The National Palace Museum As a Case Study for Client-And-Industry Collaboration in the Design and Development of Museum Products

THE NATIONAL PALACE MUSEUM AS A CASE STUDY FOR CLIENT-AND-INDUSTRY COLLABORATION IN THE DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF MUSEUM PRODUCTS

YO-WEI CHANG

A thesis submitted to The University of New South Wales for the degree of MASTER OF DESIGN (HONOURS)

College of Fine Arts School of Design Studies The University of New South Wales August 2013

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Date 30 August 2013

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ii ABSTRACT

Since 1970s, contemporary museums have taken a far more active role in promoting themselves through management and marketing than before. Several internationally well- known museums, such as the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art have been undergoing this process. The National Palace Museum (NPM) is also following this trend. Since 2008 the NPM has played the role of promoting cultural and creative industries based on Taiwan government policy. Under the concept of “Old is New” introduced by the NPM, the museum hopes to engage younger audiences in Chinese culture and promote its image and collection by holding museum product design competitions and the “Workshop for cultural and creative development” to interpret ancient creativity by contemporary design concept. By collaborating with industry, the NPM hopes to engage and nurture young talented designers in Chinese culture, and market its brand through the designers’ creative interpretation of the museum collection.

This research focuses on the NPM and the “Workshop for cultural and creative development” as case study. The NPM workshop aims at educating and nurturing designers with knowledge of Chinese culture through its collection so that the designers can present new interpretations of old designs. The workshop was examined for the collaboration between the NPM and five selected design companies that participated in the development of museum products. Qualitative data collected from interviews with NPM staff and design companies were analysed to identify the various levels of collaboration and responses, and types of outcomes in relation to the museum’s aims.

Research findings show that various issues affected design process and the collaborations between the NPM and participating companies, such as the interpretation of collection, creativity of design concepts, and difficulties in production. Design companies also responded to the workshop in different ways. The workshop is also a channel not only for the NPM to seek potential partnership, but also provides participants with an opportunity to collaborate with the Museum. Nevertheless the workshop demonstrates potential as a management strategy to facilitate the relationship between the NPM and the cultural and creative industry in the design and development of museum products.

iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First and foremost I would like to thank Associate Professor, Leong Chan and Mr. Ian McArthur, my supervisors for their expertise, understanding, constructive criticism, and time invested throughout my candidature at the College of Fine Arts. I am appreciative for your supervision and editing assistance.

Thanks to the curator, Ms. Chou Kung-Shin the section chief of the National Palace Museum, Ms. Sun Hung-Ling for the gracious assistance in facilitating the interview for this research. Thanks to the NPM staff from the marketing, education and administration divisions who gave their assistance kindly.

Thanks to the companies (JIA, Chullery, Taiwan Textile Research Institute, Billy King Jewelry, and Bright Ideas Design) which participated in the interview and provided their valuable experiences and information for this research. Without your assistance, this research would not have been made possibly.

I also like to thank my lovely family and friends for the support and care to me throughout my candidature. Without your listening and encouragement, I could not have completed this thesis.

iv TABLE OF CONTENTS

page

Abstract iii

Acknowledgement iv

Table of Contents v

List of Figures vii

Introduction 1

Chapter One – Museums & Cultural and creative Industries 9

Museum role and management 10

Museums in Taiwan 11

Cultural and creative industries 13

Income streams of museums 15

Trends in museum cultural products 17

Taiwan responses 19

Chapter Two – Co-design, Collaboration & Co-branding 20

Co-design 21

Collaborative Design 23

Brand alliance 35

Brand licensing 36

Co-branding 38

RED Case study of co-branding – (Product) 41

Summary 46

Chapter Three – The National Palace Museum (NPM) 47

Brief history of the National Palace Museum (NPM) 48

Workshop for cultural and creative development 59

The NPM’s collaboration mechanism 65

Museum shop – branding and products 68

v page

Museum product design – management strategy 76

Museum cultural product design 79

Summary 86

Chapter Four – Workshop for cultural & creative development 87

Research method 88

Aims of the workshop 90

Communication between the NPM and designers 99

Responses from the designers 107

Workshop challenges and outcomes 120

Summary 127

Conclusion 130

Appendices 140

Appendix 1 – HREA approval letter 141

Appendix 2 – List of interview questions for NPM staff in English and Chinese 142

Appendix 3 – List of interview questions for designers in English and Chinese 144

Appendix 4 – Participant Information Statement and Consent form for NPM staff 146

Appendix 5 – Participant Information Statement and Consent form for designers 148

Appendix 6 – Interview list of NPM staff 150

Appendix 7 – Interview list of 5 participants in alphabetical order 151

Appendix 8 – Chronology of Chinese dynasties 152

Bibliography 153

vi LIST OF FIGURES

page

Figure 1. Plan for interviews with NPM staff and workshop participants. 5

Figure 2. Liner design process. Source: Foyer 2002, cited in Sun, SY 2010, p. 17. 29

Figure 3. Collaborative design. Source: Foyer 2002, cited in Sun, SY 2010, p. 17. 30

Figure 4. Concept development process - divergent and convergent phases. Source: Bergstrom 2009, cited in Garrido 2009, p. 13. 33

Figure 5. How (Red) works. Source: (RED) website, viewed 22 January 2013, . 42 Figure 6. The National Palace Museum, Taipei. Photographed by the author, 15th June 2013. 48-49

Figure 7. Entrance of the National Palace Museum, Taipei. Photographed by the author, 15th June 2013. 48-49 Figure 8. Map of East Asia. Redrawn by the author. 49-50 Figure 9. Curators of the National Palace Museum, 2000 to present. 50 Figure 10. Jadeite Cabbage with Insects, Qing dynasty. © National Palace Museum, Taipei. (翠玉白菜) 53-54

Figure 11. Taiwan government policy for the National Palace Museum, 2010-2013. 56 Figure 12. Structure of the “Workshop for cultural and creative development”, National Palace Museum. 61 Figure 13. Overview of annual curriculum of the “Workshop for cultural and creative development”, National Palace Museum. 61 Figure 14. Male container from the Chin Family series. Designed by Alessi for the National Palace Museum, Taipei. 66-67 Figure 15. Female figure from the Chin Family series. Designed by Alessi for the National Palace Museum, Taipei. 66-67 Figure 16. Condiment set from the Chin Family series. Designed by Alessi for the National Palace Museum, Taipei. 66-67

Figure 17. Five participants in the “Workshop for cultural and creative development” conducted by the National Palace Museum, and selected for this research. 89

Figure 18. String-patterned celadon wine vessel, Song dynasty. © National Palace Museum, Taipei. (青瓷弦紋樽) 111-112

Figure 19. String Tea Set. Designed by JIA for the National Palace Museum, Taipei. (弦紋茶組) 111-112

Figure 20. Calligraphy for poem by Emperor Song Hui Zong, Song dynasty. © National Palace Museum, Taipei. (宋徽宗詩帖卷) 111-112

vii page

Figure 21. Calligraphy - Cutlery set. Designed by JIA for the National Palace Museum, Taipei. (書法系列 – 西式餐具組) 111-112

