At the marquee design fair’s 10th edition last month, Tatler Homes sat down with its event director Zhuo Tan, who shared her thoughts on supporting emerging designers in mainland China and beyond
Tatler Homes visited the 10th edition of Design Shanghai, which took place from June 8-11. Bringing together established and emerging designers from mainland China and around the world under one roof at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center, it offered a series of exhibitions, installations, design forums and networking events. This year was the biggest-ever edition of the event: it featured 600 brands and more than 1,000 product launches, and saw more than 77,200 visitors.
At the fair, we sat down with event director Zhuo Tan, who has been working on Design Shanghai since its infancy. Under her leadership, Design Shanghai has evolved to become one of Asia’s leading international design events. Design Shanghai’s Talents scheme, launched in 2020, is a particularly notable milestone: it is a mentorship programme that works with emerging young designers and provides them with career guidance, as well as the opportunity to showcase their work, and is curated by 2017 Gen.T China honouree Frank Chou. Here, Tan reflects on this year’s event, and the work behind the discovery of young designers and how she hopes to nurture the next generation of talent.
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There’s a lot of good energy at this year’s Design Shanghai. How has this experience been for you?
I was quite overwhelmed by the crowd on day one, because you never know [how it would go]—and this is the first year [we have hosted the event] since China opened up [post-Covid]. A lot of people have come up to me to say the show feels really different. It’s our ten-year anniversary, and we’ve kind of dressed up the venue. We’ve divided the sections into three floors: kitchen and bathroom; furniture; and lighting and accessories, so you know exactly where to go.
How has Design Shanghai evolved over the years?
When Design Shanghai first started, the design industry within China was still in its infancy. The greatest change we’ve witnessed these past ten years is the rise of Chinese brands and designers participating in the show and gaining global presence.
In the first edition of Design Shanghai, only one local brand participated, while this year, over half the design space is filled with local talent, with 100 Chinese designers being showcased.
