Alan Chan
Alan Chan is one of the city’s favorite designers, perhaps best known for rebranding such omnipresent Hong Kong companies as Fairwood, Bossini and Kee Wah Bakery. The design guru talks to June Ng about lessons learned during more than 40 years in the industry.
I was born in the 50s. My dad ran a fruit shop, and he had two wives at the same time. My mom was the second. I have four siblings in total.
Sometimes I wondered if they were really my biological parents. I am so different from them. Both my mom and dad were poorly educated—they had no interest in style. But I admired modern and Western styles from afar.
When I was a child, I loved drawing Mickey Mouse. I also made furniture out of empty fruit boxes. When I got older, I decided to switch to an English-medium school. I was held back a year because I wasn’t up to the class standard.
My secondary school life was very simple. I was the vice-captain of my basketball team and a runner. I spent most of my time training or dealing with love letters from girls. My waist is still 27.5 inches even though I don’t exercise now.
I got into design because of those girls. We were pen pals, and we became interested in design. One day, I walked by a design school on the Wan Chai waterfront with one of these ladies. We decided to enroll in a two-year course. At the time, I was working as a substitute sports teacher.
I dropped out pretty soon after. Courses couldn’t fulfill me. I had already gotten a job at a 4A advertising agency anyway.