Figure 22. ‘Zhong Kui in the Wintery Forest’ by Wen Zheng-Ming, Ming dynasty. © National Palace Museum, Taipei. (寒林鍾馗) 112-113

Figure 23. Wintery Forest pins. Designed by Billy King Jewellery for the National Palace Museum, Taipei. (寒林胸針) 112-113

Figure 24. Porcelain vase with red plum blossom painting on coral red ground, Qing dynasty. © National Palace Museum, Taipei. (磁胎洋彩霽紅梅花膽瓶) 112-113

Figure 25. Plum blossom pin. Designed by Billy King Jewellery for the National Palace Museum, Taipei. (梅花胸針) 112-113

Figure 26. Pendant inspired by a seal of Emperor Qianlong, Qing dynasty. Designed by Chullery for the National Palace Museum, Taipei. (故宮宜子孫項鍊) 115-116

Figure 27. Ruyi with silver and pearl inlay, Qing dynasty. © National Palace Museum, Taipei. (銀鑲珠寶靈芝如意) 115-116

Figure 28. Ruyi pendant micro-set with pearls and rubies inspired by an imperial sceptre. Designed by Chullery for the National Palace Museum, Taipei. (故宮真如意項鍊). 115-116

Figure 29. Painting of chrysanthemum, Qing dynasty. © National Palace Museum, Taipei. (鄒一桂畫菊) 115-116

Figure 30. Proposed pattern for umbrella. Designed by the Taiwan Textile Research Institute (TTRI) for the National Palace Museum, Taipei. (Reconstruction drawn by the author). 116-117 Figure 31. Proposed repeat pattern for umbrella. Designed by the Taiwan Textile Research Institute (TTRI) for the National Palace Museum, Taipei. (Reconstruction drawn by the author). 116-117 Figure 32. Calligraphic inscription from the “Purple-and-gold inkstone” album, Song dynasty. © National Palace Museum, Taipei. (米芾書識語紫金研帖) 118-119

Figure 33. Proposed desk lamp. Designed by Bright Ideas Design for the National Palace Museum. (黃州寒食桌燈) 118-119

Figure 34. Proposed textile designs for cushion covers. Designed by Bright Ideas Design for the National Palace Museum, Taipei. (紫金研抱枕組) 118-119

Figure 35. Concept for integrated design objects inspired by calligraphy from the National Palace Museum collection. Designed by Bright Ideas Design. 129-130

viii

INTRODUCTION

1 Introduction

Museums are places for learning in the information age, with the potential to facilitate growth of the experience economy and to contribute to a shift towards a creative economy (Pine & Gilmore 1999; Florida 2002, 2008, cited in Ebitz 2008). Nowadays, many museums realise that they need to alter their management model to cater to changing public expectations and needs over time. For example, the need to engage the public with exhibitions which engage a population which has embraced digital technology and devices which provide a different kind of interactive experience. In recent years, some museums find that if they collaborate with organisations from different fields, the capacity for competiveness will become higher. Typically, problems such as diminishing funding from government sources can be addressed through potential and innovative revenue raising ventures and sponsorships from the private sector.

Currently, the collaboration between museums and cultural and creative industries has become a new trend. Many museums in Taiwan begin to understand that if they improve institutional functions and management strategies by bringing new ideas, technologies and experiences for visitors, there will be increasing benefits to the sector. This rising trend is noticeable not only in the museums but also in the education sector. Current research on cultural and creative development in the museum sector indicates that the combination of cultural and creative industries with museums can arouse the attention of the public because the innovative relationship casts a different perspective on the museum.

In many people’s experiences the museum is just a place which displays collections of ancient artifacts and relics. Visitors can find it hard to remember what they have experienced when they return home. There is also perception that people think that museums are always the same everytime they visit. The museum sector notices this phenomenon and takes steps to improve the experiences of visitors, for example enhancement in the functions of the museum gift shop. Museums aim to bring visitors to a whole new experience by showing that as cultural institutions they are not just repositories of the past, they are modern spaces relevant and suitable for

2 contemporary society. By adjusting to these changes, museums are finding it much easier to attract and be accepted by the younger generation. After all, with the changing times museums also have to observe trends and make changes to suit the needs and expectations of visitors.

In Taiwan, the National Palace Museum (NPM) has experienced significant growth in the number of visitors and essential spatial redevelopment to accommodate more exhibitions as a result of cross-border collaboration between China and Taiwan. This dramatic increase in the number of visitors is partly the result of increased number of tourists from China since the relaxation of travel restrictions between the two nations. The NPM applied many marketing and management concepts to its products and gift shop, and the strategy returned considerable profits to the museum.

In 2008 the Taiwan government conferred an important role upon the NPM as the Chinese cultural and creative design center to facilitate the fusion of traditional artifacts and contemporary life through its cultural and creative industries development program. To enhance the competitiveness of creative design and economic development in Taiwan, the NPM conducted various collaboration programs with organisations and private enterprise. Of significance are the various levels and types of collaborations with local industries and international design companies – including Alessi in Italy and Sanrio Company in Japan – in the design and development of museum products inspired by objects from the NPM collection. Although various research have focused on the financial outcomes resulting from the collaboration between the NPM and the cultural and creative industries, this emphasis of this research is in the nature of the collaboration and the design process.

This research will focus on the “Workshop for cultural and creative development” conducted by staff from the National Palace Museum for local design companies as a strategy for the design and development of museum products derived from a process of nurturing and education in Chinese culture by NPM staff and external experts, and inspiration from selected objects in the museum’s collection. The focus will be on the aims and expectations of the NPM and participants, and responses to the workshop and design process from the NPM and participants.

3 Aims

Three aims underpin this research.

The first aim is to examine trends in museum development and management of derivative products and the relationship with creative industries, and the role of collaboration in the process. The investigation will contextualise the role of the National Palace Museum and government policy regarding the cultural and creative industry in Taiwan. A survey of literature on co-design and collaboration from design studies, marketing and management will contribute an understanding of the various definitions and types of collaborative processes for application to this research.

The second aim is to examine the history of the National Palace Museum and the evolution of its role as a national institution and platform for facilitating cultural and creative development. The investigation will focus on the museum’s strategies in communicating the significance of the NPM collection as Chinese culture and identity, making its collection accessible and meaningful to visitors, and creating an identity for the NPM through museum products.

The third aim is to examine the “Workshop for cultural and creative development” as a collaborative design process between the NPM and participants for developing concepts for cultural and creative products. The research will analyse feedback from NPM staff and participants to investigate responses to the workshop as a strategy for nurturing, development, and production of products which reflect the aims of the museum while retaining economic feasibility.

