卜佳新 Jiaxin Bu / 邹训楷 Xunkai Zou / 王白十 Baishi Wang / 陈星宇 Sing Chan /
刘知礼 Zhili Liu / 张雷 Lei Zhang / 张周捷 Zhoujie Zhang / 周宸宸 Frank Chou /
叶隐 Yin Ye 邹志铭 Zhiming Zou (WUU) / 杨熙黎 Lily Yang 朱晖 Hui Zhu (吱音ziinlife) / 侯正光 Zhengguang Hou (MoreLess) /
沈宝宏 Baohong Shen 谭晓慧 Xiaohui Tan 李延军 Yanjun Li 张霞 Xia Zhang
朱春燕 Chunyan Zhu 张秀英 Xiuying Zhang 孟凡亮 Fanliang Meng 刘青海 Qinghai Liu (U⁺)

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3 eras in 3 volumes,
to present the past, present and future of Chinese furniture design

regular issue: MADE-LAND 2021
special issue: MADE-LAND 1920s-’90s
special issue: MADE-LAND 2050

into's inaugural issue "MADE-LAND" presents the past, present and future of Chinese furniture design in three separate volumes. In "MADE-LAND 2021", we discuss the status quo and challenges encountered by design thinking involved in traditional Chinese manufacturing. In "MADE-LAND 1920s-'90s", we invited artist Lanqing Zhu to complete a set of visual creations, restore the simple emotions of Chinese families and furniture in the past few decades. "MADE-LAND 2050", based on the development history of the past 30 years, we try to infer what Chinese design might be like in 30 years.

Regular Issue: MADE-LAND 2021

228P
Chinese-English bilingualism
190×270×20mm

Magazine into aims to understand and record common sense and phenomena. In this issue, we have focused on the relationship between design and manufacturing. In the past ten years, when the furniture design industry has entered a period of time with more possibilities, more and more designers and brands have emerged with fresh ideas. What they have to face first is who can help them with production? When drafts, ideas, and models have to eventually become products, factories would have to get involved.

On one side it is a brand-new design industry that is still in the developing stage, on the other side it is the Chinese manufacturing industry known as the world's factory, and there is a rapidly changing and renewing market between the two. What should a designer do? How can brands resolve their own production problems? Is there an ideal relationship between design and manufacturing? We brought a lot of questions with us at the beginning.

In this "MADE-LAND 2021", we disassembled our confusions into several dimensions that might be answered: manufacturing locations, designers and brands. We also invited the photographer Xunkai Zou for pictures documentary. Through in-depth interviews and on-site visits, all the information was collected and pieced together and then verified. Gradually, we got the clues that we would agree with.

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We invited young designer卜佳新 Jiaxin Bu, 王白十 Baishi Wang who had worked as a journalist of a city magazine and photographer 邹训楷 Xunkai Zou, to Guangdong together. We try to produce "a piece of record" of traditional Chinese manufacturing: real, trivial and non-macroscopic. In our opinion, this is also a necessary beginning before exploring the whole topic.

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The "Bird Lamps" that many people are familiar with was designed by 刘知礼 Zhili Liu in 2006. This product was reported by many overseas media at the time and attracted countless copycats. It was not until 2012 that Zhili Liu began to experiment with mass production, which was finally settled in 2017. Zhili Liu has spent a long time looking for a balance between design, market and manufacturing.

The three main creative designers of 品物 PINWU, 张雷 Lei Zhang, German designer Christoph John, Serbian designer Jovana Zhang, they based in 青山村 Qingshan village, Hangzhou with their team to conduct research and practice of traditional Chinese handicrafts. As PINWU is very clear that they are a company that only focuses on R&D and innovation, they found their own manufacturing solution.

Ten years ago, 张周捷 Zhoujie Zhang began to form his own digital design exploration. He taught himself programming and craftsmanship, and learned how to use algorithms to build a vision for the future of product design, bringing his works to life one by one with his hands. His biggest challenge now is the "application barrier": mass production and affordable - digital design eventually lands back to the most fundamental manufacturing.

