李勤在创新型产品和品牌设计公司fuseproject当产品设计总监。她来自中国，在广州美术学院工业设计专业拿了科学学士学位。在她的工业设计和平面设计学习期间，她曾在中国顶尖的设计公司集美设计工作过。2001年，她搬到旧金山在旧金山艺术大学继续学习工业设计，拿到了艺术硕士学位。在fuseproject过去的九年里面，李勤做的项目涉及家居设计，消费电子产品设计，室内空间设计，健康医疗设备方面的设计等等。李勤最近接受了Modelo的采访，回顾了一下她在fuseproject做的项目以及她所看到的工业设计的未来所在。
Qin Li is the Director of Industrial Design at innovative product and brand design firm fuseproject. Originally from China, she received her B.S. in Industrial Design from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art. During her studies in Industrial Design and Graphic Design, she worked at one of the top design consultancies in China, Jimei Design. In 2001, she moved to San Francisco to pursue a Masters of Industrial Design at the Academy of Art University MFA program. Over the past nine years at fuseproject, Qin has worked on a variety of design projects including furniture, consumer electronics, interior spaces, health care, and more. Li recently spent some time with Modelo reflecting on her work at fuseproject and what she believes the future holds for industrial design.
对工业设计的探索
On her discovery of industrial design
我在中国广州长大,人们说它是中国的南方贸易港口，它离香港很近，所以是一个非常活跃的城市，也是内地第一个经济上对外开放的城市。我从小就喜欢艺术，在空余时间我会画色彩，素描，观察和学习。带着这样的对艺术的热情我后来去了广州美术学院， 当时我对平面设计很感兴趣，甚至想要成为一名平面设计师，但是我开始上学的那一年学校并没有平面设计专业，所以我放宽了我的选择，开始思考我能成为什么和我能做什么。
I grew up in Guangzhou, China. People say it’s the south gate of China, it’s a very active city because it’s close to Hong Kong, and was the first economically open city in mainland China. I liked art when I was little, so any moment I could find I spent painting, drawing, observing and studying. This passion led me to attend the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art. When I was training to be an artist I was captivated with graphic design and even wanted to become a graphic designer but then in the end I went to a school that didn’t have graphic design program the year I began. That forced me to open my mind to what I could become.
那时候的中国很少有人知道工业设计是什么所以它也不是一个很流行的专业。我找了一些学工业设计的学生聊了聊发现这是一个非常有趣的专业，所以我开始自学工业设计为专业做准备。那时我的学习资源主要来自于杂志和设计年刊。过程中，有一个概念对我影响很大：“设计即创新”。要有创新意识，要想得不一样。去创造一个在常规思维之外的东西—在人类和物体之间建立联系，用更加美好的产品创造更好的用户体验。
At the time in China nobody knew about industrial design and it wasn’t a popular subject. I spoke with some industrial design students and got to know them and it was interesting. I started to teach myself industrial design to prepare for school. What I learned was mainly from magazines and design yearbooks, I was teaching myself. One of the biggest things that influenced me was the idea of “design is innovation”. To be creative and think differently. To create something that’s outside the realm of normal thinking — building connections between objects and humans, creating better user experience with beautiful objects.
我在学校的时候非常注重创新，追求创新意识也是我决定要来美国的原因。在那个时候中国没有培养创新大脑的环境；人们只是看国外的杂志和海报来抄袭他们的设计。我没有找到一个地方能让我学习到更多的东西，所以我就来到旧金山。在这学习工业设计硕士学位期间也在当地的设计公司短期实习过。
This focus on innovation was my personal mantra in school and was the reason I decided to come to the United States. At the time China didn’t have the environment to cultivate innovative minds; people just looked at foreign magazines or advertisements and then copied the designs. I didn’t see a place for me to learn more, and I came to San Francisco to study. While working on my master’s in industrial design, I practiced in local design consultancy.
毕业以后，我开始在fuseproject工作。工作后慢慢地我意识到在创新的同时，毅力也很重要。你如何让你的想法更往前一步？你如何继续在和工程方面合作的时候特别是在生产这个步骤上完善产品的细节。在这些转换阶段很多的创新都被忽略了。这些考量在设计过程中非常重要。
After graduation , I began working at fuseproject. As my career developed I realized that innovation must be paired with perseverance. How do you push your idea forward? How do you continue to refine the details in collaboration with engineering and especially in production? Lots of creativity is lost in these transitions. How do you continue to push forward to provide innovation from the beginning of ideation through engineering to production? Those processes drive me and support my passions from the beginning to the present.
