Neon signs witness the history of Hong Kong, says Brian Kwok from PolyU’s School of Design

  //Brian started the research project on Hong Kong neon signs in 2016. One of the team’s critical tasks was to photo-document the neon signs that could still be found in different districts in Hong Kong. While neon light manufacturing is a sunset industry in Hong Kong, the team managed to interview some neon masters and visited the neon light manufactories. “Surprisingly, we were lucky to discover about 1,000 original neon sign artworks in one of the local neon light manufactories! These artworks were all hand-painted and are still in good condition, and more importantly, they have never been seen by the public,” Brian said.//   Read Brian's full interview on Pulse@PolyU | June 2021

Prof Stephen Wang appointed New Scheme Leader of MDes

PolyU Design's Master of Design programme is well established and was recognised as one of the best in the world.  The School constantly reviews its curriculum to ensure its quality and relevance, and we look forward to providing further news on that soon. At the same time, we are pleased to announce that Prof. Stephen Jia Wang will take up the role as the new Scheme Leader of the Master of Design programme. Prof. Wang joined PolyU Design as Professor in UX Design & Design Intelligence in January 2020. He consults projects by Guangzhou Automobile Corporation (GAC Group) and Huawei User-Center Design and is also one of the Project Leaders of the Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence in Design (AiDLab), a research operation jointly established by PolyU and The Royal College of Art (RCA). He is also a key founding member of the recently established PolyU Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT). Prof. Wang's vision for the Master of Design (MDes) Scheme is to nurture proactive leaders and game-changers for the future industry.  He said:  "I see the Scheme as a unique and dynamic platform to maintaining and expanding long-term partnerships with industry and commercial clients for student projects and other activities. These partnerships are going to draw from and inform a new landscape and direction for design practice and thinking.  With high-level flexibility and variety restructured in the curriculum, the Scheme gives new impetus to interdisciplinary research and education in the region. As designers see the world as systems to be organised and integrated, they don't have to choose any specialty for a profession, but see areas of study as sources of knowledge and patterns to inform their work towards meeting global challenges. In this Scheme, designers of innovation feel at home in the arts, humanities, science, engineering, and mathematics." For more information on Prof. Wang's academic interests, see [link]

"omnom." by Chang Pei-Chi won Hong Kong Winner of James Dyson Award 2021

BRAVO! We are proud to announce the amazing achievement our fresh graduates of Product Design have made at the James Dyson Award 2021!   Miss Chang Pei-Chi Peggy’s “omnom.” project is named the National Winner, Hong Kong. She is one of the national winners representing the best young inventors from over 2,000 entries across 28 countries and regions, bringing revolutionary inventions to our judges. “omnom.” is a smart dining service & product system tailored to fit the future care home. It connects stakeholders in the care home system through data digitization, enhances interaction quality through design & increases safety through performance monitoring. (Tutor: Dr Brian Lee)   In addition, Miss Tse Hong I Sophia’s “OCTAPS” is selected as the Hong Kong Runner Up. It is an inclusive musical toy for ADHD preschool children (4 to 6 years old), which allow ADHD children to release their energy at home, to let children explore interest in music freely. (Tutor: Dr Tulio Maximo)   The James Dyson Award is an international design award that celebrates, encourages and inspires the next generation of design engineers. Open to current students and recent design and engineering graduates, the Award is a chance for budding inventors to make a name for themselves. The regional winners are progressing to the International stages of the competition on Wednesday 13 October.   Congratulations!   To learn more about both projects and the awards, click omnom. OCTAPS

Newly Onboard Dr Pan WANG, Research Assistant Professor

Welcome aboard! Dr Pan Wang has just joint us as Research Assistant Professor. She holds a PhD from Imperial College London, and an MA from Central Saint Martins. She conducts research on deep learning and brain decoding in data-driven engineering design. Her research addresses various topics relating to AI design method, human-data Interaction, data-driven engineering design, applied machine learning, brain-computer interface, cognitive science, and user-centred system. Dr Pan WANG, Research Assistant Professor Email: panwang.wang@polyu.edu.hk Office: V502d