Scope of the research

This research examines the NPM’s plan and strategy for the design and development of museum products as a response to the Taiwan government’s policy on developing cultural and creative industries. Due to the short duration of the research program, the focus will be on the “Workshop for cultural and creative development” initiated by the NPM as an annual program for nurturing and educating designers in the appreciation of Chinese culture to enhance the design and development of products. A selection of five workshop participants from small to medium-size design companies was compiled for the research. The research will focus on the workshop program;

4 design and development process; aims, expectations and reflections of NPM staff and participants; and examples of museum products and proposals as outcomes of the workshop. It is not the aim of this research to evaluate the success of the “Workshop for cultural and creative development”. Rather, it is hoped that the research findings will provide an understanding of the mechanism for collaboration, and the dynamics in the NPM-participant relationship, and highlight the strengths as well as issues for consideration.

Research methods

Qualitative responses to NPM workshop

Development prospect 2 NPM staff of cultural and creative industry Interview 5 Professional designers

Design strategy (aesthetic, cultural, economic, reputation)

Figure 1. Plan for interviews with NPM staff and workshop participants

Several qualitative research methods were utilised in this study including interviews, analysis of documents and archival materials, case study, and field research.

Ethics approval was obtained from the University of New South Wales Human Research Ethics Advisory (HREA) panel (Appendix 1). For the semi-structured interviews, lists of questions for the NPM staff and workshop participants were submitted for ethics approval (Appendix 2 and Appendix 3). Two senior management staff from the NPM and five workshop participants were confirmed for the interviews (Figure 1, and Appendix 6). The criteria for selecting workshop participants for interview in this research is outlined in Chapter 4. The interviews were conducted

5 with all participants in Taipei during 29/05/2012 – 23/04/2013. The interviews were conducted in Chinese, recorded with permission, and transcribed by the author.

Field visits to the NPM museum store during May 2012 – June 2013 provided first- hand observation on the range and display of museum products.

Secondary source information was collected from government reports, NPM annual reports, NPM catalogues and picture archives, journal articles, promotional brochures from design companies, proposals and picture archives from workshop participants, and websites.

For this research, archival documents were accessed including: the annual reports of the NPM and official reports of the Taiwan government concerning the planning of cultural and creative industrial development for the NPM, the official NPM website and associated documents which introduce the Museum’s policy regarding brand licensing and the development of cultural and creative industry for the Museum to support the analysis of the case study in this research, documents from the Ministry of Culture, Taiwan to contextualise the legislation for the cultural and creative industry, the trend of cultural and creative industry around the world, and the communication between museums in Taiwan or abroad, and promotional brochures, design drafts provided by workshop participants for presenting the design concepts, product development and proposed designs. These documents mainly assisted in exploring and contextualising the aims and functions of the workshop based on the policy of the NPM and Taiwan government, and understanding the development of design concepts that are affected by various issues in the design process.

Chapters

This thesis is divided into four chapters.

Chapter One will examine current trends in museum development and management of derivative products, and the relationship with creative industries. The V&A Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, will be examined as examples of the increasingly important relationship between museum, and the cultural and creative industries. The role of the National Palace Museum as a platform for cultural and

6 creative development and its alignment with government policy will be outlined in this chapter.

Chapter Two will be a discussion on the nature of collaborative design. Co-design and collaborative design are terms which are often used interchangeably to describe design processes. This chapter will survey the definitions and characteristics of co- design, collaborative design and associated terms from perspectives described in literature from design studies, marketing and management. The campaign for RED (Product) will be discussed as an example of collaborative design.

Chapter Three provides a brief introduction to the history and background of the National Palace Museum. This will be followed by a discussion of the museum’s role as the national platform for cultural and creative industry development in accordance with government policy. The chapter will examine programs conducted by the NPM to facilitate public, and the cultural and creative industry engagement with the museum, including product design competitions, workshops, gift shop and museum products. The “workshop for cultural and creative development” will be introduced as the NPM strategy for collaborating with the design industry in the design and development of museum products.

Chapter Four will focus on the “Workshop for cultural and creative development”. Firstly the chapter will analyse the aims and functions of the workshop relative to the NPM policy on the cultural and creative industry. Secondly, the workshop will be analysed by examining the program, design and development process, and experiences of the five participants. Thirdly, responses from NPM staff and workshop participants will be analysed to determine if there is alignment in expectations from the museum and design industry. For example, how the NPM communicates the qualities and standards of museum products during the design and development process, and the criteria each design company will apply to decide when and whether to proceed to production.

This research concludes with the view that the “Workshop for cultural and creative development” provides a special mechanism for collaboration between the National

7 Palace Museum and the design industry. The NPM provides a platform for educating and nurturing designers in Chinese culture through objects in its collection and expertise from museum staff and external professionals. It fulfills the role as a conduit for cultural and creative development. The design companies view the workshop as continuing education and nurture in Chinese culture, but more precisely as an opportunity to develop potential albeit cautious commercial ventures with the NPM in the collaboration for the design and development of museum products. The research highlights strengths as well as pertinent issues such as museum-designer communication, funding for prototyping of museum products, clarification for product standards and quality, and museum-designer profit sharing, for consideration.

CHAPTER ONE

Museums & Cultural and creative Industries

9 CHAPTER 1 Museums & Cultural and Creative Industries

Chapter One will examine current trends in museum development and management of derivative products, and the relationship with creative industries. The Taiwan government’s policies related to the role of the National Palace Museum, and the cultural and creative industry will also be discussed in this chapter.

Museum role and management

Museums are a place for collecting knowledge, and also represent a country’s socio- cultural indicators. They are a symbol of social progress and also represent the evolution of history and culture (Lung, Y 2008, p. 7). The early museums were originally collections assembled by private individuals with a view to displaying them to savants and scholars. In the nineteenth century museums were perceived both by government and the public as places of education with government also considering museums as a method of social control, and to promote national pride (McLean, 1997; Lehman 2008, p. 42). Nowadays, museums also are a medium for economic development, and have taken on an indispensable role in the “knowledge economy” (Tu, CS 2004, p. 173). Thus, the contemporary museum is not just a simple communicator of cultural assets, it is also a functioning business.

There has been pressure on museums around the world to be less reliant on traditional income models. They now need to seek new funding sources, such as commercial opportunities or sponsorship. In the UK, some museums charge for admission or ask for entrance donations as a means of alleviating funding shortfalls (Tobelem, 1998; Kawashima, 1998; cited in Lehman 2008, p. 50). At the end of the 1970s, the United States began to promote the idea of museum marketing. Museum marketing has become the best practice in museum operation around the world, and has become the current trend (Lo 2005, cited in Lung, Y 2008, p. 23). Because of this, some museums began to ponder over possible development and management of their cultural products. While maintaining their non-profit making character as a public agency, museums have considered marketing theories, methods and measures, and gradually

10 formed management systems and operational models in coherence with their external circumstance. They have sought finance resources actively from many areas including the development and sale of new cultural products. Then they reinvest the resulting profit back into the museum, which has achieved considerable results (Guo, BW 2011).

