Andrew Mau

Andrew Mau is a Chinese American designer who grew up in Honolulu. At 22, he’s a recent graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design (where he focused on furniture design) and Punahou School (the high school that President Barack Obama also attended).

Mau talked to Creative Cat about his work and aspirations. Read on!



How did you get into art?
My interest in art/creative pursuits began at a very early age. My humble beginning with Play-Doh and crayons led to ceramic classes at the age of 9, and the pursuit of anything creative during my high school years. I have an interest in teaching and learning as much as possible, and have ventured into jewelry, glass blowing and casting, ceramics, essentially anything three-dimensional.

What do you want to do now that you've graduated?
Now that I've graduated, I would love to continue designing. I am looking for work in New York City, and hope to find it soon. Ideally, I would be designing for a large company for now, but would love to own my own design firm/company in the future.

What's your favorite piece that you have created so far? Why?
I hardly have favorite anythings in general. I don't have a favorite color or a favorite designer. I tend to find some pieces I've done significant or important to my growth, while not necessarily my favorites. My piece PERCH, the porcelain bowl with feathers that was shown at ICFF in NYC this May has had the most press, and drawn the most attention, however I feel as though it does not demonstrate the clean design that I am more attracted to. I enjoy ELLIPSE (the table for John Maeda) and SLIM VESSEL, the bent laminated wood vessels that won the 2009 Niche Student Award, because they both demonstrate a simplicity that I strive for.

What's your biggest design pet peeve?
My biggest design pet peeve is the mass of uninformed "green" products. Bamboo is a great resource, yes, however, the processing and glue it needs to be used as a planar material, seems to outweigh the "ease" of this material. I think the most "green" thing we can do is invest in quality, and change our disposable lifestyle. Buying used or vintage pieces instead of new pieces from IKEA would decrease waste period.

What's your favorite trend that's happening now?
I don't really have a favorite trend. (As I mentioned before, I'm not a type for favorites). I enjoy mixing materials and using them effectively, and can most appreciate the direct application of materials in their most effective solutions. I design like an engineer, understanding each materials properties and using them effectively in this sense. I would never design something out of wood, just because I could, I would much rather consider a material that would be appropriate for the construction of that particular design.

What are your five favorite Web sites?
I like facebook, dislike twitter. I play Settlers of Catan online. I have many design websites that I enjoy, but none worth mentioning in the top five. I am rarely online, and enjoy the outdoors much more. I love Trendy Blanks for affordable clothing, and also enjoy dumb video clips on YouTube.

Kitchen central

Rethinking the kitchen, via Designboom and Dornob.

Feel the flow

Jennifer Tran is a recent graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, and is now based in Brooklyn. The last photo features Tran's Flow Chair, which was featured at this year's International Contemporary Furniture Fair.

"The Flow Chair was born from extensive form exploration, trial and error, and pure chance," said, a native of Texas. She would heat the plastic until it was malleable, then free-form shape it by hand. Sure beats playing with Play-Doh. Or does it?

Link love

The design blog Seeds and Fruit has an interesting interview with furniture maven Maria Yee. Her work can be seen at Crate & Barrel and Room & Board, among other retailers. Check out the interview here.

Also out there on the Interwebs, The New York Times style section is featuring (their definition of) "up-and-coming" clothing designers, including Prabal Gurung, 30, who was born in Singapore and grew up in Nepal. It's a good read.