Mon, Apr 22, 2002 page18

• Expat design guru making inroads into China

  After years of hard work and dedication, British interior designer Mark Lintott of Mark Lintott Design has earned his company a much-envied position in Taiwan's stagnant industry: the luxury of being able to pick and choose his projects. Just back from Shanghai and currently in talks to do Cashbox's first outlet in that red-hot city, Lintott spoke with `Taipei Times' staff reporter Joyce Huang last week about how he got to where he is today -- and about the outlook for the industry.

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  Taipei Times: Your most recent projects include major entertainment hot spots like the Core Pacific Center's (京華城) Plush disco, Cashbox's (錢櫃) newest outlet on Chunghsiao East Road and East Asia's largest KTV, V-Mix. What makes Mark Lintott Design (MLD) such a big hit in Taipei?

  Lintott: I believe one's background and experience growing-up direct most of one's life. Design is no different: the ideas and images that appear in your work often have close connections with memories from one's formative years.

  I grew up mostly in England. My father was in the oil business and as a result our family lived in New York for 4 years. I had a great childhood and teen years, which were split between boarding school in England and New York during the holidays. When I first came to Taiwan, entertainment -- or the recreational side of life -- was pretty much non-existent.

  

  Mark Lintott, head of Mark Lintott Design, makes a point about the cross-strait interior-design market.

  PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES

  But in the last five years or so activities outside of the office environment have become more of a priority. In addition, the economy had been very strong and people are travelling overseas a lot more. I've always enjoyed entertainment and social activities, so it seemed like the right time to be a little more focused in what we do. Over the last 3 to 5 years we've shifted emphasis from a wide range of work -- shops, houses, restaurant and furniture design -- to more or less a 50/50 split between entertainment/hospitality and residential projects.

  We do a lot of entertainment venues, which are quite high-profile. But we also do a large amount of other work in high-quality homes for some of the beneficiaries of the "Taiwan Economic Miracle." That work is more discrete and is published rarely, but that's really a very important part of the business -- and a part I particularly enjoy.

  TT: What is it about coming from a British design background that was most strikingly different from the Taipei market?

  Lintott: The contrasts between the two diverse cultures and their approach to design is what struck me as the most interesting. My early working background was in London, where I lived for 10 years.

  When you transpose all the mental baggage that builds up in another country and culture and put it inside Taiwan, it suddenly all takes on another meaning.

  In Europe, social attitudes are slightly different. People there like socializing in crowds and are happier in large groups such as in restaurants or clubs.

  Here in Taipei it's traditionally quite different. When I first came here it was not unusual to go to good restaurants and find no customers inside because many customers preferred eating in private dining rooms.

  That attitude still exists to some extent today, as people still like a little bit of security and have trouble opening up or letting loose in public. Even if you're drinking in a bar or pub, many customers still prefer private rooms -- out of the public eye.

  By contrast, some of the best clubs in London have been warehouses or factory spaces which you simply fill with people and the crowd makes the party happen. Design takes a back seat. Although attitudes are changing it's still sometimes hard to make a place "buzz" because the crowd is different and a little more restrained.

  English society, though, also has a veneer of respectability on the surface -- the English "stiff upper lip" or "don't show your emotions" behavior. Below this surface are undercurrents of dissent and rebellion -- and the friction between the outer and inner "faces" can be very creative.

  For a small country the UK has produced a large amount of creativity from fashion to music to art -- even to methods of doing business. A great deal of Rock and Roll music and fashion comes from this conflict.

  TT: What kind of business strategies have you had to adopt here to accommodate the local client base?

  Lintott: Business strategy is sometimes a tough concept for designers to grasp. Let's be honest: Design is fundamentally less a strategy-driven business than, say, making bicycles or computer chips. It's not about selling a product, it's about selling ideas or emotions and that's sometimes hard, both to market and to plan for.

  The only strategy I have had since I started the business is to do the best possible job I can within the circumstances. I find it hard to hand over something that I don't think is 100 percent right -- no matter what the outcome. From an accounting point of view that may not always be a good thing financially. However, I strongly believe that if you do your best possible work, then the clients will always come back for more. Also, I think long-term relationships are much more worthwhile than the "fast buck" and are always a better investment in the long term.