As competition between museums becomes more aggressive, museums may lose their customers if they do not change their image. Museums therefore need to reconsider the conservative style of the past. By researching and meeting the interests and needs of museums clients, museums can broaden their markets and transform successfully (Teng, PY 2005, p. 5). For example, Chou (2010) pointed out that Britain’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A Museum) has introduced a management strategy and set up a project to study the role that the museum plays to assist the creative industries in England. The V&A Museum has also established a team to develop new creative products within the museum.

Museums in Taiwan

Similarly, the Taiwan government also notices the importance of the cultural and creative industries. The National Palace Museum (NPM) has been given responsibilities by the government to play an important role in “cultural and creative industries development program” since 2008. The NPM is the only cultural institution selected by the government (Ministry of Culture 2009) to fulfill this role. The aim is to make the NPM become a Chinese cultural and creative design center to facilitate the fusion of traditional artifacts and contemporary life (Li, JC & Ho, MC 2009, p. 70). The cultural and creative industries have also played an important part in the development plans of many advanced countries, such as Britain, Australia and Japan. These industries have developed out of the accumulation of experience and culture and also showcase their society’s creativity.

In order to enhance the competitiveness of creative design and economic development in Taiwan, the NPM collaborated with the Taiwan Design Center 1 in 2005 to

1 Taiwan Design Center is a national design center established in 2003 by Taiwan government, and it became officially operational in 2004. Taiwan Design Center has been positioned as an integrated platform to promote creative design and economic development in Taiwan. Its main mission is to upgrade original creativity of Taiwanese designers, promote

11 introduce “the design and development plan of derivative products from the NPM’s collections”. The concept behind the whole project was “old is new at the NPM”. The idea of the project was to design and create cultural products by renewing ancient artifacts with innovative contemporary concepts (Lo, WC 2009, p. 2). The NPM’s aim was to develop museum products and the museum authorised many internationally well-known design companies to complete the mission including the Sanrio Company in Japan, Alessi in Italy and the Franz Company in Taiwan (Peng, SC 2010, p. 31).

After the introduction of the “old is new at the NPM” concept in 2005, the NPM invited many potential design teams to participate in cultural and creative programs. It was expected that the designers would be able to utilise the favorable conditions of access to the rich cultural assets and the international recognition of the NPM to provide the public with the chance to appreciate the collection via high-quality designed products. At the same time, the museum’s products can be thought of as adding value to the NPM. In addition to exhibitions, the sale of merchandise has become a new cultural economic route and brought to the museum unlimited extension of benefits, including economy, tourism and so on. The NPM also hopes the project will advance the aim of “shaping the new image of the museum’s collections to create new value for the NPM” (NPM 2013a).

Additionally, the NPM possesses a cultural and artistic energy that nourishes and represents Taiwan’s cultural character. The Taiwan Government fosters cultural and creative industries by incorporating them into key national policy objectives, actively promoting the “law of cultural and creative industries development”, and developing cultural and creative parks. The Government also provided 10 billion New Taiwan dollars to invest in enterprises related to the cultural and creative industries from 2009 to 2016. It also encourages and funds cultural and creative industries to participate in international exhibitions (NPM 2011a). These commitments show that the development of cultural and creative industries is important to Taiwan.

international design exchanges, upgrade market competitiveness of Taiwanese industries, help enterprises build up their own brand and raise value-added of the said industries. Cited from webpage of Taiwan Design Center: , viewed 25 March 2013.

12 The population of Taiwan is over 23 million, and there are 475 government or public- funded museums in Taiwan (Chinese Association of Museums 2013). The characteristics of museums in Taiwan include both cultural exhibition and performance facilities. Museums play the role of bridging humankind’s colourful cultural heritage between the past and the present (Yang, L 2004, p. 19). In addition to the expected traditional functions, museums should position themselves closer to the public with their collections and resources. They also should take the responsibility to enhance traditional culture and give it a new life (Yang, L 2004, p. 39). As the Government also very clearly supports the NPM in the “cultural and creative industries development program”, it shows that the role museums play in the cultural and creative industries can no longer be ignored in national development (Chen, KC 2005, p. 18). These industries are also undoubtedly the key construction supporting the government’s cultural development agenda. The Government also notices the appropriate protection of intellectual property to overcome the difficulties that industries face in this area when promoting cultural and creative industries (Chu, TC 2010).

Cultural and creative industries

The composition of cultural and creative industries includes three parts: culture (the source), creativity (middle) and industries (end). These three parts demonstrate that the culture is the basic element to develop the industries, and creativity is the method to practice the process. Each stage has its own important function and purpose. However, the current situation of cultural and creative industries in Taiwan is lack of the profound cultivation of culture. If the Government promotes the industries by quantifying or putting too much emphasis on the value of the end result, it will easily make these industries become the manufacturers of products for other countries and companies, and be short of their own created products. (Chu, TC 2010). As the former British Cultural Minister Chris Smith states:

The definition of cultural and creative industries has three characteristics. The first one that is to say the original material in the industries is human - the human mind, techniques, inspiration. The second, the industries, including such as construction, publishing, film, design and performing arts, its

13 economic values are from the individual with rich imagination. The third, the products of cultural and creative industries are not necessarily the objects that can be seen or touched, but makes us feel excited or deeply touched. In the cultural and creative industries, the assets do not come from the earth, but from the human mind” (Wang 2006, cited in Huang, H 2009, p. 13).

This message shows that individual creativity has a great effect on the development of cultural and creative industries. The core value of cultural and creative industries is the formation of culture and creativity, and the key factors for cultural and creative development are based on cultural particularity and creativity with international competitiveness. In other words, unique cultural identity and innovative originality are crucial for the development of cultural and creative industries (Lin, Chien Fu 2010). Creativity is the essential element for developing cultural and creative industries and it has been the key factor in promoting the competitiveness of new economic development (Liu, WG 2010). This is important because the arts and culture have been proclaimed as key factors which foster economic growth and development (Florida 2002, cited in Masters 2007, p. 21). The great ongoing change of our time is the rise of human creativity as the defining feature of economic life. Creativity has come to be valued because new technologies, new industries, new wealth and all other good economics things flow from it. The members of the creative class exhibit a strong preference for individuality and self-statement and endeavor to create individualistic identities that reflect their creativity. They can add economic value through their creativity (Florida 2002, p. 77-78).

In 1995, the United Kingdom took the lead in conceiving “cultural and creative industries” and made it a part of their major national development policies. The British government made great efforts to declare the importance of “art culture” in the global “knowledge economy”. In the UK, the government promoted “Cool Britannia” to market British creativity (Smith 1998, cited in Wang, TY 2005, p. 57). Cool Britannia combines the elements of young energy and creativity with the UK and provides a good example to illustrate the process of country branding (Wang, TY 2005, p. 57). At present, many countries also focus on developing cultural and creative industries. These countries can demonstrate and develop their own cultural

14 characteristics through art and commercial marketing to increase the value of the industries, and people’s cultural identities (NPM 2011a). Due to the realisation that museums have to evolve from the patterns of management in the past, the NPM actively promotes cultural and creative related activities, design competitions and commodities. Through the combination of culture and creativity, the priority task of the NPM is to nurture cultural talent and develop its design capabilities and its hopes to connect Taiwan's industries, design and culture (NPM 2011a).

