Who is she? The 28-year-old creative director of Innermost, an edgy lighting and interior-design studio with showrooms on Hong Kong's Hollywood Road and in London. Hong Kong-born Leung was inspired to design by her architect father. After a year studying architecture at the University of Hong Kong, she completed a product-design degree at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, in London. Before joining Innermost in 2003, Leung had stints at Shanghai Tang and Alan Chan Design.
What is her job? 'I get a lot of freedom with in-house designs. We also work closely with designers from around the world. Handling product development alongside designers such as Michael Young, Shin Azumi and Winnie Lui, I get to learn a lot from the way people work; the way they approach design.'
How does she work? Leung takes the touchy-feely approach. 'I'm not the kind of designer who would sit in front of a sketchpad and do loads of drawings; I'd rather get materials in and play with them, understand their properties and see what I can get out of them.' Her comically named Kaboom and Kapow lamps were the results of a month of 'playing' with tubular acrylic nylon in the studio.
What's her design philosophy? Leung likes to push the boundaries of perception by stretching the limits of materials. Her gravity-defying ceiling lamp, the Buckle (above), capitalises on the warping and reflectivity of 0.3mm-thick circular stainless steel to create the illusion of lightness and liquidity despite the piece having a 120cm diameter and weighing 20kg.
What's next? She's recently been put in charge of expanding Innermost's accessories and furniture ranges and is working to complete a series of 'counter-intuitive' vases in time for next year's design fairs in Paris and Milan.
