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"Design
Shanghai is more than an exhibition; we want it to be a festival creativity, an
exciting place for people to engage in all of the events like design forums",
as the show director Mr. Mike Dynan said in the interview with Eastday.com
ahead of the opening of Design Shanghai 2016, the Asia's leading international
design event.
Starting from
March 9, the design show will present more than 300 world's leading brands and
1,000 new designs at the Shanghai Exhibition Centre. An estimated 300
exhibitors and more than 42,000 visitors are expected to attend the four-day
event.
When speaking of the highlights of this show, Mr. Dynan said that besides the bigger scale, Design Shanghai 2016 will present a collection of fantastic installations and features, some of which are never seen before. One of the eye-catcher is Zotem, a dynamic installation of movement and light created by London-based Norwegian designer Kim Thomé for Swarovski.
It is known that over 50% of the exhibitors at this year's event are Chinese designers, much more than that in the previous years. Mr. Dynan said that they want to promote great Chinese designs, both established and emerging ones through Design Shanghai, and bring together the best of international and home-grown talents. "We bring a lot of international companies to China because they want to experience the market and collaborate with Chinese design partners."
Mr. Dynan viewed that it is a fantastic combination between the traditional techniques and modern life in Chinese design. He took Jamy Yang as an instance, who will present the "YANG HOUSE Craftsmanship" installation, which encourages the audience to rediscover traditional handcrafts and reflect on how Chinese tradition can blend with modern aesthetics and lifestyle.
Launched in 2014, Design Shanghai has made much progress in just a couple of year. Mr. Dynan attributes the success to time. "Time is exactly perfect, and there are several things coming together to make perfect results, like lots of Chinese design students, creative generation and buildings going up in Shanghai...People have a real want or hunger for great design."
When it comes to the current trends of design, Mr. Dynan thought that "design is obviously bracing technology" and more and more technology is seen involving in the design like digital installation shown in the exhibition. Moreover, in China particularly, he said that traditional craftsmanship and materials blending with modern life will be very fashionable this year.