Tobelem (1997, cited in Lung, Y 2008, p. 26) indicates the reasons that museums start to focus on marketing are as follows: (1) museums have the need of growth; (2) museums need to increase their income; (3) museums exist in an increasingly competitive environment; and (4) museums need to understand museum visitors to improve themselves through consultation and feedback. For these reasons, museums need to know how to use their existing useful resources to create greater profits. The NPM has collaborated with many different brands, including local companies and foreign companies. Besides this, the NPM is also actively promoting itself as a brand. By co-branding, the museum and cooperators both obtain fruitful results and bilateral income. What are the benefits for museums with a strong brand? A brand will inject funds for the museums’ operations. The Louvre set up a branch in Abu Dhabi, and the marketing and branding of the Louvre’s trademark has brought the French government 525 million of US dollars in revenue in 2012 (Hsu, CH 2012, p. 1). Using ‘brand management’ strategies, museums are becoming one of the largest sectors in the production of cultural and creative industries. Furthermore, museums need the brand to shape the culture and characteristics of the region and be responsible for cultural dissemination and tourism media (Hsu, CH 2012, p. 1).

Income streams of museums

China Review News (23 September 2012) states that museums in the West have abundant sources of funding, the multi-channel funding income ensures museums’ survival and development. The funding sources of overseas museums are generally obtained through private foundations, consortiums and private donations. These museums pay more attention to the funds collected from all levels of society. Museums, after all, are a special industry, there is no museum anywhere in the world

15 that can rely on ticket sales to reach self-sufficiency (China Review News 2012). In the case of the British Museum, the government offers financial support up to approximately 70 percent, and the remaining 30 percent comes from museum gift shops, restaurants, and donations. Donation income is an important source of revenue for the British Museum and there are donor organisations supported by donor members (China Review News 2012). For important donors, the British Museum will publicly acknowledge them. Besides individual donations, some donations are from arts foundation. In general, the foundation will not directly donate artworks to the museum, they usually provide the funds, and then let the museum select the artworks they want to purchase. Because the decision right of choosing artworks belongs to the museum, this also ensure the high quality of artworks (China Review News 2012).

In contrast, the NPM has two main income sources. The first is the NPM’s revenue and the second is funding from the Taiwan government. NPM’s revenue includes ticket sales, image authorisation, museum derivative products, and gift shop sales. The NPM will make an annual budget and summit to the government for examination. There is no fixed ratio between these two income sources, and it depends on the actual operating situation of the NPM. In 2002, the NPM’s revenue was derived from ticket sales (65.5 percent), cultural products and publications (27.2 percent), copyright (3.1 percent) and others (4.2 percent). It shows that besides tickets sales, cultural products and publications were the second biggest portion of revenue (Tu, CS 2004, p. 181). Additionally, in 2012 the profit earned from ticket sales at the NPM was about 400 million New Taiwan dollars, and the profit from museum products and catering services was about 858 million New Taiwan dollars (Chiu, LL 2013).

The museum’s Cultural and Creative Marketing Director Su Wen-Xian reported that the NPM has nearly 700 thousand cultural relics in its collection, and in recent years the derivative business opportunities included cultural and creative souvenirs which constituted the biggest portion; while publications provided a billion New Taiwan dollars annual revenue; and tens of millions of New Taiwan dollars from the NPM brand, image, publications, and other authorised revenue (Chiu, LL 2013).

16 Trends in museum cultural products

Museum gift shop operations are the main form that North American museums use to develop and retail cultural product. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, for example, not only has an on-site store with an area of 5000 square metres, but also has sale points in some shopping malls in New York City and other cities. In 2002, the business volume amounted to 100 million US dollars and the souvenir centre has become an important extended agency for cultural education, promotion and an important funding source (Guo, BW 2011). Around 80 percent of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s income relies on peripheral extension products such as replicas of cultural relics, souvenirs and membership fees.2

The cultural product development of North American museums has the following main characteristics. The first is to open a marketing branch. This is followed by activities such as opening stores in different zones to offer unique museum culture products for sale thereby increasing the economic benefits of the museum’s cultural products, and ultimately promoting the dissemination of museum culture. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Boutique is a unique branded gift shop. The museum set up its first boutique in 1910, and currently it has 16 boutiques in eight countries around the world. About 85 percent of sales are of the products manufactured by the museum or directly by the producer and can only be sold at the Museum Boutique. In addition, the museum set up online stores to promote and sell its cultural products (Guo, BW 2011).

Secondly, most cultural products of North American museums not only have characteristics relating to the collections, but also pay more attention to the improvement of quality, and also taking into account its cultural significance and meaning. For instance, even if the souvenir they developed is only a small candy box, the period and the background knowledge of the decorative patterns drawn from the collections will be indicated on the back. Cultural products developed by North American museums are various; including catalogues, postcards, clothing, jewellery, etc., and also includes high quality simulations and reproductions, art reference books, etc. Thus the museum can meet the different needs of various audiences (Guo, BW 2011).

2 Li, CH 2005, The artifacts of the National Palace Museum earn the money across the time and space, viewed 22 March 2013, .

17 The director of the Museum Product Development Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A Museum), Jo Prosser (2013, cited in Cheng, JW 2013), said that since the museum cannot function for profit, they established the V&A Enterprises Company that is dedicated to museum related merchandise selling. This business is 100 percent owned by the V&A Museum, and annual visitors number between two million to three million people. The total revenue is 12 million pounds, with a profit around two million pounds. Prosser indicates that the V&A Museum develops new products for six seasons annually. They have to keep introducing new products to consumers, operating like a retail industry. Prosser (2013, cited in Cheng, JW 2013) also points out that many museums make the mistakes of producing exclusive products. Because these products are expensive and may not be favored by consumers, this may not be a good choice. She said that museum products should show a commonality of aesthetics. No matter whether they are a museums’ own designs or goods purchased from outside, the products should show the style of the museum.

The V&A Museum has three million important artifacts – Eastern and Western art and design treasures – and is an internationally renowned British art and design cultural venue. Thus, the V&A Museum is able to diversify and form companies that manages its financial enterprises (Chou, MH 2013). In addition, through the mode of royalty paid digital access to the museum’s extensive archive of images from its collections, global licensing, and merchandise development, the V&A Museum manages its aesthetics and brand successfully for applying the unique style to cultural and creative products, and the museum shop (Chou, MH 2013). This not only makes the V&A Museum closer to the general public, but also creates the amazing profits resulting from product development for the museum. All profits are fully reinvested in developing the sustainable management of the museum, and this has proved a very successful model of museum enterprise development (Chou, MH 2013).