  TT: What major differences exist between commercial and residential projects?

  Lintott: Business owners always have their own specific requirements such as room size -- bar here, dance floor there, etc, etc. In Taiwan, the goal of commercial work is to help them see a return on their investment, quickly. Decisions are normally based on a simple plan towards turning a profit so it's relatively easy to predict and plan for that. Residential clients are slightly different. Owners are firstly making decisions based on their emotions or feelings and lastly on their budgets. They are buying into a quality of life with no foreseeable financial return. This work is less predictable but these days most of my clients let me get on with the job and make a positive contribution, rather than detracting from the work. I enjoy the relationship that builds up over the longer term of a residential renovation than, say, the more cut and dried organization involved in commercial work.

  TT: You are quickly developing a reputation for designing residences for local celebrity clients and for some big shots in the semiconductor industry out in Hsinchu. Name some names! Who have you worked for?

  Lintott: I did a house for Wu Bai (伍佰) a couple of years ago. This turned out to be a very rewarding job. He is a fascinating individual with a unique take on life. I like him as a person very much. He's a smart guy and his private life is very different from his "on stage" persona. He's definitely a rock star, but his attitude toward his house was very restrained and mature. He was very insistent on making it very calm, very un-rock and roll.

  Unlike many clients, he can look at a plan and a sketch and understand both the physical ideas on the paper but also the more abstract intention or feeling I was trying to communicate. He would make very practical comments about ideas and could contribute to them -- a task many people have trouble doing. He is very happy in his home and every time he sees me says how much he like living there. That's sometimes worth much more than some fat profit.

  I later had a hand the stage design for Wu Bai and China Blue when they travelled around Asia a couple of years ago. That was also an interesting experience. We are also working at the moment on homes for people as diverse as the owners of one of the major chipmakers, Pacific Cellular and B&Q.

  TT: How is it to work in the local industry as a foreigner and how strong is the local competition?

  Lintott: The competition here is not necessarily design competition. Of course there is competition in any business and that's a very positive thing. Competition here for me though is much more to do with the practicality of producing the work. As a foreigner I am naturally -- and always will be -- excluded from some aspects of a project, either deliberately or otherwise.

  When I first came here, there were very few decent design companies. Now, there are a lot of good design firms here, such as J.R.V. (吉瑞凡國際) who, among other things, do all the Eslite bookstores (誠品). They're good business people with a strong design direction and there is also Ernest Guan (關傳雍) who is also a very good designer. We did the Ritz Landis Hotel in Taichung together and he also worked on the Ambassador, I think, and some of the original Sherwood Hotel.

  TT: So Cashbox has asked you to design their first outlet in Shanghai?

  Lintott: Cashbox was in touch last week and we've been hired to work on their new sites in Hong Hong and Guangzhou -- and later on a large site in Shanghai. We are negotiating the contract with them right now.

  They are a well-managed and successful group and we have a good working relationship based on doing their flagship site in Taipei, opposite Chung Hsiao Sogo department store, a few years back.

  TT: Did last year's economic recession affect your business?

  Lintott: No, luckily last year was one of the busiest we've had. Although the year started rather miserably with phones a bit quiet, the pick-up was amazing after the first quarter. I am not really part of the mainstream commercial design business; what we do is a little bit more specialized. Actually, the recession is a good time for commercial groups to get more realistic -- and our work often seems to add value to a project, so we've been kept well occupied.

  One positive aspect of the recession is that firms are made to think very carefully about what they do and what they should be doing in the future. People can get pretty lazy and complacent during boom times.

  TT: Are you planning to set up in the China market someday?

  Lintott: I am not in a big rush to go live there before the transport links open up, but I think a lot of our work in the future will come from China.

  The last thing I want to do is to rush over all excited, open an office, invest in staff and everything else -- and then sit around for a year waiting for the phone to ring. There's a lot of hype attached to that market because of its sheer scale -- but we're in no real hurry.
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