周宸宸 Frank Chou's designs used to be produced in Italy and he has been working with domestic original design brands such as HC28 and 梵几 FNJI all these years. Regarding the topic of design and manufacturing, what he cares about is not the concrete difference brought by regional culture, but more about the systematic rules under the background of society and eras.

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In Xiamen, WUU has been constantly exploring the most suitable way to work with factories in the past few years. They have solving problems with limited resources of Xiamen, while also self-examined and have been trying to find a solution from the inside.

For over 7 years, 吱音 ziinlife has grown into one of the most highly regarded original design furniture brands in China. They retain their product at a reasonable price with an expected quality standard, ensuring that design is the priority and it solves common issues in life. Lily and Hui Zhu are looking for a balance between these elements.

多少 MoreLess gained rich experience cooperating with various manufacturers, and was slowly looking for more ways to express modern design with wood craftsmanship; and then reflect these experiences back to design, in order to deepen and enrich the concept of brand.

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U⁺ has nearly a hundred workers and 15,000 square meters in its Jinan factory, which is still a small enterprise in the traditional manufacturing industry. In the 12 years since its establishment, the three aspects of factory, brand and design have been growing closely together. The greater challenge comes from the search for an ideal symbiosis relationship.

Special Issue: MADE-LAND 1920s-’90s

50P
Chinese-English bilingualism
190×135mm

"MADE-LAND 1920s-'90s", we invited artist Lanqing Zhu to complete a set of visual creations. Lanqing and I are old friends. From the first day I wanted to make magazine into, I talked to her about what we should do together. In her works, the individual's life, the characteristics of the times and the local culture are all connected together, locked in a restrained yet emotional perspective. She also won the Three Shadows Photography Award, the Barcelona International Photography Awards and the Jimei × Arles Discovery Award etc.

After collecting and organising thousands of old family photos, Lanqing created this series of "On the Chairs". She set the theme on a single furniture, "chair". In the interview she wrote:"'Made in China' not only produces furniture, but also our lives." - We put it on the cover of this volume.

As Lanqing set her creating direction for this special edition, Rose and Ray from the (shame-on-you) office came out with the initial idea of design. The design of "MADE-LAND 1920s-'90s" was inspired by 90s family photo album, bound with helical coll.

Special Issue: MADE-LAND 2050
10 CONJECTURES mirror cards × 10
black instruction card × 1
10 OBSERVERS interview leaflet × 1
A FULL RECORD OF DESIGN COMPASS brochure × 1
190×135mm

An into special edition with Design Compass - an exhibition presented by Shenzhen Creative Week and Ximi Li

李希米 Ximi Li / 蔡烈超 Mario Tsai / 林凯西 Kaixi Lin (JNBYHOME) / 黄莎莎 Shasha Wong (swaying) / 陈福荣 Furong Chen & 王在实 Vega Wang / 杨征 Doris (Kvadrat) / 厉建伟 Jianwei Li (HC28) / 杨智杰 Terence Yeung (Tales) / 冯敬辉 Paul Fung (Fredericia) / 梁伟 Nelson Leung (casa casa)

"MADE-LAND 2050" is a special edition invited by Design Compass - an exhibition presented by Shenzhen Creative Week and Ximi Li. As the curator of the Design Compass, Ximi Li wishes to explore the future possibilities of the Chinese design market through the exhibition.

Special Issue: MADE-LAND 2050
10 CONJECTURES mirror cards × 10
black instruction card × 1
10 OBSERVERS interview leaflet × 1
A FULL RECORD OF DESIGN COMPASS brochure × 1
190×135mm

An into special edition with Design Compass - an exhibition presented by Shenzhen Creative Week and Ximi Li

李希米 Ximi Li / 蔡烈超 Mario Tsai / 林凯西 Kaixi Lin (JNBYHOME) / 黄莎莎 Shasha Wong (swaying) / 陈福荣 Furong Chen & 王在实 Vega Wang / 杨征 Doris (Kvadrat) / 厉建伟 Jianwei Li (HC28) / 杨智杰 Terence Yeung (Tales) / 冯敬辉 Paul Fung (Fredericia) / 梁伟 Nelson Leung (casa casa)

"MADE-LAND 2050" is a special edition invited by Design Compass - an exhibition presented by Shenzhen Creative Week and Ximi Li. As the curator of the Design Compass, Ximi Li wishes to explore the future possibilities of the Chinese design market through the exhibition.