Summer Tea Gathering with Design Industry

We had the pleasure to invite a few friends from the design industry to join us for a Summer Tea Gathering for updates on the development of the School and to visit our Design Show. Not having been able to see them for some time because of suspended events, we decided to treat them with food for thought too - cookies created based on this year's student projects!   Thank you to all for coming!   Hong Kong Design Centre (HKDC) Hong Kong Designers Association (HKDA) Hong Kong Federation of Design and Creative Industries (FHKDCI) Hong Kong Interior Design Association (HKIDA)      

Newly Onboard Charis Poon, Teaching Fellow

Welcome aboard! Charis Poon has recently joined the Communication Design programme at PolyU as Teaching Fellow. Born and raised in Hong Kong, she completed her undergraduate studies in New York at Parsons the New School for Design (BFA in Communication Design) and Eugene Lang (BA in Literary Studies, Writing). Since then, she established her own freelance design studio in Hong Kong creating work for a variety of clients spanning industries such as media, fashion, F&B, and fintech. She has played a key role at MAEKAN, a small independent publication in Hong Kong established in 2015, as a Managing Editor. Most recently, she worked as Master Storyteller and Creative Strategist at the Asian American agency Intertrend based in LA.  While her background is primarily in design, much of her recent work has been concerned with writing, editing, and audio. Charis earned her MA in Design: Expanded Practice at Goldsmiths, University of London in 2019. Her time in London included assisting on the MA program and engaging in research on fieldnotes for design alongside Juliet Sprake and Naho Matsuda. Charis is personally interested in exploring inclusivity and intimacy within groups and between individuals, poetics in communication, and spending time in consideration of small things.  You can find out more about Charis by visiting her website or listening to Making It Up, the weekly culture podcast she co-hosts.   Charis Poon, Teaching Fellow Email: charis.poon@polyu.edu.hk Office: V602a

Brian Kwok's book is Best of the Best in HK Publishing Biennial Awards

Congratulations to our Associate Professor Brian Kwok on winning the Best of the Best award of the Social Science category at the Hong Kong Publishing Biennial Award with his publication “City of Scripts – The Craftsmanship of Vernacular lettering in Hong Kong” 《字型城市 —— 香港造字匠》. The book was selected from the 10 best Publishing Books in the category. There were 400 books entered this competition and 9 categories in total. The Awards is a biannual event organised by the Hong Kong Publishing Professionals Society and sponsored by CreateHK. This year’s award presentation was held at the Hong Kong Book Fair in mid-July, witnessed by a number of judges, guests and members of the general public.  Furthermore, Brian’s dedicated work to the neon sign projects “Archive of neon sign artworks” funded by ADC’s “Arts go Digital Platform Theme” was launched in July. Click through the links below for the archive and details to learn more: 霓虹招牌手稿資料庫 (Hong Kong Neon Artwork Archive) 保存 700 張霓虹招牌手稿 理大教授建網上資料庫

Geeky Pet to encourage animal adoptions and improve welfare

'Geeky Pet' developed by students of our MSc in Multimedia & Entertainment Technology aims at increasing the number of annual adoptions and providing a more visual assessment tool to help animal welfare organizations select qualified adopters.

Neon signs witness the history of Hong Kong, says Brian Kwok from PolyU’s School of Design

Hong Kong has been renowned for its night scenery for many years, and one of the reasons is undoubtedly the neon signs that have lighted up the city in the evening. Brian Kwok, Associate Professor at the School of Design of PolyU, who is particularly interested in the neon signs, will share more about his research project on this subject.  Brian had his training in visual communication design in the United States, after which he worked in various multimedia design firms and advertising agencies. He then pursued further studies and obtained an MA degree in Design from PolyU and an MA degree in Visual Culture Studies and an MPhil degree in Communication from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Brian started his teaching career at PolyU in 2006 and he is now the leader of the BA (Hons) in Communication Design programme and the Information Design Lab...   Read full story

"Private Banking and Wealth Management Futures 2030" by Jorn Buhring

Jörn Bühring, Assistant Professor of PolyU Design, has published a book "Private Banking and Wealth Management Futures 2030". This book engages the reader around different perspectives between forecasting and foresight in strategic design, drawing insights derived from a futures study that can be applied in form of a design-inspired foresight approach for designers and interdisciplinary innovation teams increasingly called upon to help envisage preferable futures.   Now available at Springer: https://www.springer.com/in/book/9789811633942