Prosser (2013, cited in Chiang, CL 2013) pointed out that culture and economy have been closely linked in contemporary life, and that museum product development is just as important as planning an exhibition. She believes that if museums want their product development to be successful, the most important thing is to show the museums’ own unique aesthetic style and image, and to deeply imprint this in the minds of consumers (Chiang, CL 2013). Prosser emphasized that although every

18 museum should have a unique spirit and unified aesthetic style and values, product development has to keep up with the trends of the times, and to understand customer’s needs. This will result in business opportunities for the museum. Prosser also states that the size of the museum is not an important factor (Chiang, CL 2013). How to build a uniqueness that cannot be replaced by other museums is the determinant of successful museum product development. The focus should be put on the products’ quality rather than quantity (Ministry of Culture 2013).

Taiwan responses

In response to the trend in museums and creative industries development and the success of the V&A Museum products, the Taiwan government invited staff from the V&A Museum to share their experiences of museum product development. The Ministry of Culture of Taiwan actively drew up the draft of museum law and the concept of the museum shop has been included. The Ministry of Culture (2013) claims that they will: (1) reference the British, French and other systems of museum management and development; (2) hold consultation meetings and public hearings to solicit public viewpoints; and (3) establish suitable mechanisms for domestic museum shops and promote the cultural and creative development of museums (Ministry of Culture 2013).

However, when the Taiwan Government makes references to the experiences of foreign museums, museums in Taiwan cannot follow exactly the same approach as the foreign museums. Since the Government has been actively developing its policy on the cultural and economic value of museums in Taiwan, the proposed strategies for the development of museum products should be based on the understanding of other museums’ experiences, and the assessment of the current status of museum product development in Taiwan.

In order to have a better understanding of museum cultural product development at the National Palace Museum, the next chapter will examine generally the definitions, mechanisms and types of collaborative design, and the application of these concepts as design strategies for product development between museums and business enterprises.

CHAPTER TWO

Co-design, Collaboration & Co-branding

20 CHAPTER 2 Co-design, Collaboration & Co-branding

In contemporary design practice, co-designing has increasingly become a regular process for design teams when working on complex projects. Co-designing taps into the various expertise and skills of individuals in a team, and can help to address multidisciplinary issues and reduce mistakes that can occur in the design process, and shorten the time for iterative alterations. It can raise the efficiency of the design process. This chapter will discuss the various definitions and concepts of co-design, including collaborative design and co-branding, from perspectives in design, engineering and marketing. In addition, the exploration of co-design will be applied to gain an understanding of the collaborative relationship between the National Palace Museum (NPM) and the cultural and creative industry.

This research observes that collaboration is considered by the NPM as a management strategy for managing its development of museum products particularly through a special workshop organised for participants from the creative and cultural industry. There are various levels of collaboration in the relationship between the NPM and workshop participants: designers and design companies. The “Workshop for cultural and creative development” is based on the museum’s philosophy, “Old is new at the NPM”, which informs the NPM on the types of collaboration, design and development of museum cultural products, and various enterprising ways, e.g. co- branding, to market the products. (See Chapter 4 for discussion of the workshop in detail).

Co-design

In recent years, the view of design as an essentially individual creative activity has come under increasing question. Instead, for a variety of reasons, design is being viewed, studied and developed as a collective, collaborative, even community process (eds. Scrivener, Ball & Woodcock 2000, p. v). The term co-design is now widely used within the field of product design (Admin 2013). According to the Design Council of the United Kingdom (2013), “co-design” is the abbreviation of community design,

21 collaborative design and/or co-operative design. King (1989, p. ix) also points out that the term co-design is a combination of community, co-operative, collaborative design. Co-design occurs when more than one person is involved in drawing up a plan for doing something (McDougal 2012).

Sanders and Stappers (2008, cited in Steen, Manschot, & Koning 2011, p. 53) used the term co-creation to refer to “any act of collective creativity, i.e. creativity that is shared by two or more people”, and used the term co-design in a more narrow sense to refer to the “collective creativity as it is applied across the whole span of a design process” (Sanders & Stappers 2008, cited in Steen, Manschot, & Koning 2011, p. 53). Co-creation does not just happen but it happens within the process of co-design. It must be organised, managed and facilitated (Bhalla 2011, p. 89).

Co-design is a method that can be used in all stages of the design process. It shows especially in the ideational or conceptional phases (Naranjo-Bock 2012), after the idea for improvements has been proposed and before the concept has been designed. In professional terms, co-design combines programming and concept design (King 1989, p. 20). Based on Buckminster Fuller’s (1975, cited in Wood 2008, p. 2) argument, designers should put their emphasis on not only innovation-led design for maximum consumption but also the co-design of meaningful lifestyles that are desirable, rewarding and ecologically affordable. Design plays an important role between thinking and acting. “Designers can harmonise radical innovation through the process of co-authorship and, by extension, co-design” (Nieuwenhuijze & Wood 2006, cited in Wood 2008, p. 5; Wood 2008, p. 5).

Given the similarities and variations in the definition of “co-design” from a selection of current literature discussed above, for this research I will refer to the Design Council (2013) which defines “co-design” broadly as:

(1) A set of tools used by designers to engage non-designers by asking, listening, learning, communicating and creating solutions collaboratively.

(2) A partnership between designer, client and the wider community on a design project.

22 (3) Collaboration on a design project between client, end-user, deliverer and designer.

(4) Collective thinking and designing that addresses a community’s issues.

The broad descriptions from the Design Council represent four types of relationships which can be defined as co-design and they are not mutually inclusive. In other words, the list of four relationships can be regarded as characteristics or criteria of “co- design”.

For this research, The Design Council’s characteristic or criteria three fit the nature of the NPM workshop and museum product development process. The NPM workshop can be seen as a design project with the museum as client and distributor of cultural knowledge; the designer as the producer and deliverer of cultural knowledge; and the museum visitor as end-user. One can extend the definition further to include the NPM as the provider of a “set of tools” for educating, nurturing and imparting cultural knowledge from its collection to inspire participating designers in the product development process. Additionally each partnership is unique to the co-design relationship and process particularly with the mode of collaboration, licensing and profit sharing, merchandising and retailing of the museum product. The collaboration between the NPM and designers during the workshop can be seen to address collectively the museum’s national role in the dissemination of Chinese culture through products derived from appreciation, understanding and inspiration of Chinese art and culture from the NPM collection.

Collaborative design

Since the process of co-designing is characterised by collaboration, engagement, partnership and/or other forms of communal activity between designers and/or clients and stakeholders, it is useful to examine the definitions of collaboration to gain a deeper understanding of the co-designing process. Collaboration and co-operation can be seen as a group of people working together to achieve the same purposes. Based on the focus on the relationship between stakeholders – professionals, design enterprises and the NPM – in this research, the definitions of collaborative design as a sub- category within co-design will be examined to understand the factors that influence the collaboration.

