Ben Chiu: Fair Producer & PR at Taiwan Designers’ Web (Taiwan)

Ben is the producer of the Taiwan Designers’ Web which is a major design show held yearly in Taiwan. It features hundreds of designers and artists from around the world showcasing their work along with world renown brands and companies playing an active role in helping designers get their products to market.

You can find out more about Taiwan’s Designer’s Web at http://designersweek.tw.

How did Taiwan Designers’ Week come about?

Starting from 2007 with bunch of designers working in computer industry like ASUS / acer etc. came out with an idea of creating their own independent design festival.

The purpose for this is to design the platform for designers to showcase their ideas and observations of the daily life. They quickly realized the event came out with a big success and since than made it an annual event up till now.

I joined Taiwan Designers’ Week in 2009. We extended the scale and change the structure from that year, not only concept ideas but also let in the design brands were allowed to join. Basically we’ve build up from nothing to the scale of the biggest design festival in Taiwan.

Taiwan Designers’ Week hosts more than 200 designers and over 50 brands are participating. We also curate lots of many events during the festival, including talks and design workshops.

How did your background in teaching including your Master’s Degree in Industrial Design help you with organizing these events?

During my study I was the student president in my university, I think it was more important the degree and teaching background itself. I gained some good experience of how to organize people and tasks.

What are some of the things you’ve done for Taiwan Designers’ Week that helped you generate the most PR for the events?

Because of the tight budget we are mostly using social media to “go out” and connect with our audience. We share the process of how we are building up the whole structure step by step so people can follow our progress.

Last year we also had a countdown project that we involved the famous designers (for example Gijs Barker) to promote us. We also work closely with our sponsor to curate interesting events that will attract the audience.

This year we work together with our sponsor Toast (http://www.toastliving.com) and famous Taiwanese graphic designer (Aaron Nieh) presenting a limited edition mug. It worked out very well.

How do you go about attracting sponsors, exhibitors and artists/designers to be part of it?

It’s not easy to find the sponsor in Taiwan, strictly interested in the design event. Once we reach a target we work closely with them. In exchange we help our sponsors to create an attractive, vibrant campaign to reach wider market (our audience). This year the concept was to promote our sponsor’s new product (lunch box). Four designers were set up for a challenge of creating a “lifestyle like” food composition and a photo-shoot.

Regarding to the exhibitors I feel our offer is inviting enough to attract the right amount of designers and brands.

What has the feedback been like thus far?

We’ve got great feedback so far, including the international design media and foreign designers. They all liked the quality of presented works and the vibe. Artists participating in our event are mostly young (average age around 30+), it really shows that design culture is really blooming here, it’s full of energy and fresh ideas.

Can you share a few stories about some of the major wins you’ve had with the Taiwan Designers’ Week? Have you had a designer become a breakout star? Helped launch an exhibitor or generate massive buzz?

Although our exhibition is a great way to connect with the audience/media or part of marketing campaign for the artists, I wouldn’t say that any of designers became famous just because our exhibition. On the other side we are strongly proud of many of the artists as they continuously growing up through the years. It is worth to mention that despite their young age they are already receiving important awards.

One of the examples could be Poetic Lab – Hanhsi Chen and Shikai Tseng. The duo claimed winner of the design report award, and third prize of Salone Satellite Award, both with the project Glass Ripple.

What are some of the logistics involved with setting-up these events? How many people are involved with launching them and how do you see these shows going a few years from now?

It takes us four days to build up the whole structure (around 3000m2, this year).

We only have five people staff working on the logistic site, we cooperate with a graphic designer and an installation designer on the set. During the exhibition we are supported by around 100 volunteers.

Every year we have around 200 designers and close to 50 brands – including countries like Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany, Israel.

In the years to come we want to gradually grow more international, continuously attract talented designers, brands and media from other countries. We also would like to have closer cooperation with other design shows in Asia. We strongly expect the festival to spread out throughout the whole city, making it alive in the design culture involving in workshops, talks and smaller events.

You’ve launched a number of exhibitions thus far, can you give me an idea of some of the workshops, known designers and general attendance to them? How much of the visitors are local vs international?

The workshop space is individually provided to the designers, the artists curate their independent program without being influenced by TWDW.

TWDW is more focused instead on Design Talks – last year we had on board famous Gijs Bakker and CEO of Design Boom – Briget.

Generally speaking, how much support to designers and artists get from educational institutions and government program to help them become popular and make a living from their creativity?

There are several projects worth to be mentioned, the designers can apply for the support from governmental organizations like Ministry of Culture or Taiwan Design Centre, etc. Generally they are many different projects the designers can get involved with but it is to early to judge how sustainable they are.