MICHAEL LAU KIN-MAN is a designer with street cred. His action figure series 'Gardener' and 'Crazychildren' are legendary both here and in Japan. His latest creation, 'Lamdog', has become an instant cult hit among youngsters and collectors alike.
Not bad for someone who started his career, like hordes of aspiring graphic designers, on the drawing board.
'I used to focus on drawing and graphic design, but I found making action figures a lot more fun than two-dimensional designs,' says the 31-year-old, who is also an animator. 'It's like a drawing that you can look at from all angles.'
Though Lau is renowned for his action figure series, the artist has also designed CD covers for local indie music bad boys LMF. He says he collects ideas from people and events around him and that 'design is to reconstruct destruction'.
Lau belongs to a whole new generation of young and versatile designers who have a finger in every pie. Graphic designs, computer animation, 3-D imaging - you name it, they do it, for love as well as money.
Designer Frank Chan Wah-hung, who is also in his 30s, is the mastermind behind the CD cover of Canto-pop star Aaron Kwok Fu-shing's latest album and a Levi's ad poster last year. He believes design is a form of communication and a good design has to be communicative and artistic.