Mainland designer taps Kickstarter for laser-cut homeware collection

A champion of digitally generated designs, he aims to raise about US$15,000 on the site to fund his stainless steel "digital vessels", which are laser-cut, sculptural pieces with a futuristic bent. His campaign is scheduled to start this week.

But at Digital Lab, his studio in Shanghai, the 29-year-old Ningbo native is grappling with a request for an interview via Skype. One would assume, because he works closely with computers to produce "logical patterns" to shape objects, that he surrounds himself with the latest technology.

Not so. "I use a camera to control a laser-cutting machine, but I don't have a camera on my desktop," he says with a laugh. "I have a very old computer."

When Zhang realises that the powers of the internet would allow him to show off his studio and creations, he says, "Hang on, I'll Skype from my phone." Five minutes later, he is seen at a large table full of digital vessels.

Zhang is perhaps best known for his Mirror chairs, insect-like reflective pieces that are custom made to mould to each owner's bottom perfectly. But he hopes to kick-start his latest collection with an arty, stainless steel tray that, from some angles, resembles the accordion-like throat grooves of a baleen whale.

Kaleidoscopic shapes dominate the rest of his collection. The designs are guided by rules that Zhang encodes in a program, but the vessels also require human craftsmanship, making them unique. A computer-generated pattern is first laser-cut from a sheet of paper, which Zhang folds by hand to create a 3-D shape. The best, or most feasible designs are developed into vessels using sheets of steel.