Ti Chang wants the future to get weirder

Every designer knows the familiar adage “form follows function.” But industrial designer Ti Chang has given it her own spin by adding a third element to the equation: “Form follows function and emotion,” she told me on a recent phone call.



Ten years ago, Ti Chang invented a new category of sex toys with Vesper—a small but powerful vibrator hanging on a necklace. Just last month, she launched Tease—an even smaller, even more powerful engineering marvel sitting proudly on a ring. In an industry that is heavily dominated by men (only 18% of industrial designers in the U.S. are female), she has carved out an unusual path for herself by designing pleasure jewelry. And in a society where design and manufacturing decisions are often led by hard data, she has chosen to follow her instincts and design something she wanted to see in the world.



[Photo: Crave]



Chang is one of our judges for this year’s Innovation by Design awards. In this interview, we talk about the state of industrial design today (homogenous), why it’s crucial to include women when designing products (fewer blind spots), and why more designers should find the conviction and the courage to make the things they want to see in the world (so the future can be weirder).



We also talk about death (not in too morbid a way) and the inevitably awkwardness that arises when you tell your parents you want to design jewelry for a living. (The interview has been lightly edited for clarity.)



How long have you been practicing design?



I’ve been practicing design since 2002, so that is about 22 years. I was lucky enough to work as a designer straight out of college, and then I worked for a few consumer-product companies and then I went back to grad school [to study industrial design at the Royal College of Art], then decided to start my own thing.



And what are some things that you worked on in those years?



My first job was with Goodie products, the hairbrush company. I was their first industrial designer hire in 2002. Then I worked on a line collection that I led the research and the design of, called Ouchless Hairbrush Collection. That was in the market for a really long time. Then I worked at Trek Bicycle, and I was the first woman on a team of 13 guys.



Marvelous. So how has your relationship with design evolved in those 22 years? What mattered to you then versus today?



When I started practicing design, I very much wanted to solve problems and create solutions for people. Form follows function, you know; that’s a very classic and still venerable and valid pursuit. But now I tend to follow another equation, which is form follows function and emotion.



I am now most interested in emotional connections and experiences that a product can create. The best way I can illustrate this is with the Vesper vibrator necklace. It wasn’t created with a functionality of like, an orgasm-on-the-go. It was created with this highest intention of beauty and respect, which then, in turn, created a beautiful, respectful conversation about pleasure. And as a piece of jewelry, people naturally have an emotional connection with it. And that emboldens them to talk about their desires, and it makes the intimacy less awkward. And, as you know, in the world of intimacy, conversation is the key to removing the shame and stigma.



Do you think that emotion has typically been absent from the way people design, historically speaking?



Absolutely. I think the creative spirit is driven by emotion, but especially for big companies and brands, they won’t make decisions based on emotion. They will only make decisions based on hard, proven data. And oftentimes, we just don’t have those answers. And it’s because we live in a capitalistic society where if it’s not measured, it’s not valued. And I think that is really, really sad because we miss out on things that are helpful to humanity. And when you come up against business managers or companies with a system who have this hardcore stance on having data for everything, that is at our own detriment.



That must make it all the harder for you to bring something to market, or even develop something when you don’t have the data. You had no data with Vesper, right?



No. When I started designing pleasure in my late twenties, I was definitely still trying to understand my approach and who I am as a designer. In 2008, when I started my first company, which eventually became Crave, it was also the last recession. And there is a history of really interesting companies that come out of the recession, and we [industrial designers] were one of the first to be fired, to be perfectly honest. It was hard for many creatives to even find work. If I’m not going to make much money, I’d rather not make much money and just go after something that I’m really interested in so that’s a long way of saying that I started designing pleasure jewelry because I didn’t see anything like it on the market. And I just had an instinct. I just felt that this could be something people might want because this is certainly something I know I want.



That makes sense. While we’re on the topic of pleasure, I have to ask: How does your family feel about this? I feel like you must have some fun stories.



[laughs] Oh my God. Okay, shorthand: They’re all very proud of me, but the way they show it is very different. My siblings—I have two sisters and a brother—they support me, they buy my products for weddings, for birthdays, or divorce parties. My mom, she says they’re nice, but she doesn’t want one [laughs]. My dad, he finally stopped telling people I teach English in China, so that’s good. It’s very hard, I think, for a father to reconcile, like, my daughter designing sex toys. His mind goes in the gutter, but my day-to-day life is nothing like that. It’s not that exciting.



