Today we’d like to introduce you to Ziyan Wang.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I am Ziyan (Mia) Wang (b. 2001, Guangzhou, China). I am a production/collection furniture designer with a bachelor degree in Furniture Design from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Blending craft and narrative is at the heart of my creative process. As a Chinese designer, I’m passionate about sharing my cultural and historical identity within the global design sphere. I draw inspiration from a myriad of sources, including rituals, traditional arts and crafts techniques, as well as both personal and collective memories. Through my work, I strive to craft functional yet deeply artistic pieces that forge emotional connections between people and the spaces they inhabit.
Born in the tropical city of Guangzhou, Southern China, I grew up within this metropolitan’s dual identities of modernity and tradition. Ever since I was little, I have been fascinated with the nature of the urban environment that surrounded me and captured my observations by doodles and illustrations. In 2016, I left home and came to the US to pursue art. The pieces of memories and the impression of southern China from my childhood have always stayed and influenced my artistic language. During my studies in the Rhode Island School of Design, I majored in Furniture Design and Manufacturing, where I was trained systematically in woodworking, metalworking, and multimedia manufacturing. Professionally, my design works have been exhibited in the RISD Museum, the Rhode Island Design Week, and the Milan Design Week (Satellite of Salone de Mobile). I have also worked as a display designer for events, trade shows and retail for clients including Swarovski, Sage & Sound, UPPAbaby, Cannondale, Sally’s Apizza and Wills Group Splash In.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
A creative’s journey is not a smooth road; it’s a series of peaks and valleys, breakthroughs and setbacks. Non-creatives might perceive success as solely measured by tangible achievements, but for many of us, the real triumph lies in the process itself – in the moments of discovery, experimentation, and growth. In 2022, my twin sister, Cara Wang (a professional illustrator), and I collaborated to create an illustrated bench that tells a fanciful tale that our grandmother used to tell us at bedtime and received much attention on the internet. Inspired by the success, a thought arose in our heads: We can make a collaborative studio that fuses object-making with illustration. Later that year, with the help of RISD Entrepreneurship we founded our creative dual, House of Wando, a craft and home decor studio that is inspired to create warmth, delight and togetherness with functional objects of visually captivating surfaces. However, we soon realized that the attention from social media does not translate into actual business, and we find very few buyers of our works. One of the fundamental reasons we discovered is the lack of functionality of our objects. Illustrations and paintings on small wooden surfaces appear to people as too “delicate” and “not food-safe” for daily use. I realized captivating surfaces are not approachable solely with carefully designed illustrations.
In 2023, I was introduced to natural dye, specifically indigo, after a visit to my father’s hometown Henan and discovered a family history of an indigo dye business. The vibrant blue colors that remained so beautiful for almost a century stunned me. I was intrigued and soon after returning home decided to see whether I could achieve similar shades. After my first batch of samples, I was hooked. I realized that dye as a media is capable of many ways to be adapted in surface design. In my senior year in RISD, I decided to focus on exploring surface design with indigo dye, which led to my degree project collection, Indigo as Language. In this collection of hand-crafted furniture, the objects are characterized by their captivating surfaces dyed with indigo using diverse pattern-making techniques and/or in company with other natural dyes. Even though certain pieces of wood and fabric were dyed with the same process, they still turned out with their own unique, sporadic, and abstract dye patterns. With the quality of being much more efficient for production and more capable of holding topcoats, dyed surfaces quickly became the signature of my design works.
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?
I design and make furniture for both production and collection. Specializing in sculptural furniture, I’m passionate about sharing my cultural and historical identity within the global design sphere through my objects. I enjoy taking inspiration from rituals, traditional arts and crafts techniques, as well as both personal and collective memories. I strive to craft functional yet deeply artistic pieces that forge emotional connections between people and the spaces they inhabit.
I believe that artists and designers are among the builders of our future world. We gather together with stories that belong to each of our own. We share, think, and make. Our stories are the ultimate context that our physical objects live in and the reason that brings us together. As a Chinese designer growing up in the 2000s, I saw the rapid industrialization in the rural south of China. I saw the marks that these processes have left on the people, society, and nature of my area. They make me contemplate the dualities between modernity and tradition, nature and technology, and East and West. My design reflects my identity by honoring my ancestral cultures, materials, and techniques through a re-interpretational perspective.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
Los Angeles is actually the first city I visited when I first moved to the US when I was 15, so I always have a special emotion associated with it. I like its dynamic mix of history, culture, and cuisines. I especially like the art scenes of LA and the various resources it can offer to emerging artists. Neighborhoods like the Arts District, Culver City, and Silver Lake are my favorite creative hubs, with all kinds of art/design studios, maker spaces, and galleries that are very important to the development of young artists and designers. I do not have much to dislike about LA. The only thing probably is that it is far away from the creative communities on the East Coast of the US, which is where I went to school.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://issuu.com/ziyanwangmia/docs/mia_wang_furniture_design_portfolio_2023
- Instagram: miawang_zy
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mia-wang-8587aa252/
