We, as the Designer Interviews ("DI") had the distinct pleasure and opportunity to interview award-winning, most creative and innovative Lam Kam Kun ("LKK").
I'm a graphic designer and a father. I have worked as a graphic designer for 18 years. When I first became a designer, I thought I could make Macau more beautiful, improve the aesthetics of Macau people, and enable designers to create better works as long as I did my job well. Now after 16 years, to me, a designer is just a common and ordinary profession, a craftsman, a skill to feed my family. As science and technology develop at high speed, designers may be replaced in the future, I'll never know. Whatever dilemma the future may be, my identity as a designer has become an inseparable part of me. My only wish is that I could create some works that will be remembered by me and others before I leave this industry or am replaced. I completed the five works listed below all by myself with limited resources and I have insisted on creating them with my own designing ideas. I hope you can feel my attitude to design through these works.
Lam Kam Kun Designs
We are pleased to share with you original and innovative design work by Lam Kam Kun.
Lam Kam Kun Design - Container Music Albums
Lam Kam Kun Design - MADO Media Image Design Corporate Design
Designer Interview of Lam Kam Kun:
DI: Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?
LKK : Identical to most designers in experience, I enjoy painting since childhood, consequently, I enrolled in a design school when I was in college. However, before my enrollment, I was very vague about what I would study and had little understanding of the profession as a designer. It was not until I entered the design school that I began to get contact with different categories of design. Finally, I chose graphic design as my undergraduate program.
DI: What is "design" for you?
LKK : As far as I can see, similar to modelling clay, in the face of different situations and different objects, "design” will present different shapes, but it depends on customers or audiences instead of designers. As a service industry, the design industry aims to serve customers or audiences, the work from which is a product or handicraft. Such product or handicraft will be deemed as a design if it carriescommercial value. If there is no commercial value, the work created purely based on the author's preferences can only be a creation rather than a design. That may sound pessimistic, but that’s the truth, because designer is nothing different from other professions or entitled to higher social status, it is just a very ordinary work to make money.
DI: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
LKK : I like typeface design and poster design.
DI: Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?
LKK : It always depends on the actual situation. But every time when I design a new work from scratch, I am full of wonderful fantasy at first, unfortunately, I am with disappointment when completing the design.
DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when you design?
LKK : It always depends on the actual situation. But every time when I design a new work from scratch, I am full of wonderful fantasy at first, unfortunately, I am with disappointment when completing the design.
DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when your designs are realized?
LKK : The quality of the design may be affected by a lot of factors. If we can complete high-quality works with mutual respect and trust, we will be happy, otherwise, it can only be regarded as the completion of a business transaction or a job.
DI: When judging a design as good or bad, which aspects do you consider first?
LKK : Personally, I can't determine whether a design is good or bad, because everyone has a different perception of beauty.A design which I considered good from a professional perspective may be completely unacceptable or incomprehensible in the eyes of the public, or even fails to bring positive commercial or image reactions to the customer, making the customer believe that it is a poordesign.
DI: From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?
LKK : I think it's too exaggerated. Being a designer is just a profession. I believe that everyone should carry a sense of responsibility for society and the environment.
DI: How do you think the "design field" is evolving? What is the future of design?
LKK : As new technologies continue to emerge, design does not need to be dealt with by professional designers, and reducing costs is the eternal idea of large and small enterprises in the world. With the emergence of comprehensive AI and minimalist design apps, designers will have an increasingly reduced influence and development.
DI: Where do you live? Do you feel the cultural heritage of your country affects your designs? What are the pros and cons during designing as a result of living in your country?
LKK : I live in Macao, which is a very small place. Although it was a commercial center where Chinese and Western cultures met hundreds of years ago, the current design education is not popular, and the public's awareness of aesthetic beauty is still weak. Although it has frequent business transactions, the design quality of large, small and medium-sized enterprises varies greatly.
DI: Could you please share some pearls of wisdom for young designers? What are your suggestions to young, up and coming designers?
LKK : After graduation, give yourself 3 years to engage in relevant design work, if there is no improvement after 3 years, or if your living environment has been declining, leave this industry as soon as possible and start again when you are still young.