23 Kvan (2000, p. 410) states that “co-operation” appears to be used interchangeably with “collaboration”. “The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines “collaborate” as to co-operate, especially in literary, artistic or scientific work”. Collaboration can be considered to solve problem together that means working with other people with the same aims for which the team attempts to find solutions satisfying to all participants. As regards “co-operation”, the OED definition is to work together, act in conjunction for mutual benefit (Kvan 2000, p. 410). In addition, the dictionary indicates that co- operation is an older concept than collaboration. Therefore, co-operation seems to be a simpler and more general concept than collaboration (Kvan 2000, p. 410). In order to achieve an integral innovative result, design collaboration needs a higher sense to work together. It is beyond a demanding activity, but a mission which may be easier to simply complete a project as a team than establish and sustain it (Kvan 2000, p. 410).

Mattessich and Monsey (1992, cited in Kvan 2000, p. 410) have also defined these words more thoroughly: “co-operation is characterised by informal relationships that exist without a commonly defined mission, structure or effort. Information is shared as needed and authority is retained by each organisation so there is virtually no risk. Resources are separate as are rewards. Collaboration connotes a more durable and pervasive relationship. Authority is determined by the collaborative structure. Risk is much greater”.

Collaborative design is the design behavior of two or more people working together for the same subject. Designers need to solve design problems in the design process. Those problems are often too complex for one person to figure out (Chang, YZ 2012, p. 47). Many contemporary design problems are complex and intricate to solve, and not just limited to one field. This is why Cross (cited in Liao, CC 2011, p.18) has emphasised the importance of the concept of designers’ teamwork. A collaborative design team can break through the complexity of a design problem. However, some setbacks and obstacles may come from team members’ simultaneous thinking and cognitive activities, and the resulting conversation and interaction behavior, which may cause serious problems (Valkenburg & Dorset, cited in Chang, YZ 2012 p. 47). But sharing knowledge between team members can help to make important decisions and can also affect whether a project will become a successful collaborative design or

24 not (Cross & Clayburn, cited in Chang, YZ 2012 p. 47-48). Collaborative design can not only divide many of the tasks into different jobs, but the personal skills, knowledge and backgrounds of each member can increase the diversity and integrity (Paulus, cited in Chang, YZ 2012 p. 48).

It is clear that the similarities and subtle differences in the definition of collaborative design are interpreted by other scholars based on perspectives focusing on the design process, spatial and temporal types of collaborative activities, and expertise of participants. Kao & Lin (1996, cited in Sun, SY 2010, p. 14) suggested the following definition: the system of collaborative design must provide an environment for designers and engineer living in different locations to reach a coordinated action. Shen (2000, cited in Sun, SY 2010, p. 14) defines collaborative design as “a process where a number of designers work together and design new products in the cycle of product life”. From an engineering design perspective, collaborative design is a collection of the co-operative efforts undertaken by a team of designers (Ouertani et al 2007). Marxt & Popovic (2002, cited in Sun, SY 2010, p. 14) believe that collaboration contains the process of the partner choice, establishment of collaboration, practice and evaluation. Kleinsmann (2006) indicates that collaborative design consists of three building blocks: (1) knowledge creation and integration between participants from different disciplines (2) communication between the participants about both the design content and the design process (3) the creation of shared understanding about the subjects communicated.

Van et al. (2006) indicate that collaborative product development relies on the integration of design context between the different partners. The principal objective of this method of collaborative design is to make different partners of a project integrate in a structure smoothly so as to increase the capability of real-time working. The objective is to associate, so as to reduce problems of compatibility and iterations while designing an object.

From the abovementioned selection of the definitions gathered from design literature, I choose for this research the definition of collaborative design: a group of people working together, through communication and knowledge sharing to integrate ideas

25 from different disciplines to increase the effectiveness of the design project and achieve a better result.

In the case studies for this research, the working modes between the NPM and each participating designer or design company are different, partly “co-branding” and partly authorised by the NPM. In this case, the word “collaboration” will be more suitable for applying in this study than “co-operation”. Thus, for the reasons above, the term “collaborative design” will be used throughout this study to describe the design process related to the NPM and participating designers and design companies.

When we discuss collaborative design in this research, we observe two different types of collaborations. One type of collaboration occurs between the designer and other experts from different departments in the same company, and the other refers to the collaboration occurring between designers in the same design team. Both types of collaboration are important and influence the process and success of a design project.

Collaboration between design and other disciplines

Product development in the manufacturing industry is facing challenges of globalisation and competitive market conditions as well as changing individual customer demands (Chien, C 2008 p. 7). Carter & Bake (cited in Sun, SY 2010 p. 14) pointed out that in order to reduce costs and shorten the time of product development, departments of design, manufacturing and production should have common perceptions in the beginning of product development. If design problems have been detected sooner, it may be easier to reduce the probability of error in product development. In addition, people involved in the product development process should trust each other and share responsibility to create a multi-functional team and organisation.

Mitchell (cited in Lee, Y 2008, p. 32) points out that when working in the high stress design field, very few design practitioners will have the training, the time, or willing to seek the findings from design research done by “outsiders”. It shows that being lack of collaboration between creative design practice by “insiders” and scientific design research by “outsiders”, gaps exist between the two groups in design. Normally industrial designers have a bias towards appearance and user-interface;

26 whereas engineering designers generally focus on functionality and manufacture, even though they both contribute to new product development (Kim 2006, cited in Pei, Evans & Campbell 2007). Thus, recent studies in collaborative design have put emphasis on how interaction processes within a design project govern the evolution of design ideas, especially the patterns of interaction within collaborative design teams (Reid & Reed 2000, p. 233). In principle, cross-disciplinary collaboration requires a deeper process of shared thinking (Wood 2008, p. 5).

Generally, designers will interact with clients and with marketing, manufacturing production, and management departments. Collaboration enhances these relationships, improves communication and provides a higher level of satisfaction for the client (Cooper et al. 2000, p. 187). Biemans (1995, p. 145) mentions the importance of collaboration within the organisation as well. Considerable research efforts have been dedicated to understanding the relationship between the two principal departments included in product development: marketing and research & development (R&D). There are some barriers between these two departments (Gupta, Raj and Wilemon 1985; Soudr 1981, cited in Biemans 1995, p. 145). Many problems in the relationship between research and development (R&D), and marketing can be traced to the different nature and backgrounds of marketers and developers. Cultural attitudes and differences not only appear between developers and marketers, they also exist between design and marketing (Biemans 1995, p. 145-146).

According to Hise et al. (1990, cited in Bruse & Biemans 1995, p. 146), collaborative efforts between R&D and marketing in the process of real designing of new products, it is a determinant to explain the success levels of new product. Nevertheless, it should be emphasised that successful product development is realised through the combination of diverse inputs from people with different backgrounds. The combination of conflicting points of view increases the organisation’s creativity.

