CRAVE HONG KONG & MACAU
Design Stars
Text by Debbie Soo, photos by Samantha Sin, June 2014
Take three art and design professionals and put them together in a room with a photographer and the results are bound to be fun. We laughed away a rainy afternoon with Candace Campos, Laura Cheung, and William To at a photo shoot in Cheung’s whimsical sanctuary, Lala Curio, a home décor brand that specialise in embroidered and hand-painted wallpaper.
All three are players in Hong Kong’s design scene. Campos and Cheung work in interiors and To is senior consultant at Hong Kong Design Centre and its flagship Business of Design Week (BoDW). Campos and Cheung though young, they have a wealth of experience.
With both parents in the decorative arts, design is in Cheung’s blood. After winning the Parsons Interior Design Award from Parsons in New York, she took a masters in fine and decorative arts at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London and honed her professional skills at various corporations before setting out on her own.
Laura Cheung has spent three years in China, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia growing her production network and building her home decor and lifestyle brand, Lala Curio, which is where our shoot has taken place.
“Building the Lala Curio flagship and creating products, including hand-painted wallpaper, has been my most significant project to date because it covered every aspect of what I have learned through my design and work experience. From branding, creating one-of-a-kind products, like our hand-painted wallpaper, developments, graphics, to packaging, merchandising, visual merchandising, interior decor, retail, and events hosting …” she says.
Rewarding though it may be, working with clients on interior design projects comes with its own set of challenges.
“For a first-time homeowner or restaurant proprietor, it’s important to set realistic expectations,” Campos says. “If the client has never experienced the building process before, I need to spend more time helping them understand what’s involved. There’s a lot of compromise to hit deadlines and budgets, so it’s been a big learning experience in flexibility, problem solving and plan Bs.”
Cheung adds: “Because design is a service-based industry, it becomes a hard battle to fight when things keep changing. You have to be open to discussion and try to understand their needs while voicing your professional advice with grace and courtesy.”
While Campos and Cheung tackle interiors, To has his sights set on building and promoting the city’s design scene. The experience he has amassed with Hong Kong Design Centre and BoDW is proving invaluable for tackling such a large-scale project as PMQ.
“With the relationships I’ve established in the local and international design communities working on BoDW, I’m able to leverage my experience and connections to bring interesting content to PMQ and our tenants,” To says. “We weren’t able to take on the opportunities that came to us in the past owing to lack of space. With the opening of PMQ, we are able to collaborate and create programmes that benefit the design community and our tenants.”
“We desperately need to nurture young creative talents to build a sustainable economy,” he says. “We need a creative culture to strengthen our role in Asia. Continuous effort from the government and our design community through creative events and projects will raise awareness and value of design. We are already seeing an increase in enrollment at design schools, which is very encouraging. Creative education opens one’s mind, which ultimately benefits our society.”
We look forward to seeing the results.
Founder and interior designer, Laura Cheung Wolf’s house is an art itself. This place is a combination of love, family, and her view of art. Laura decorates every corner precisely by using refined decorations, chinoiserie furniture, and hand-painted wallpaper.