We interviewed 11 designers and practitioners related to the exhibition. From their micro-experience, we try to infer what Chinese design might be like in the next 30 years.

"MADE-LAND 2050" contains 1 instruction card, 10 mirror cards, 1 brochure and 1 interview leaflet. Readers can read the silver cards in any orders. Each card represents a "conjecture" about 2050.

On the back of each card, our conjecture is explained in details. At the same time, each card has a corresponding index, which can be interspersed with the red brochure "10 Observations" to understand how the conjecture was projected.

While developing the concept of "MADE-LAND 2050", we tried to carry on issue 0's "unconventionality", using printed materials as a carrier to engage more readers; meanwhile, our working method which is built on editorial-driven in-depth content should still play an important part in this volume. After a thorough consideration, we reach a balance with Ray and Rose from the (shame-on-you) office. These conjectures on the cards are not unrealisitic. They were concluded from our in-depth interviews with 11 practitioners from the industry. Based on the past 30 years and a sufficiently broad perspective, they gave their imagination of China's design industry in 2050.

At the beginning, we set the theme as "Made in China". However, as the interviews progressed, we felt that these three words would not completely represent the topics we wanted to discussed."MADE-LAND"means man-made land in English. Yet in Chinese, we translated to "manufacturing location" to correspond to it. In our understanding, we and all the interviewees are participating in this process of exploration.

For "MADE-LAND 2021", we interviewed more than 20 individuals; in "MADE-LAND 1920s-'90s", Lanqing Zhu based her artworks on collected family photos, restoring the simple emotions of Chinese families and furniture in the past few decades; In "MADE-LAND 2050", together with Shenzhen Creative Week and Ximi Li, we discuss the promising future of Chinese design, with more possibilities to surpass the present.

During the time of making this issue, the most interesting thing was the coexistence of "uncertainty" and "complexity". We followed up the questions that may lead to the answers step by step, obtained a large amount of interview data, stripped out the core information from it, and then refined and established logic.

In the whole process, we were getting closer and closer to the answers. However, we have found that perhaps they were not exactly answers anyway. This is what I found the most interesting part of making a magazine. We worked through this complex interpretation with all the interviewees.

The design of this issue has been completed in cooperation with Ray and Rose, our good friends from (shame-on-you) office. With them and our team members together, into could be presented fully.

With a fully understanding of magazine into, Lanqing Zhu created an artistict content in a limited period of time. The team of Shenzhen Creative Week and Design Dome, along with Ximi Li and Linkai, are all very supportive towards our work, they show fully respect during our collaboration.

We would like to express our special thanks to Nelson Leung from casa casa. In 2018, he discussed with us the topic of designers and factories. With that conversation as the starting point, we developed the idea of deepening such a topic.

After the last issue of the magazine was published, many readers inquired about our future contents. We do not limit the selection of topics to stories from the designers' perspective. In this industry with no prior conclusions or experience, we wish that the topics we discussed can relate to every individual. Therefore, whether it is sales, brand, or market, there is a possibility of topic selection in any of them. In the future, we will continue to publish more stably. Thank you to every one of our interviewees. Thank you to all our readers and everyone who has been following us on this journey.

Editor in Chief 许亦舒 Sue Xu / Editor 龙玲 Ling Long 胡哲娴 Zhexian Hu 周婧 Jing Zhou / Coordinator 林依惠 Lori Lin / New Media Designer 高瑾 Kim Gao / Translation 洪菁 Jing Hong / Intern 郭璐桐 Lutong Guo

Photographer 邹训楷 Xunkai Zou / Contributor 王白十 Baishi Wang / Designer 山洪泥设计工作室 (shame-on-you) Office 林倩如 Rose Lin 陈冠仁 Ray Chen

Special Thanks 深圳时尚家居设计周 Shenzhen Creative Week 设计万象 Design Dome / 邱林凯 Linkai Qiu / 王晓雯 Xiaowen Wang

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