Sands Corporation have been shortlisted for 2 Categories in The International Hotel and Property Awards 2022.

Name: Alan Chan
Company: Alan Chan Design Company
Position within company: Founder and Creative Director
Website: https://www.alanchandesign.com/

Tell us a little about your background in design (education, experience, etc)
I started my career in advertising industry as design apprentice in 1970, and attended just a 10-month design course in evening school. But I was fortunate to work with expatriate creatives at four international advertising agencies. Established in 1980, my design company has developed a total branding service that provides end-to-end focus on branding, product innovation, interior design, art programme through strategic market analysis.

How would you describe your personal interior design style?
I have been in the advertising and design industry for 50 years now, and I have always emphasized the importance of market research, to see what the market demands. While my design works will need to fulfil the needs of the market, I always try to cultivate new interior experience that breakthrough from market conventions.

I am primarily active in the Asia market, but with my British-influenced education background, I have established a design style that blends the East with the West, which is something I consistently bring to my audience.

It is also unique that a lot of my interior projects is deeply rooted in Asian culture and aesthetics and came with a strong underlying art programme, they are site specific with bespoke curation that includes commissioned artwork co-created by artists and me.

Where does your design inspiration come from?
My inspiration is a mixture of details from every-day life and travelling experience, and a lot from my appreciation of the Asian culture.

If you could offer one piece of advice when it comes to interior design schemes, what would it be?
That the design needs to be functional. For interior design specifically, the spatial planning should arouse curiosity.

How important are The International Hotel & Property Awards as recognition of talent and achievement?
While all awards and recognitions make a benchmark for a profession in any industry, The International Hotel & Property Award is taking up that role in the design industry.

What projects are you currently working on?
ZNS a groundbreaking jewellery shop opened in Hong Kong last November, created with joint-partnership of Alan Chan and K.S. Sze & Sons. In this project, the role as a Creative Director involved creating the brand as a whole, including its naming, its positioning, its products, and most importantly, the store interior design at Hong Kong Prince’s Building.

The partnership is significant because it symbolizes the coming together of art and science, since Alan represents the infinite possibility in art while K.S. Sze & Sons is a Harvard scientist who devotes to the timeless planet. This beautifully translates into the strong brand DNA behind ZNS, “FROM ETERNITY TO INFINITY”.

It was an adventurous and a fun project to do, and the store presentation was worth highlighting. Given that the target audience is the millennials and Gen Z, they don’t want to be told of what to do. To align with that lifestyle and fulfil their curiosity, the store was designed to display jewellery behind a single-way mirror, which only lights up when the audience walks close to trigger the sensor. Combining with a futuristic visual concept, the jewellery was displayed on natural stones in the silhouette of mountains, a journey of discovery was born to define unique customer experience.

What was your favourite project to work on and why?
Always my next one. I am always appealed to projects that I have done in my life before, so I am looking forward to trying new projects, they never fail to give me new inspiration.

What was your most challenging project to work on and why?
The most challenging but also one of the proudest projects of mine would be the Genting Rouge project for Genting Malaysia back in 2015. It was a massive project that covered interior design and art programme curation. The amount of time that we dedicated to perfecting it was significant because we had to commission artists to work specifically with our art programme based on Asian culture and aesthetics, and everything was site-specific to at its finest.

Final thoughts; tell us a little more about yourself and your daily inspirations:
Your most treasured possession? I keep over ten thousand collections of art, precious books and objects in my office to fuel me with endless inspirations.
Your favourite holiday destination? Kyoto in Japan.
Your favourite hotel, restaurant & bar? Favourite hotel is Park Hyatt Kyoto by Tony Chi. Favourite restaurant would be Caffè Stern in Paris by Philippe Starck. Favourite bar is NITI located inside Gion in Kyoto.
Your favourite book, film & song? Book: The Costume of China, Film: The Tourist, Song: One Moment In Time by Whitney Houston
Your favourite food and drink? Japanese cuisine is my favourite, and I like and drink Chinese tea every day.
Your favourite way to spend an afternoon? With a Cohiba cigar and a single malt scotch whiskey.
If you weren’t a designer, what would you be? I would have likely been a musician because I love music. It is powerful to create vivid imagery in our head and capture a lot of emotions and memories.
Anything else interesting? My iPhone photographic series iEye-ai from 2010 is worth mentioning, it is a series of photo that I captured instantaneously during my business and leisure trips in China, Japan and overseas. It was exhibited in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Milan, Beijing, Osaka and Singapore. 

Sands Corporation have been shortlisted for 2 Categories in The International Hotel and Property Awards 2022.

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