现在我是fuseproject的工业设计部门的主管，刚来的时候我只是一个初级工业设计师。我很幸运能在一个由Yves Behar领导的世界级的工业设计团队工作, 这段经历对我尤其重要。
Right now I’m the director of industrial design at fuseproject, I started here as a junior industrial designer. I’m fortunate to be supported by Yves Behar, a world class Industrial Design team, and these major ventures helping me to do great work.
作为fuseproject工业设计主管
On her role at fuseproject as Director of Industrial Design
我们有一个由十八个非常优秀的工业设计师组成的团队。直到现在，我还是会亲自审查每一个工业设计项目，即使我已经转到了管理层我还是对实际的设计过程非常感兴趣。我享受从头到尾整个设计过程—构思，完善设计，2D和3D实现，设计沟通，工程，和客户合作，生产过程，还有如何把产品带到市场。我对设计的热情也让我尽可能多地参与设计过程，参与到团队的构思，在最开始时的创作，寻找灵感，同时也有设计的完善和生产，在各个设计活动上支持这个团队，要保证我们创新的质量。fuseproject在工业设计之外还涉及很多不同的领域，包括品牌设计，电子产品设计，商业创新和设计策略。我作为领导的角色就是要兼顾所有这些方面以确保我们传达的是完整的设计。
I have a team of eighteen incredibly talented industrial designers I lead. I personally oversee each industrial design project at the studio because my passion is still hands-on design even though I’ve moved to management level. I enjoy the design process from beginning to end — ideation, design refinement, 2D and 3D visualization, design communication, engineering, collaboration with clients, the production process, and bringing the product to market. My passion for design also means pushing myself to do work as much as possible, joining the team for concepting, creating our vision in the beginning and finding inspirations, as well as design refinement and production, supporting the team on various design activities, working with Yves Behar, the founder and Principal Designer of fuseproject, to ensure our quality of innovation. fuseproject has several different disciplines beyond industrial design, including brand, digital, business innovation and design strategy. My leadership role means working together with all of these disciplines to ensure what we deliver is complete.
审查设计过程
On reviewing design progress
我们在设计的不同阶段都会有内部的设计审查，团队每周会和我讨论几次，为此我们有一个时间表。当我很投入在一个项目时我自然每天都会过问项目进展。大部分的审查都是面对面交流的，有时需要在墙上把图片贴出来，有时会有3D的截图，实物模型等等，我负责提供反馈和评价。
We have internal design reviews in different phases of design activities, and we set up a schedule where the team will talk with me several times a week. When I’m really involved in the projects I’ll see the progress every day. Most of the check-ins are in person, with drawings on the walls, 3D screenshots, mockups, etc… I provide feedback and comments.
面对面的交流能够解决很多问题，但是往往我们没有这个条件。如果我们不能够面对面交流的话团队就必须要通过邮件向我和Yves做演示。当我们做跨境项目的时候，我们的团队会经常出差，所以对于每个设计师来说学会用任何媒介有效地沟通非常重要—学会通过邮件工作就像面对面工作和视频会议一样重要。
Meeting face-to-face really solves lots of issues, but often we cannot. If we can’t the team has to do the presentations or check-ins through email and send them to me and Yves. As we work internationally, and our team is constantly traveling, it’s important for each designer to learn how to communicate effectively through any medium — working through email is just as important as working in-person or through video conferencing.
如何处理团队里面不同的意见
On dealing with conflicting feedback
关于设计的最大的课题之一就是交流。我们是设计师，这个群体的个人观点是很强烈的，这就是为什么交流是非常重要的。从项目最初头脑风暴开始，我们设立一个目标，把它作为这个设计的基调。在设计过程中如果出现不同的意见我们会讨论和解决，我们会把好处和坏处都列举出来，每个人都要拿出材料去支持他们的想法，无论它是关于用户体验的还是关于生产的，大家把意见提出来，然后讨论并最终达成统一意见。我们是一个非常注重合作的团队，从来不会让一个人决定一件事，必须倾听每个人的想法。
One of the biggest issues with design is communication. Because we are designers we all have strong opinions, which is why communication is really important. This starts early in brainstorming the beginning of the project. We set up the goal, the tone for the design and project. If during the design process there are different opinions we discuss it. We will put down pros and cons and everyone brings their materials to support, whether it’s from user experience or from manufacturing, etc… We put this all on the table, talk about it and unify our thoughts. It’s a highly collaborative culture. We don’t have a system where one person says yes and that’s it. We have to listen to everyone’s opinion. Yves plays a critical role as a creative leader, guiding the final decisions on the direction for clients.
