“In my view, cassettes and film rolls are containers of memory; business card holders and flowerpots are containers too, hence my combining these memory-type elements in their design,” he explains. Similarly, his magazine cover pillowslip and mirror designs bring celebrity to people’s daily life and give them a sense of escapism in the home. “And of course, I have plenty of fun creating my designs,” Bai reminds us.
Cartoonist and sketcher Zhao Yu, who also goes by the moniker Black Lichee, is another member of China’s originality pioneers. Zhao doesn’t allow himself to look at other people’s work, and he finds this helps him creatively. “Jimmy” (a renowned domestic artist) used to be my favorite cartoonist, but when people said that my work was similar to his, I decided the only place in which I’d search for inspiration in the future would be my own head. I still have to consciously try not to copy Jimmy’s style when I draw.”
Zhao feels that he’s currently at the peak of his creative abilities, and has quickly gone from penciling out simple figures to publishing cartoon books and now cooperates with companies in developing products. He channels new ideas every day and sees no problem in profiting monetarily from his work, saying, “My love of drawing is not for money, but of course earning it helps me to keep doing what I’m doing.”
Indeed designers in general have become more pragmatic and practical in recent years in the quest to transform their concepts into marketable products. As Beijing manager Yang Yun notes, “Originality and industry are related to each other like fish and water – without industry, originality can’t grow and spread, while through originality industry flourishes and diversifies.” No Easy Going
The sole proprietor business model like the one used by Bai and Zhao is the basis of China’s creative industry, which includes cartoon creation and clothing design as well as the transformation of ideas into industrial products and daily necessities. More and more “creative industry” products are finding their way into the homes of ordinary Chinese families.
Whilst young designers are adept at transforming their ideas into marketable products, there are still issues they must grapple with in the process of production and distribution. “There is another, more sinister way to determine the success of a design – whether it is copied or pirated,” laments Bai.
Although four of Bai’s most successful products are patented, three of them have been involved in protracted intellectual property courtroom battles. Bai won these cases, but still paid substantial lawyers’ fees and suffered losses in earnings. “I was awarded RMB 6,000 in compensation, but I still had to pay RMB 10,000 in legal costs and spent a lot of time on the case,” says Bai with a bitter smile.
Bai maintains that in copying only the most obvious, external features of the design, imitations actually distort the designer’s original intentions. In other words, you can copy originality but you’ll miss what the creator was trying to say.
In contrast to Bai, Zhao isn’t all that pessimistic about copyright infringement. “Actually I think I should probably thank the intellectual pirates – if it wasn’t for them, my cartoon figures wouldn’t have become well known enough for me to create and sell related products.”
With novelty being a salient feature of creativity, people usually require some time to fully accept these new products. Some products will appeal to only a relatively small market, and the designers won’t go on to sell millions.
Due to limited funds and the nature of his products, Bai’s handiwork can’t really be mass-produced. Sales volumes are low so many manufacturers are unwilling to accept his production requests. Indeed, low supply and low profits mean many shops just don’t stock his products at all.
When Zhao first sought out publishers for his drawings, he was turned down domestically. It was only after his work was published in France that local companies finally caught on to his talent.
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