#launchingnow

The Olivia Cruets by Maia Ming Designs are an exercise in cross cultural ceramics. Reflecting Ming’s own background (she is Scandinavian and Chinese) the vessels would feel at home on both Asian and European tables. Crafted by hand in Portugal in glazed stoneware, the medium is traditionally Asian, yet executed in a style that could be labeled as ‘European’.

Milkster sat down with industrial designer Maia Ming to talk about her background, influences and new EVA teapot and cups that are launching on Milkster today. Below is a transcript from the interview. The EVA teapot and cups are available on milkster.com – a marketplace for products that come straight from the makers. Inspired by Eva Zeisel, the teapot is curvaceous and elegant, and has a great pour, too!  Find out more below:

MILKSTER: So, Maia, what is your background?"

Maia Ming: Well, I studied product design at Stanford... and grew up in Italy - I'm a little bit of a 'cultural mix'. I was born Hawaii, but my dad is Chinese and my mom is Swedish. When I was ten we moved to Rome – which was great and is why I speak Italian, and also why it was easy for me to work in Italy... 

I went to Stanford and I discovered the product design program. I didn’t really think I wanted to go to art school because I didn't know you could become a designer. I thought if you went to art school you had to become a serious fine artist, so I kind of fell into the product design program by accident – you know they're very flexible at Stanford – you can run around shopping for classes, checking out different things. So my friends and I said lets go and check out his product design class! And I just loved it, so I majored in product design and I had some really great mentors at Stanford - people like David Kelley from IDEO...

MILKSTER: So what then brought you to Barcelona? 

MM: I was living in the bay area when my children were born and I was working for Ofoto – where I was the creative director – and before that I had been working as the art director for Giro Sport Design. What was really nice about Giro was that it was a smallish company – but it was definitely going places, up – and as art director there I got to do everything. I was doing product packaging, catalogues, and product graphics – everything really. In this case I really got to have my fingers in all aspects, which was nice.

But when I got married I said “I cant live in Santa Cruz forever" – so we moved to San Francisco and I started work for Ofoto. But then the dot-com thing happened and I was full-on with two kids by then – so we moved to New York, where my husband was running a brewery. He's Belgian and went to business school at Stanford. And we were doing this this until I said, "I can’t take it any more – I don’t like living in a village with 2000 people in upstate New York!" So we moved to Barcelona.

MILKSTER: Ahh! How lovely – was it a tough decision to settle on a place?

MM: Actually, my husband has a start-up in Rwanda and we thought about moving there for a while – and I tried to do a collection with some craftspeople there, but Rwanda is really far away. I designed a whole jewelry collection in tin – combined with sisal. It was really lovely and I had orders and everything; I had even flown to Rwanda a couple of times to help them produce it, but in the end they couldn’t deliver. They wanted me to fly to Rwanda and help every time we had an order, so it was unsustainable – now my husband works there, going back and forth, and I live in Barcelona with the kids.

MILKSTER: But when you usually design things do you go to a manufacturer? Or do you create yourself? Do you look for a brand?

MM: Well I have been evolving my process. When I was in high school in Rome I used to spend a lot of time in the art room and was obsessed with making stuff in ceramics – but I was completely self-taught. I had no formal training in working with clay – we were just messing around. So when I was in Cooperstown in upstate New York, there was a wonderful ceramics studio. I wound up taking my kids to classes there and then realized that I really wanted to be doing ceramics too!

… So that helped me get back into it as more of a hobby and I started making all these pieces. I'd have little shows and people would want to buy them, but I really hate making one-offs and selling them.

MILKSTER: You need volume, right? 

MM: yes. you get it. so when we decided to move to Spain, I was like, “Ahh its so different here!” So I joined a ceramics studio near my home. In New York I was doing consulting for a lot of sports companies, designing bike helmets and backpacks and stuff like that. But when I got to Spain I decided to take my ceramics from one-offs to small series’, the first being these salt and peppershakers. And I made those and I said "Oh! This is cool!" – so I kept going. 

But I also thought, “What am I going to do with just three sets of salt and peppershakers?” When I go to trade shows I’ll need more stuff, so I sold some in the USA through a distributor, but what I really wanted to do was have more and more done in Spain, where I am based. The factory where everything is made is just a half-hour form my house, so it’s much easier…

MILKSTER: So then what is your inspiration for the EVA?

MM: Well, it’s not just called the EVA because that sounds good. It’s really a tribute to her [Eva Zeisel]. I wanted to make a teapot that I thought she would appreciate and enjoy drinking tea out of herself. She also has a teapot like EVA, but hers is very different – she’s much more famous for it. But I had been playing around with different teapot shapes and I wanted to make one that was like a bottle, but tilted. I think that the shape really lends itself to a good pour and it’s very elegant shape, too – but not overdone. 

Actually one thing that Antonio Citterio said to me when I was working with him was, “You have to make products that are timeless looking – they have to look and feel as if they could have always existed,” and I think that’s what I was trying to do with the EVA, trying to make a modern classic. It will still look as contemporary and good in 25 years as it does today. 

MILKSTER: and now the Milkster Questionnaire - If not yourself, then who would you be

MM: I think there are people I would like to be for a little while, but not permanently. Frank Ghery is definitely one. I'd like to be in his head for a little while and see the way he views things.

MILKSTER: What is your idea of perfect happiness?

MM: I think perfect happiness is very ephemeral – you have to recognize and appreciate it while it’s there. I think happiness comes in many forms, but it’s important to understand that it’s not a permanent situation 

MILKSTER: What is your most treasured procession?

MM: I am really attached to my mac, I would have a really hard time without it… plus some David Hockney prints I am very attached to.

Originally from Hawaii, Maia Ming Fong infuses her work with the aesthetics and symbols of two distinct cultures: Asian and Western. Born to a Swedish mother and Chinese father, Maia embodies her designs with Asian and Scandinavian themes, resulting in designs of a unique cultural fusion with a focus upon tactile details. 

Raised in Italy, where she discovered an early love for ceramics, Maia later received her degree in Product Design at Stanford University. Maia worked for many years as an art director and design consultant in Italy and the United States.