设计软件
On design software
3D软件的多样性使项目的进展和设计师的聘用增加了难度。因为软件的种类太多，2D的简单，3D的就没那么容易，fuseproject的每个人都使用不同的3D 软件。当我们在进展项目的时候，我们需要将使用同一种软件的人归类。不然很麻烦，因为把一个设计在软件之间来回地转换和做修改很浪费时间。有时如果你想重新做修改你必须重新建模。理想的情况下，每个人都用一样的软件就不会有转换软件的问题，但是现实是没有人能在一个软件上实现所有的设计步骤，也就无法做到软件的统一。
Multiple 3D software brings complexity to project resourcing and designer recruiting. Because there are so many types of software 2D is easy, but everyone at fuseproject uses a different kind of 3D software. When we think about resourcing for projects, we need to group the people who use the same software. Sometimes we can’t do this, so we need to find people who can use multiple types of software. This can be frustrating because it’s difficult to take a design from one software to the next, back and forth and make changes. Sometimes if you want to make changes you must rebuild the design. Ideally, everyone would use the same thing so there’s no issue translating files, but in reality nobody has designed the kind of software that’s easy and amazing enough to do it all.
是什么让fuseproject脱颖而出的?
On what makes fuseproject unique
fuseproject有一个传统，就是一定要创造出非常规的东西。每一个项目里我们都会有一个关于如何让这个项目更成功的规划以及能帮助到不同的客户的商业模型。我们支持和参与社会公益事业，做这些设计的时候是不计利益的。这些不同类型的工作将fuseproject从一个设计顾问公司提升到另一个层面—一个设计使命，一个对于人类社会的设计使命。
fuseproject has a tradition of creating something unconventional. With every project we have the vision of how to make a business successful and business models that help different kinds of clients. We support civil work and human society. We do those designs without consideration of profit. These different kinds of work elevate fuseproject from a regular design consultancy to another level — a design mission, a design commitment to the larger human society.
从创新的角度出发，我们尽量把概念发展到对未来市场和文化有影响的层面，我们确保我们的设计作品能够涉及到不同的领域。我们做过家具，可穿戴科技产品，电子设备，形象包装设计，医疗设备设计等等。我们确保我们的设计师能在各个领域锻炼并且我们希望任何种类的公司都能成为我们的客户。我们拥有一个360度全方位的设计实践。fuseproject的策略，工业设计，平面设计，和品牌设计，电子和交互设计，商业创新等等，这些都让我们能够更整体地去看待设计。
From an innovation standpoint we really drive the concept to a level with impact on future markets and culture with each project. We make sure our design portfolio covers different areas because we don’t want to just work in one industry or on one type of device. We’ve made furniture, wearable technologies, electronic devices, iconic packaging, medical devices…. We make sure our designers practice in all different areas and we want to make sure that any type of company can come to us for design. We have a 360-degree approach. fuseproject’s strategy, industrial design, graphic, and brand, digital and user experience, business innovation, all of these give us the opportunity and ability to look at businesses holistically.
我们在工程和生产上都非常创新。很多设计和创新在生产过程中很容易走失就是因为这个过程会有很多限制，但是我们提倡在生产中创新。在Mini Jambox这个项目中，我们利用金属材质的纹理上的创新让它有一个更优质的外观并且让它以更低的成本进行生产从而让更多人有能力购买它。
We are innovative on the engineering and manufacturing. Lots of design and creativity get lost during the engineering process because there can be limitations, but we push for innovation in manufacturing. With Mini Jambox, we were able to create a more premium look with textures on metal and manufacture in a way that made it affordable.
我们希望出现在架子上的产品实物和最开始的设计一样完美。你必须要保证整个设计过程中每一步都不出错才能实现这一点。这种贯穿生产的创新和这种以设计为主导的工作思维模式让fuseproject 从各种设计顾问公司中脱颖而出。
We want the product on the shelf to look as amazing as the original design. You have to drive the entire design process to make that happen. This kind of innovation through the manufacturer, this design-driven thinking makes our work at fuseproject really stand out when compared to other design consultancies.
