What made you decide to become a designer?
Since a young age, I've been fueled by a passion to actively create and shape my surroundings. Engaging in hands-on projects, renovating and rearranging my personal space, and crafting intricate paper models have been sources of joy for me. The transformative power of a designer's ability to bring the most imaginative ideas to life has always captivated me.
As a somewhat introverted individual, I've discovered that I find greater freedom in expressing my values through design than through verbal communication. I want to dedicate my career to making our surroundings a better and more exciting place than when we first encountered them, and leaving a lasting impact for those who experience it.
Can you tell us more about your design background? I am a Chinese-born architectural designer and multimedia artist based in Los Angeles, United States, specializing in digital environment visualization. Currently, I contribute my design expertise to Perkins&Will, a globally renowned architectural firm. Prior to this job, I have dedicated two years of my career to ISOZAKI+HuQian Partners, the Shanghai studio of the Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Arata Isozaki. Extending my enthusiasm in architectural visualization and animation, I have embarked on personal design projects that explore diverse digital media, addressing the dynamic interplay of movement and the passage of time in our daily surroundings. My creative endeavors have earned recognition such as the platinum prize in the Muse Creative Awards 2024, the gold prize in the London Design Awards 2023 and the silver prize in the 2023 International Design Award. My featured exhibitions have encompassed cities such as London, Indianapolis, Chengdu, Los Angeles and New Jersey.
How do you stay inspired and keep coming up with creative ideas? I draw inspiration from curiosities and close observation of our daily surroundings, both tangible and cultural. Objects that we encounter everyday - be it clothing, furniture, kitchenware, or elements of nature like plants and sealife - have offered me a lot of inspiration in establishing conceptual and organic forms. At the same time I fully embrace my passion in movies and novels, particularly within the science fiction genre, where I discover a wealth of innovative design concepts to fuel my creativity.
What does good design mean to you? A good design should solve problems first, efficiently and sustainably. but then it is more important for it to evoke emotional reflection and to help people see what they didn’t notice before. It should spark imagination and passion for a promising future.
What is the most challenging thing in your profession? Main challenge in my profession as a designer has always been trying to find the balance between functionality and aesthetic pursuit. A lot of my projects focus on envisioning a fictional scenario. I often find myself having to substantiate their functionality and practicality. To overcome this challenge I run many tests to find the most efficient version under my aesthetic framework, but also at the same time return to basic architectural tectonic logic and search for innovative material solutions. Please, explain the best project you are most proud of and why. “Prosthetic Landscape” (https://vimeo.com/844160962) is a conceptual master planning project located at the Parana Delta in Rosario, Argentina, an intersection of urban and rural context. It envisions a post-anthropocene future where nature species gain their dominance over the years and begin to submerge themselves into man-made environments. The project orient itself at the discussion of the level of imprints from human traces onto the natural form and vice versa. The project was finished in 2021, during the peak of the pandemic quarantine. I think it is meaningful for an alternative perspective it has offered us to see when we were confined to our homes. The project prompts contemplation on the transformative impact nature can exert on what was once exclusively human territory.
What is your biggest design career moment? How does this milestone impact your career? Winning the Arch Design Award 2024 is definitely one of my biggest design career moments. I will be more confident in continuing my exploration in shaping more possibilities and applications of the relationship between natural organisms and human interaction. This award could be a starting point of my planning to evolve this concept into a series of design products that could create an environment and lifestyle that integrates nature heritage seamlessly and imaginatively.
How do you learn and grow your knowledge and design skills? I immerse myself in design magazines and online feeds to stay abreast of the latest trends and innovations. Actively seeking out diverse lifestyle and spatial experiences enriches my creative perspective. In terms of improving technical skills, online tutorials and courses have been a great help nowadays.
What would you say will be future of design? AI and sustainability are definitely two trends that are roaming now. I think within the next 5-10 years AI would help improve efficiency in early stages of design. I don’t think AI will replace the designer's role but become more of a collaborator. While technical difficulties could mostly be overcome by AI, I think the imagination of designers becomes even more important since AI could only learn from existing data. Focus will also shift to a tangible use of innovative and sustainable material, which could not be replicated by any digital representation. What are your career plans for the future? I am planning to integrate my ongoing exploration of architecture and motion graphics, as well as the interplay between nature and human-made elements, into the creation of smaller-scale design products. These could include furniture, kitchenware, jewelry, and more. My aim is to showcase how the curiosity found in everyday objects can serve as a wellspring of inspiration, elevating emotional reflections.
Where can people find your projects and get in touch with you? My work could be viewed at https://www.cai-yixuan.com/ and I can be reached at caiyixuan9417@gmail.com.