Jonathan Biddle – Made in Taiwan

Tag: Design

  • DEM inc : The New Office

    I haven’t really said too much about the new office location. Over Chinese New Year we shifted from the sticks of Shilin to the bright lights of Keelung and Jhongxiao. Downtown baby!

    The investment in the new place is impressive, easily putting it on par with many European offices. The office is small (we seem to have instantly filled the place), but has impressive detailing and intelligent use of space. Energetic, and a professional step up in the world.

    The down side is certainly that I had to cancel Chinese study with Michael in Tienmu. We had a good six month run of continued study together with the school near my old work, and more or less on his way home. It was a very pleasant way to stay in touch. The shift to the new downtown school on An He Road (and now six hours a week, up from four) is good, but I do miss a language study partner.

    The shift in geographic focus is having some interesting side effects. I am cooking far less at home, now I am in such easy proximity of my friends, and all the bars. And in general I am spending less time at the apartment – not that I was ever at home much anyway. So, I need to be more careful about my sleep patterns, which remain pretty eratic.

    I’ll put a bunch more photos up when the professional shots come back from the developers, but for now here is a shot from the recent grey days of Taipei early spring… now replaced with glorious sunshine and outdoor beers!


    101 at lunch

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Lord of the Rings

    “The cameras go live to the nation in 1 minute … please tell us about your design concept …”

    Arriving at a client to find five teams of cameramen with journalists is alarming. And being told to talk to five blinking red LEDs about your concept with 35 seconds of preparation time is certainly a new experience for me. Welcome to the world of Celebrity Wedding Ring Design!

    The ring leader


    Smile for the camera

    Two months ago Demos – my boss – was on Taiwanese celebrity Tao Zi’s television show being interviewed. Unfortunately for him, he lost a bet which ended with him committing to design her wedding ring. Famous across Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and the whole Asian region (think Chinese Oprah), I am sure it seemed logical to ask a Brit designer with no jewelery experience to deliver the goods.

    The end result – a diamond, cut in half and concealed under an ergonomic bulge … more details of the design to follow, I am sure

    I knew on Thursday that the press release had been passed onto the media. Finding out it was in every major daily paper on Friday was rather a shock – especially since I had not seen it in the flesh at that point. I had been warned to dress up a bit on Friday (obviously, I still didn’t shave) but I was not so prepared to speak into six microphones at short notice with a brace of pretty interviewers fluttering around me. A blur.

    Tao Zi on the left – also with a bump. Demos looking cheeky down below

    As I left work, in a daze after the afternoon, text messages and phone calls started arriving from friends who had seen me on different channels (in between reports of the election – it wasn’t even a slow news day). I headed over to Nelson’s place to watch the TV and make use of the split screen function to keep track of the TV stations. Typically, two hours passed before I saw myself, and Nelson had to endure my jumping around pointing and screaming at the TV.

    My five minutes of fame!

    Deeply surreal
    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Telly


    Edward works it

    I had an amusing reminder that my boss is a celebrity in Taiwan when TV crews arrived for an interview for a local fashion show. Bertie, Kate, Charlotte and I more or less took the piss for the whole time, contemplating ringing Edward’s cell phone, but wisely we restrained ourselves. The two brothers – Edward and Demos Chiang – are more or less a cross between Richard Branson and Prince William, and as such telling girls who you work for more or less has them on the floor. I would never do such a thing, of course!

    As an amusing post-script, when the crew left they popped the power for the building, and as such I lost a bunch of ProE development … after some swearing and looking less than friendly, the fashion model host came over to apologise to me. Again, I had no idea who she was, but apparently she is quite a celebrity. I should find out her name and the name of the show really, eh.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • DEM – The New Office

    Life is changing quickly for me. A new apartment and a new job are two significant differences in my life, that should both bring some good benefits. The new office certainly stimulating and I am really looking forward to my job developing over the coming weeks. For now, I should introduce to Prada – the office bitch.

    Prada assists

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…