Native & Co Combine Craft and Design to Promote Japanese and Taiwanese Culture
In our series profiling designers based in the UK and Europe, we talk to London-based designers and curators Native & Co.
In the second of our new monthly series, profiling designers based in the UK and Europe, our Editor at Large Katie Treggiden talks to London-based designers and curators Native & Co.
British-Japanese Chris Yoshiro Green and Taiwan-born Sharon Jo-Yun Hung met while studying on the art foundation course at London?s Chelsea College of Art. They both went on to study product design at Central Saint Martins and bonded over their shared love of cultural projects that were perhaps more conceptual than commercial ? Sharon?s graduate project focused on the social identity of Taiwan?s indigenous tribes, while Chris explored the rituals of Japanese funeral ceremonies. ?Looking back, I think our tutors noticed that we were a team, but were a bit perplexed by our ideas,? laughs Sharon.
As products of a course that, at that time at least, was more focused on training designers for industry, their path since graduation hasn?t been typical either. They divide their time between designing and sourcing homeware made by craftspeople in Japan and Taiwan for their Notting Hill shop Native & Co and collaborating with governmental bodies in Taiwan and Japan to promote their respective cultures, cultivating the ?soft power? of the two nations through craft. ?We are product designers who focus on Japanese and Taiwanese tableware,? explains Ch...
In the second of our new monthly series, profiling designers based in the UK and Europe, our Editor at Large Katie Treggiden talks to London-based designers and curators Native & Co.
British-Japanese Chris Yoshiro Green and Taiwan-born Sharon Jo-Yun Hung met while studying on the art foundation course at London?s Chelsea College of Art. They both went on to study product design at Central Saint Martins and bonded over their shared love of cultural projects that were perhaps more conceptual than commercial ? Sharon?s graduate project focused on the social identity of Taiwan?s indigenous tribes, while Chris explored the rituals of Japanese funeral ceremonies. ?Looking back, I think our tutors noticed that we were a team, but were a bit perplexed by our ideas,? laughs Sharon.
As products of a course that, at that time at least, was more focused on training designers for industry, their path since graduation hasn?t been typical either. They divide their time between designing and sourcing homeware made by craftspeople in Japan and Taiwan for their Notting Hill shop Native & Co and collaborating with governmental bodies in Taiwan and Japan to promote their respective cultures, cultivating the ?soft power? of the two nations through craft. ?We are product designers who focus on Japanese and Taiwanese tableware,? explains Ch...
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