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To coincide with the announcement of the Golden Pin Design Award (GPDA) 2016 finalists, we speak to Founder and Creative Director of Beijing’s Weestar Studio, Wei Xingyu (Weestar); a recipient of the 2015 GPDA Design Mark (Visual Communications) award.
Where are you originally from, and what did you study?
I’m originally from Beijing, and I graduated many years ago from the Department of Visual Communication at Hebei University of Technology.
Tell us about some of your most recent projects.
I’m currently working on a concept hair salon called Bauhau Lab, run between a sculpture-artist called Kuang Jun, a local hairdresser, and myself. The project is a social experiment – part of a larger initiative called Digua Community, which entails reconstructing a basement space. It is an experiment of trans-disciplinary design that hopes to reconstruct the relationship between the artist, traditional business practitioners, and residents of the community.
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Through this project, we are able to make the concept of the barbershop more artistic and interesting; for example, we designed the BH17 robot, which has two long arms. One arm is used to blow-dry hair, and the other is used to vacuum the loose, cut hair. Additionally, we worked with photographer Xue Cheng-Lin to build a large-format camera with a 135mm prime lens. After a long period of exposure, it can capture the passage of time beautifully. We’ve also developed several daily commodities like aircraft-shaped hairbrushes and handmade, planet-shaped soaps.
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What are you most proud of to date?
I’m most proud of my participation in Digua Community because it’s a project that encourages businesses to give back to the community. The initiative was started by designer Zhou Zi-Shu and his team, who wanted to expand the potential of basement spaces and transform them into new cultural spots for the wider community (instead of them solely being used for private interests).
Where do you hope to be in three to five years?
I hope that other Digua Communities will start to appear all over the underground world of Beijing, and that our hair salon can continue to grow and expand. I hope our beliefs and ideas can influence and inspire current business practices.
Interview conducted by Golden Pin Design Award; edited by Design China.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Syndicated from Design China
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