 

Where do most of your creative ideas come from?

Zhang Fei: Many ideas are not conceived, but rather phenomena or situations discovered during the sampling process. I remember when I made this' egg ', it was like this. At first, 

I just wanted to make an egg that could suck a lot of paper clips. After making many samples, I found that some of them were difficult to detect the seams. 

That's how I was first moved. Since I can be moved, I believe many users will also be moved, so I deliberately tried to solve this seam problem.

Today's Furniture: In this era of pursuing efficiency, what do you think are the charms of "handmade" furniture? Will you consider offering handmade courses in the future?

Zhang Fei: In today's era, there is an excess of material resources and efficient production of products. Handmade products have become rare, and many young people prefer simple and delicate things.

 It's like the West Lake scenic area in Hangzhou, you won't get tired of it no matter how many times you go. If it is a chain replicated shopping mall, people will get tired of going there several times in a row.

 I won't be offering handmade courses in the short term. When there are more users who are interested, I can consider giving them a try.

4. Experiential and interactive products have enormous potential

Today's Furniture: 2020 was an extraordinary year. What design insights did you have during this year? How do you view the design trends for 2021?

Zhang Fei: 2020 was extraordinary, a once-in-a-century encounter. After a year, I realized that China is actually very lucky. Suddenly, I realized that time passes quickly and many things are occupied by things other than design. 

I hope that in 2021, I can get rid of more fragmented time and focus as much as possible on product design, doing more designs that I want to do but haven't done yet. 

In 2021, I believe that the epidemic will gradually improve, and some designs with strong experiential and interactive features will be accelerated in dissemination. 

I believe that products that can be combined into spectacular scenes will be quickly spread, and there is a greater opportunity for them to be given as gifts.