So, it seems like the stigma around sex toys still remains even within your family—and of course the rest of society as well. I wonder if you feel a sense of responsibility to challenge that, and to your point, to move the conversation forward.



Yeah, I think for better or for worse, I’m an activist at heart, and that influences how I approach design. Because I really want to make meaningful products to serve people. And especially for industrial design, because for industrial design, things are manufactured in huge quantities, so there’s also responsibility there: You don’t want to make more waste. So, for me, it’s really fulfilling to be able to make products that serve people, but also I am most interested in making objects that didn’t exist before, to be able to change people’s perspectives on a topic that I think is really interesting. Pleasure is one of those. And I think death is also very interesting.



Has death been on your mind as a designer?



Oh, absolutely. Because when I started working on pleasure, I realized that the most important things that we will all be impacted by, such as sex, death, and money, are all things that we find taboo to talk about. And in the area of death, I just think we do not die well. We don’t put effort into making that better, and I just think it’s a missed opportunity.



So, wait, are you actively working on something in this field, or is this like a side thought of yours?



It’s a side thought of mine, for sure.  I have to tackle one taboo at a time because I only have 24 hours in a day. [laughs]



I hear you. Okay, switching gears a little bit. You wrote in your email that it is rare for women designers to be given a platform to speak about design. And I wonder if you think this is particularly true in industrial design.



This is absolutely true in industrial design. There’s data about what percentage of the industrial designers who are practicing, compared to male designers. Less than one-fifth of practicing industrial designers identify as female. When there is such a gender imbalance, a lot of women feel they have to fight to be heard and even respected. And some women that I’ve spoken to want to be in a better workplace. And for them that means completely changing their career altogether because at least they have more female peers for camaraderie and support.



This is also not taking into account the work environment on the manufacturing side. It is often not comfortable for women to go on these manufacturing trips. And I think this is an unspoken secret almost nobody talks about because there’s this pressure to party and to drink with suppliers, and sometimes inappropriate things can happen. So, on top of just normally working your way up the ladder, you also have to have a kind of grit and determination to stay in the game.



I wonder if the fact that female industrial designers have been few and far between and the absence of emotion in design that we were talking about earlier . . . I wonder if that has to do with the fact that for much of history, things were designed by men.



Bingo. Bull’s-eye. We’re in a capitalistic society, and it is male-dominant in nearly every profession, not just industrial design. And there’s a certain type of way that men and women think and talk about things. And I know this is a sweeping statement, but there are certain sensitivities that women possess. If women are not even a stakeholder in the creation of a product that is meant for them, or even meant for the general population, you’re going to have a massive blind spot. Women have suffered a lot of product injustices over the years. And I think that having a more balanced team of people working on products and experiences and environments will just result in better outcomes.



Okay, big question: How do you feel about industrial design in the industry today?



I feel there is a homogenous look and feel to the industry right now because we have become an industry that serve brands, big companies. And I would say this worries me because then we miss out on interesting products from creative perspectives. If an industry only serves certain types of customers, then the individual voices cannot flourish as easily. And I just don’t want us to miss out on the creative spirits and the interesting takes on things that we don’t even know could exist. And I hope for the future that things get weirder. And I think the people who can do that, who can be sensitive and be comfortable with fuzzy data, I think they will find themselves in a much stronger position.



How close are we to that world, do you think?



I think we have some infrastructure in place that can help, with more crowdfunding platforms, with the shrinking down of manufacturing and sourcing, and with new technologies. I think we have some bits and pieces that are really there to support it—but ultimately, we need designers and creatives with the conviction and the courage to go after what they want to make and to have that courage to make the things they want to see in the world.



That’s totally fair. What’s a design pet peeve of yours?



Lazily made products.



How do you define lazy?



Lazy is when you can tell that it wasn’t made with full consideration of the audience. You can tell because it most likely looks like a copycat of something else. Something lazy lacks a certain aesthetic sensitivity. It lacks a certain quality to the way it’s made, and it lacks an innovative take.



What worries you the most about the future of industrial design?



That we become a society that does not value things that we cannot quantify.



And what excites you the most?



Seeing creatives in their element. Going to art shows, going to galleries, being around people who are doing wild and crazy things that you can tell is because it’s in their heart and soul. I just think that is the most beautiful and stunning thing. And to be in that orbit of creatives, it is so invigorating and inspiring.