Industrial designer Michael Young has backed Hong Kong as a creative hub.
Young told an audience of international designers, architects and design enthusiasts at an international design event in Brussels about the creative opportunities he had found in Hong Kong after settling in the city 10 years ago.
He was speaking at a lecture organised as part of Brussels Design September, which encompasses over 100 cultural and commercial events in Belgium’s capital city. For a month, Brussels becomes the international meeting platform for designers, who can follow a route through the city, visiting retail shops, pop-up stores, arts and craft workshops, galleries and cultural venues along the way, and attend conferences, exhibitions, the Commerce Design Awards and the Brussels Design Market.
The event, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, received the support of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Brussels (HKETO, Brussels) and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council to showcase business opportunities in Hong Kong for European designers.
Cultural and creative industries are important economic drivers for Hong Kong and are growing rapidly. They employ around 200,000 people and contribute over euro 11.5 billion to the economy, almost five per cent of Hong Kong’s GDP.
Young set up his studio in Hong Kong in 2006 with the assistance of Invest Hong Kong. From Hong Kong, Young had set up a distribution network around the world. He created some iconic designs, ranging from headphones and furniture to glassware, watches, bicycles and lighting, and won many awards.
He said that unlike in Europe, where the design business was more tightly structured and predictable because it was already so long-established, “what’s beautiful about being in Hong Kong is that you never know what is around the corner”, serendipity often providing inspiration for new projects.
This is the second time Hong Kong is featured at Brussels Design September. In 2013, HKETO, Brussels and the Hong Kong Ambassadors of Design brought a delegation of Hong Kong designers to stage a fashion show under the same campaign, to celebrate Belgium as the partner country of the Business of Design Week in Hong Kong that year.
“International designers find no better place than Hong Kong to turn their creativity into business. A relatively small city of 7 million people, Hong Kong is a showcase in Asia for the latest local and international fashion and designs,” explained the HKTDC.