We, as the Designer Interviews ("DI") had the distinct pleasure and opportunity to interview award-winning, most creative and innovative Ke Zheng ("KZ").
BareBag creates fashion accessories that engineered to improve the life qualities of the disabled. BareBag’s mission is to promote empathy and equity in the most subtle, but effective ways. BareBag’s products are universal that appeals also to the non-disabled. it blends into the daily lives of any person and encourages the users to confidently embrace their identities.
Ke Zheng Designs
We are pleased to share with you original and innovative design work by Ke Zheng.
Ke Zheng Design - Barebag Series Fashionable Prosthetics
Designer Interview of Ke Zheng:
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?
KZ : I’ve been fascinated to cars since fifth grade when I started following Top Gear the car media. That fascination drives me to continuously create beautiful, exciting physical objects that empower and inspire people.
DI: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
KZ : BareBag is created to empower people to do more with their hands. Before I founded BareBag, I had a bike accident that broke my left arm. The inconvenience of doing every tasks with one hand inspired me to create a product that could take over the dumb labor for your hand. BareBag is about promoting independence and inclusiveness. It aims to solve the common problem of busy hands for all people.
DI: What is "design" for you?
KZ : To me, solving problem is the basis of design, and inspiring people is the true value of design.
DI: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
KZ : I often ask myself “why we’ve been choosing x to solve the problem y?”,”What are the revolutionary designs in the history of x?” In finding the core demands of problem y and exploring new possible solution, I feel fascinated.
DI: What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?
KZ : My favorite design is the Christian cross, not because the religious part of it, but because of its minimal solution of communication and connection.
DI: What was the first thing you designed for a company?
KZ : My first design that commercially launched was Miror Light for Miror. It is an ambient lamp that projects 3D dynamic color flows onto a wall, creating touching, natural atmosphere for your space.
DI: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?
KZ : My favorite technology is 3D printing. It revolutionized my way of designing and make the process of design a lot more efficient and straightforward.
DI: When do you feel the most creative?
KZ : I feel most creative when I’m in shower, alone.
DI: Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?
KZ : I tend to focus on the physical user experience more than anything else. I prototype a lot, so I can understand the detail experiences by touching the prototypes.
DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when you design?
KZ : I feel excited, empathetic when designing.
DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when your designs are realized?
KZ : When my designs are realized, other than proud, I am also a little bit anxious looking for the next problem to solve.
DI: What makes a design successful?
KZ : In my opinion, a design could be commercially successful, impactful successful, or both. But fundamentally, a design has to be understandable with a touching, unique, effective solution.
DI: When judging a design as good or bad, which aspects do you consider first?
KZ : I would consider the innovative part of it. Is it unique? Is it novel? Is it effective?
DI: From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?
KZ : Designers need to understand the life cycle of their designs in order to create with environmental responsibility.
DI: How do you think the "design field" is evolving? What is the future of design?
KZ : The labor part is hopefully going to be taken by AI, things like modeling and rendering. The future designers need to be more aware of the society and the most contemporary technology in order to innovate.
DI: When was your last exhibition and where was it? And when do you want to hold your next exhibition?
KZ : I have not exhibit at any event yet. If possible, I really want to experience exhibiting at Salone del Mobile in Milan next year.
DI: Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?
KZ : My design inspiration comes from observation. Constantly ask questions about the problems and solutions around life.
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?
KZ : My design style is influenced by math, physics and nature, I tend to find a mathematically elegant approach when executing the details.
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?
KZ : I live in both Brooklyn, NY and Guangzhou, China. The urban atmosphere definitely affected my observation.
DI: How do you work with companies?
KZ : I usually work remotely with my colleagues.
DI: What are your suggestions to companies for working with a designer? How can companies select a good designer?
KZ : I suggest companies should very constantly communicate with the designer to maximize the efficiency of communication because insights often come during inspiring conversations. Selecting a good designer for the project, the company should understand not only the skill sets of the designer but also focus on the designer’s innovative nature through the interview.
DI: Can you talk a little about your design process?
KZ : I often start my design with a problem analysis, with an in depth understanding of the market user group. Then I tend to prototype a mockup to experience my hypothesis for the solution. The design evolves through a long prototyping/testing process, experimenting different materials forms, feedbacks, and so on.
DI: What are 5 of your favorite design items at home?
KZ : The tissue box hung upside down in my kitchen. The ceiling light that’s also a fan with smart home control. My Bambu Lab 3D printer. Robot vacuum. My BenQ screen bar.
DI: Can you describe a day in your life?
KZ : Every day is a significantly different day for me.
DI: Could you please share some pearls of wisdom for young designers? What are your suggestions to young, up and coming designers?
KZ : Also being a Yung designer myself I think it is very important to keep inspired, keep observing, and keep asking questions.
DI: From your perspective, what would you say are some positives and negatives of being a designer?
KZ : I think the gift of being a designer is to have the opportunity to create and innovative for the world. The downside, however, of being a designer is probably worrying about 1 million things yet you can only accomplish one or two.
DI: What is your "golden rule" in design?
KZ : Fail fast, learn faster.
DI: What skills are most important for a designer?
KZ : Storytelling
DI: Which tools do you use during design? What is inside your toolbox? Such as software, application, hardware, books, sources of inspiration etc.?
KZ : My favorite tools are my 3-D printer and my sewing machine as I’m always prototyping.
DI: Designing can sometimes be a really time consuming task, how do you manage your time?
KZ : Draw less, model less, talk more, make more, think more.
DI: How long does it take to design an object from beginning to end?
KZ : Depending on the scale of the project, A design can take from three weeks to three years in my experience.
DI: What is the most frequently asked question to you, as a designer?
KZ : Do people really need this?
DI: What was your most important job experience?
KZ : Starting my own business expanded my view of the industry and everything.
DI: Who are some of your clients?
KZ : currently my key clients are the disabled group of people which were also my target users. Previously, I’ve worked with clients like Leica Biosystems, BOSCH, Midea Group, and CDN Lighting.
DI: What type of design work do you enjoy the most and why?
KZ : I enjoy the time of having meaningful conversations with my colleagues about the detail execution of the products, how could it help people, and the overall big concept of the story.
DI: What are your future plans? What is next for you?
KZ : I’m starting my own studio BareBag designing urban accessories aiming to solve the common problem of busy hands.
DI: Do you work as a team, or do you develop your designs yourself?
KZ : I love working as a team. Because we can always inspire each other and learn from each other, which makes our products better than anyone could design.
DI: Do you have any works-in-progress being designed that you would like to talk about?
KZ : Yes, we have been designing the signature product for our company BareBag. With this cross body bag, we aim to solve the common problem of busy hands. BareBag is integrated with a beautiful, minimal carrying system. We hope it could empower people to do more with their hands, other than carrying weights.
DI: How can people contact you?
KZ : My email address is johnsparkzk@gmail.com but also feel free to DM me on instagram @id.zheng