最后一点是我们公司是由超过十八个国籍的人组成的。每个人都在这里工作得很开心。我们见过很多设计公司里的人员流动性特别大，我们公司独特的文化让员工都很愿意留在这里。
The last part (but not least) is that it’s a company made up of many nationalities, over 18 different cultures and backgrounds. And everyone is happy to work here. We see lots of design consultancies where people are switching around, but we have our own unique culture and people really enjoy working here.
最喜欢的项目
On favorite projects
我非常享受Jawbone 这个项目，当时我们就像一个内部设计小组一样工作，所以才让我们能够做出这么有创意的一个产品。
I enjoy working on Jawbone projects and the design driven products. We work together almost as an internal design team. That’s the reason we can deliver something truly innovative. We work together throughout the process, defining the vision, the user experience, the dimensions and components. I really enjoy that process.
和Herman Miller 一起做的Sayl 椅子和公共办公室场景是另外一个我非常难忘的经历。Herman Miller 是一个很成功的公司。他们还有一群很有创意也很有经验的工程师，但他们非常尊重我们fuseproject的设计并且从一开始就和我们一起工作。这个过程是非常有启发性和教育意义的，最好的设计过程真的是各个领域和部门之间的合作。当我真正地和工程师合作的时候，当工程师理解我们的设计时我们才能够推进这个项目。
Working with Herman Miller, in particular on the Sayl Chair and Public Office Landscape, is a different kind of experience that I also enjoyed. Herman Miller is a company that has a long history of success. They have a group of experienced and creative engineers who can understand and respect our design at fuseproject very well and work with us from the beginning. It is inspiring and educational. The best design experience is really the collaboration between different disciplines and departments. When I truly collaborated with engineers and when the engineers understood the design then we were able to push the objective forward.
颠覆性创新
On disruptive innovation:
通过科技你能更了解你自己，让你的生活更加便利。你可以在你的办公室用你的手机控制锁。我觉得在探索这些未被探索的领域里还有很多机会，科技能让我们的生活更加简单便利。
The Internet of Things is happening already, bringing science and technology to daily life through industrial design. Through this technology you know yourself better, your life is much more convenient. You can control your locks through your phone, from your office… I think there’s a big opportunity to reach out into all these different areas we couldn’t before, to make your life much easier and smarter.
我妈妈，我女儿和我自己都在使用UP手环，它可以帮助我们知道每天都做了多少活动。即使我妈妈住在中国，她也可以看到她外孙女们昨晚睡得好与不好。我们可以这样保持联系。工业设计成为了一个联系我们生活和科学的媒介。
My mom, my daughters and myself all use the UP band so we know how much activity we get each day. Even though my mom is living in China, she can see that her grandchildren slept well last night, that they were able to move around and play. We can stay connected. Industrial design has become a medium to connect science to our daily lives.
给刚开始工作的自己的一个建议
On advice she would give herself at the beginning of her career
作为工业设计师，我们最初都是在学习如何作为一个创造者。工业设计注重动手过程，你需要画草图，做2D和3D设计，做模型草稿，做渲染，让设计实体化。做了这些年设计，我意识到学会交流你的想法和创意非常重要。无论是在设计的最初阶段，与你的客户沟通合作机会还是用你的工业设计知识来向他们解释我们能提供什么帮助提升他们的产品或者品牌到另外一个层面上，还是和客户通过展示的方式介绍整个设计过程，解释设计理念和想法。成为一个制造者很重要，但是成为一个好的沟通者对于一个工业设计师来说同样重要。每个工业设计师应该从开始就要训练自己，不仅仅是成为一个制造者，也要成为一个懂得沟通的人。
As industrial designers, we all learn how to be makers from the very beginning. Industrial design is hands on. You have to sketch, design in 3D/2D, draft mockups, make renderings, and make things real… After a few years, I realized that it’s important to be able to communicate your thoughts and ideas. Whether it’s at the beginning of the project, talking to the clients about design opportunity or using your knowledge of industrial design to explain what we can help them with, to bring their product or brand to the next level, or creating the design process through communication with clients and presentation, explaining your concepts and ideas. Being a maker is key, but being a good communicator is just as important as an industrial designer. It’s something that’s crucial for everyone from the beginning, to be able to train yourself not just as a maker but as a talker.
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