L’École de design Nantes Atlantique

10/29/2012

Fabien Grégoire, who graduated from the school in 2001, has lived in Japan for nearly ten years and is now Director of the Kenwood Design Corporation. An active alumnus, he has worked on several industrial projects with L’École de design’s Asia Campus. Here is some feedback on his experiences.

Fabien Grégoire
Fabien Grégoire

You are the Director of Kenwood Design Corporation and you decided to work with L’École de design with students on the Transcultural Design China and India programs: what do you get out of this partnership?

The level of enthusiasm, motivation and curiosity shown by the students, both in China and India, is quite remarkable. During our various projects with the students, their balanced views and insights were greatly appreciated both by my Japanese colleagues and our local partners. Thanks to their observations and experiences gained each day, the students become valuable co-workers with sufficient perspective on their own culture and that of the host country.

For the past two years Kenwood has chosen students from L’École de design as instigators of fresh ideas: what conclusion can be drawn from this experience?

Of the two collaborations that Kenwood organized in 2011 and 2012, the majority of the projects were successful. We were pleasantly surprised by the students’ insight, their capacity to define their design question and to raise certain issues which we had overlooked or simply ignored in our previous research. The idea of getting French students to work on the future of onboard navigation systems in India or future means of communication in China stemmed from a genuine interest from the JVC Kenwood group. Their research enabled us to find similarities and to confirm certain concepts that we were in the process of developing. The group is currently looking at certain projects in particular, in the hope of organizing another collaborative project with L’École de design in the near future.

Resty
Resty project by F. Brougère with Kenwood

You have been living in Japan for several years now, can you tell us about the role of the designer in Asian society?

Asia is probably the greatest source of design opportunities in the world, across all sectors of activity. L’École de design’s initiative to open other schools in Asia was truly ahead of its time. Many European companies are now locating their departments directly in Asia, seeing as they’re already designing and producing out there, and taking on more and more designers and researchers; the Asian markets have become a survival priority for a great deal of these companies. Certain markets are so complex that it’s impossible to understand their specific characteristics from the outside. So, what’s the solution? This is where designers hold the trump card. Due to its role in the company, design is the ideal interface for understanding market trends, users, strategy and production. The designer is basically a creator and an entrepreneur. It’s this very same logic which is primordial for the Chinese or the Indians, as well as for the Japanese: creating, inventing, innovating, anticipating, producing, etc. The rapidly improving quality level in developing countries means that the “Made in” label is now irrelevant. It’s the people in charge of the manufacturing process who make the product and who encourage the company to be innovative. Regardless of the geography, models are changing. The previous generation of designers, specialists and experienced professionals, is making way for a new, multi-skilled generation. With their international experience, they can integrate and influence the company through different departments such as research or product development, or even create new departments dedicated to innovation. Considering the interest of the younger generations for design in Asia, I can only welcome future developments and rejoice that design in business is finally gaining the recognition it deserves.

Resty
Resty project

Why did you choose to work abroad as a designer?

I had the amazing opportunity to do my final year work placement in Italy where I started working freelance with foreign clients. At the end of my studies, I needed a challenge and an external viewpoint to find out if “designer” was really the right job for me. Encouraged by this experience, I then set myself the goal of starting my career abroad, seeing other countries and learning from other cultures. After several speculative applications, I had to make a choice between England, Germany and Japan. Seeing as I’d already spent time in the first two countries, the opportunity to discover Tokyo was too good to refuse. There are some things in life that have to be done, and for me, visiting Japan was one of them. The rest is a choice and a desire to connect with the world and other people. There may be pitfalls and misunderstandings along the way but the career prospects more than make up for it.