We, as the Designer Interviews ("DI") had the distinct pleasure and opportunity to interview award-winning, most creative and innovative Jo Zhu ("JZ").

I am a furniture designer with my own design company in Guangzhou, China. Previously I was an interior designer worked in the locally famous Guangzhou Jimei Group and working in my own interior studio. I learned my passion for designing furniture when I was finishing my own house ten years ago, and two years ago I actually began to take it serious as my career transition. My furniture design had gain some good recognition in 2016 and 2017's China International Furniture Expo and Design Shanghai Exhibition.

Jo Zhu Designs

We are pleased to share with you original and innovative design work by Jo Zhu.

Designer Interview of Jo Zhu:

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?

JZ : I graduated from the Interior Design major of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and became an interior designer at first, and worked as this role for more than 10 years. At sometime earlier than now I started my own furniture brand Suyab Design. I started to design my own furniture because in my past experience in making interior design I found it difficult to find ideal furniture available in market. I had dreamed to become a designer when I was still a teenage. I enjoy studying things and finding out their unlimited possibilities for creation. That process can be extraordinarily attracting and good for its own sake, and to become a designer would just help me to engage in the process with a large portion of my life.

DI: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?

JZ : My company is called Suyab Design Limited Company. It used to be merely an interior design studio and we worked on designing private villas, clubs and chambers. After I started my own brand Suyab Furniture, my studio was upgraded and registered as a company. Now besides interior designs, we also design modern furniture with oriental aesthetic, and we produce them in our own factory too.

DI: What is "design" for you?

JZ : Design is a micro perspective entrepreneurial activity process that will involve the use of ideas, the allocation of resources and materials and the use of craft techniques to bring goodness, benefits, empowerment, and facilitation to common people in society.

DI: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?

JZ : I think I don’t really have one specific favorite material. I tend to appreciate many types of material because many of them have their own unique intrinsic beauty. Each unique material has it own proper way to be used or to combine with other materials.

DI: When do you feel the most creative?

JZ : I almost feel creative all the time. During last two years I drew out as many as furniture as quickly as I can, made them into series. It was a smooth process and I enjoyed it!

DI: Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?

JZ : I paid many attentions on designing details. In both my interior and furniture works I had spent plenty of time to work on their detail elements so as to achieve expected effects.

DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when you design?

JZ : I simply feel joyful and at ease when doing design, because this is what I love to do from the beginning (laugh).

DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when your designs are realized?

JZ : Before reaching to the feeling of accomplishment I have to struggle for a little while (laugh), because even when the design is realized I still going to pay plenty of time to adjust their details so as to obtain perfection. Only after all these the great joy then falls upon me (laugh).

DI: What makes a design successful?

JZ : First of all the design should relate to people's real life. Only when the design matters to people’s life and appears in their daily activities, the design’s beauty and function can be known and experienced. Otherwise people don’t know what it is.

DI: When judging a design as good or bad, which aspects do you consider first?

JZ : As mentioned above it is whether it matters people’s real life is the number one aspect. The second aspect is whether the design can rhetorically use simple lines and combinations of materials and techniques to express decent concerns.

DI: From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?

JZ : I think designer should be considerate on the materials' effect on user's health and they should choose sustainable resource to build, to manufacture their designs.

DI: When was your last exhibition and where was it? And when do you want to hold your next exhibition?

JZ : My last exhibition was Shenzhen International Furniture Exhibition in March of this year, just right after I went to Design Shanghai 2017. I want to hold my next exhibition in Shenzhen as a part of follow-up works for winning the A’ Design Award Competition. Last year A’ had an exhibition of winners in Shenzhen International Industrial Design Fair.

DI: Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?

JZ : In designing furniture, my inspirations come from Chinese Ming Dynasty furniture, Scandinavian furniture and Italian furniture. In designing interiors, my inspirations come from Tony Chi’s design. I do research regularly to feed my creativity, I take study on multiple materials to see the possibilities to mix them together.

DI: How would you describe your design style? What made you explore more this style and what are the main characteristics of your style? What's your approach to design?

JZ : But my designs are basically rooted in oriental aesthetics, but I do not use traditional symbols to tell that they are oriental. The oriental sense is hidden behind the technique of using colors, combination of materials and use of craft techniques.

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?

JZ : I live in Guangzhou currently, which is city with thousands of years history. It does have a rich cultural tradition. It is also a port city in the ancient time so if you look back to the history you find merchants and travelers from Europe and Middle East came here for business or other life opportunity. Many cultural traditions gathered in here and they mixed together, and transformed into something new. So the way I think about my designs is: I want them to have international / cosmopolitan characters but without scarifying our own culture roots.