Today we’d like to introduce you to Vivian Chen.
Hi Vivian, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I moved to LA to attend college, after receiving my industrial design education at ArtCenter College of Design last spring, I have been working as an independent designer as well as working with a few design consultancies.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I’d say figuring out what I truly want to do has been the biggest challenge. The industrial design field has increasingly small influence today compares to, say the 2000s. Emerging design needs such as UIUX seem to be absorbing a lot of what physical design used to be. On the other hand, I have been thinking about the future of industrial design in general and where it stands in today’s world. To me, sticking to still using the physical interaction part of industrial design to solve problems is my current pursuit.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Design is problem-solving. Figuring out the user needs and finding an elegant way to solve it, while meeting business goals and making sure the final deliverable stands on its own from the economic perspective. This is what I do at work. At the same time, I am trying to find my own voice and get my thoughts out through the creation of art, not limited to what the business world and professional needs are. From more conceptual work related to more holistic systems and experience envisioning, to the expression of ideas through furniture design, and some more radical installation art pieces. While these are all still in the works, am planning to get them out there at some point. I have also been working on a photo book about Pasadena, I’m excited to share more about it too!
What were you like growing up?
I wouldn’t say that I was a typical artsy kid. I did paint quite often, but nothing too realism, mostly a little childish and creative, more like having fun and expressing personalities with colors. I used gouache. But I was intrigued by physics when I had the first physics class in 7th grade. Despite never been bright in figuring out math problems, I found the logical understanding of how the universe functions fascinating, and often times it is the opposite of how we intuitively understand the world. So when I discovered industrial design soon after, I knew that was something that I want to do.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://vivianchendesign.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vivianchendesign/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivian-chen-426b40123/
Image Credits
Vivian Chen
