Think of it like this: If you want to help someone, you don’t start by guessing their age, job, or hobbies. You start by asking, “What are they struggling with?”
Students from the Design Master Class (CAMPUS.YGN)
d4m.city speaks with Eric Lee, the founder of design agency Refruit and more recently a design school in Yangon CAMPUS.YGN, who shares his beginnings and experience setting up his business and running a design school in Yangon.
“I have heard from other people about how hard it is to retain Burmese staff, but actually it isn’t as long as you give your staff members a sense of family and belonging.”
“…many of the respondents wanted a new way to learn design, seriously and in-depth.”
Share with us how it began for you and Refruit.
Refruit started after I left my previous job at Creative Technology Singapore (the creator of mp3 player) in 2007. I decided to leave as I wanted a break from the corporate lifestyle and focus on freelance work during my own free time. After freelancing for three months, I realized that I had to register for a company’s identity as commercial work came in which meant that payments had to be made through a corporate bank account. That’s when I decided to formally set it up.
Why the name Refruit?
Since I was going to be with this new company for a while, I thought it’d be ideal to choose a meaningful name, not just a cool one. A name that will remind of how and why I started, and how each chapter in my career and work would end with a purpose. Today the name refruit is still relevant with the setting up of CAMPUS.YGN as it is also perceived as a kind of a restart to what I had set up initially. If we take the time to break down its etymology:
From old French, from latin fructus, ‘enjoyment of produce, harvest’, from frui ‘enjoy’, related to fruges ‘fruits of the earth’, plural (and most common form) of frux, frug- ‘fruit’.
This interpretation aligns to my belief of what I hope and want to achieve. I want to be able to enjoy the process and results. And every start is also a restart/rebirth, hence the word ‘refruit’. Coincidentally even our work embodies the notion of a restart, or a fresh start, when we have had projects to redesign websites.
From a tiny red dot island to unfamiliar Yangon. How did things begin in Yangon and what have you come to discover and learn as you began to set things up?
I was lucky to receive help from a friend, Zeya from Code2lab, and I managed to set up a two-person team in 2014, upon the request of an international company to support their work. I thought it was a good opportunity as I had also wanted to see how things progress in a digital leapfrog country. So I decided to pack my bags and leave Singapore. Today, our Yangon team has grown to 7 members and I am proud to say that they have been with me right from the beginning since I started the team. I have heard from other people about how hard it is to retain Burmese staff, but actually it isn’t as long as you give your staff members a sense of family and belonging. This is what I have come to realize starting out in Myanmar.
I have also realized how hard it is to hire design talent. I visited several design schools here in Yangon and was surprised to find many of them offering software training, instead of a curriculum that teaches design concepts and theories. Having been an educator in Singapore for 10 years, I felt that I could do something to turn this around and contribute to the creative industry in some way, hence the setting up of this school. But it was only in December last year that we decided to set it up because it was an itch that we needed to scratch. We pitched the courses through Bar Camp and Facebook Advertising and we were surprised with the response; many of the respondents wanted a new way to learn design, seriously and in-depth.
Students learning the colour theory through painting the colour wheel
What do participants expect to gain or learn from attending your courses?
We designed the curriculum in such a way that the participants will be able to develop a strong foundation of design and exposure to different design tools. But most importantly, they will learn how to learn. Designing is a lifelong pursuit so it is essential that we train our participants to be well-equipped with relevant knowledge and skills.
In running your school, what are some of the challenges that you have had to face?
I think the main challenge has been language barrier as our classes are conducted in English. Although we have a translator to assist, it remains a challenge for the participants to understand certain areas and design terminologies as there are hardly any Burmese language equivalent.
Secondly, most of the students have full-time jobs so they can only attend classes during the weekend. Most of our instructors we hire come from abroad so logistics planning has also been challenging. That said, we are on the lookout for anyone who may be interested in part-time teaching.
What are your future plans for the school?
We are planning at this stage a short design course. Besides graphic design, we are looking to also engaging design instructors from various creative industries to share their knowledge with the people of Myanmar. I believe we can create a mutually-beneficial learning environment and culture.
The design school is our first milestone; our second is the setting up of a design/material library over the coming months and we are lucky to have recently received support from Basheer Singapore.
We hope that our efforts can contribute to bettering the design scene and improving design talent in Myanmar and create opportunities for designers in Singapore to explore the creative scene and culture in Myanmar.
Singapore and Myanmar Team. From left (Julite, Mhu Htet, Htet Aung, Zhiyang, Sandy and Ngu Wah).
Designing the on-boarding experience for an App
Learning the importance of teamwork through marshmallow challenge
This article was first published on d4m.city. d4m.city (design4myanmar) is an online design magazine and platform — the first in/for Myanmar — dedicated to modern designs and creative work in the fields of architecture, interiors, design, travel and lifestyle and more.