Kvan et al. (1997, cited in Gül1 & Maher 2007, p. 3) pointed out that although collaborators come to work together in a design project, designers are still required to execute individual design tasks, as well as collaborating. The model of collaborative design includes three joint decision phases (meta-planning, negotiation and evaluation) and an individual work phase. Kvan (2000, cited in Chien, C 2008 p. 8) also suggests

27 that “collaborative design consists of parallel expert actions, each of short duration, bracketed by joint activity of negotiation and evaluation.” Thus, each design activity itself is discrete, individual and parallel, not intimately connected. Being individual experts, the participants address design issues from their perspectives. During a design session, their understanding will be supplemented as they learn from their involvement.

Aside from Kvan’s model of design collaboration, Cooper et al (Cooper, R et al. 2000, p. 187-188) also mention three main phases of collaboration: brainstorming, incubation and evaluation. Technology, design and marketing representatives should all be integrated in these phases. Management needs to oversee these activities, and create a structure to ensure the understanding of the aims and the objective of the project. Practically, both models are similar to each other.

Some product development and industrial design tends towards linear process (Figure 2). It will easily disconnect the communication between each department due to their specialisation, and it also easily ignores the co-ordination with the marketing, process, and cost. Problems in individual processes are likely to trigger repercussive problems toward interdependent processes (To & Harwood 2000, p.146). When a product design lacks overall product development and design planning, it has to be returned to the design department and change design if the product has problems of manufacturing or feasibility. Iterative design changes may delay the schedule and directly increase the costs of production. Thus, linear process design is no longer applicable to the current product design and development environment (Sun, SY 2010, p. 16).

Figure 2. Liner design process. Source: Foyer (2002, cited in Sun, SY 2010, p. 17). Redrawn by the author.

In order to improve the faults of linear design process, the concept of collaborative design (Figure 3) was born to gradually replace the linear design process. Team members can share their information to each other through the better communication and interaction between each department. The sooner information is exposed designers can resolve any uncertainty and problems earlier during the initial stage of product design. This can help to reduce the chance of errors occurring, the number of design changes and shorten the time of product development. The overall efficiency of the process will also be improved (Blackburn, 1996 cited in Sun, SY 2010, p. 17). Besides, the system of collaborative design also allows customers to be involved in product design process at the same time and develop products that are fully customised (Lu 2001, cited in Sun, SY 2010, p. 15). The gap between designers and engineering is narrowing due to the collaboration. The key is to integrate design and engineering in the most effective way possible (Cooper et al. 2000, p. 187).

Figure 3. Collaborative design. Source: Foyer (2002, cited in Sun, SY 2010, p. 17). Redrawn by the author.

However, there are some scholars who propose that even though collaborative team design can stimulate their creativities and perspectives, it still has some defects and factors that will affect the collaboration in product development. Erhorn and Stark (1994, cited in Pei, Evans & Campbell 2007) have claimed that because each department uses its own vocabulary for its activities, it has the difficulties of understanding and communicating with other departments. Differences in the use of methods and tools result in difficult collaboration between groups. In addition, team members have different cultural backgrounds, focuses, and experiences that can lead to limited understanding. “Engineering professionals use scientific methods to solve technical problems, while industrial designers focus on social and cultural values of the product, making it difficult for engineering designers to perceive solutions accurately”. Other factors affecting collaboration include personality/cultural differences, preconceived notions, lack of trust, and physical barriers (Anon, 2002; Warell, 2001; Presson, 2002, Cited in Pei, Evans & Campbell, 2007). Paulus (2000, cited in Tang, HH & Shiao, GY 2008, p. 1) asserts that if team members have conflict or friction in discussion or loose their focus in the process, it easily depresses members’ abilities and has the opposite effects.

30 For example, Brereton et al. (Reid & Reed 2000, p. 233) observed that design discussions proceed through successive cycles of focusing on issues and transitioning between topics. They analysed that in the design group, individual engineers developed partial solutions to the design problem by pointing to and handling the design object (a bicycle), whilst other group members played supporting roles, listening, asking questions, offering encouragement, and eventually criticism. Nevertheless, the process shows that sometimes they would decrease in pace with long pauses and a reduced tempo of speaking. This would slow the progress down and waste the discussion time.

Compromise is also another common situation that they would face in collaborative design. Each discipline in design collaboration will have different opinions and interpretations of design problems. Therefore different methods will be used in approaching those problems. This can possibly lead to conflicts or arguments among the team members. The most applicable mechanisms, both cost-effective manufacturing techniques and materials or aesthetic functional aspects are indispensable. But usually they are the factors that causes contradiction to each other within a design. In the design process, these disciplines have different priorities and have to make some compromises through communication to obtain maximum profit from the collaborative design attempt (Shin 2009, p. 2921).

To sum up, “collaboration is the centerpiece of design processes, especially in the context of new product conceptualisation and embodiment. Integration of collaborative design processes should ensure the sufficiency of different perspectives, which are often domain-specific and characterised by expert judgement and professional intuition” (To & Harwood 2000, p.148). The question of how to balance and coordinate the disciplines from various specialised fields is crucial in collaborative design and is worthy of further discussion.

Collaboration between designers

Collaborative design has been viewed as a shared design activity. The design process is both highly personal and complex. A creative individual absorbed in solving a problem will be influenced by personality characteristics, accumulated perceptual awareness, a capacity for intellectual analysis, emotional responses, and their innate

31 ability to synthesise the elements of a problem into an original idea (Hurlburt 1981, p. 22). In collaborative design, designers with objectives, motivations, and individual backgrounds make an effort to achieve a shared aim by making the best use of each member’s experiences and knowledge (Kvan 2000; Leeuwen, Gassel & Otter 2005, cited in Chamorro-koc, Davis & Popovic 2009, p. 1293)

Collaborations between designers are usually correlated to the ideas or concepts collected and generated in developing process. High quality of interaction that can enhance joint objectives is the necessity for successful collaboration. For developing harmony, time is required being carefully scheduled and distributed (Cheng, NYW & Kvan 2000, p. 3). In a design project, a work of collaboration involves the interleaving of individual and group activities. Managing this process of a design project requires considerable implicit and explicit communication between collaborators (Maher 2011, p. 4). Each collaborator needs to share and explain their understanding of design goals, and specific tasks in the process. Sometimes, a design team has not just only one designer. The mode of collaboration between designers is different from designers who collaborate with other departments. Design groups are required to generate ideas using either an estimating technique (brainstorming) or a graphic technique (brain-drawing). Generating ideas are analysed in terms of their connectivity to earlier ideas (eds. Scrivener, Ball & Woodcock, 2000, p. 220).

The study of Güll and Maher (2007, p. 3) referred to the model of design collaboration (three joint decision phases: meta-planning, negotiation and evaluation) developed by Kvan et al. mentioned earlier in this chapter, with an individual work phase. They consider that these phases should be repeated until designers propose a satisfying design solution. Giudice (2011) also indicates three points that should be thought of in the collaborative design, they are: “(1) The role of collaboration in design; (2) Using participatory design techniques to generate great ideas and think outside the box; and (3) How to build a collaborative culture within your organization”. Based on these views above, in order to understand designers’ collaboration activities, we need to understand an individual’s design activity and how external representations (sketches, models, diagrams) are created and shared among participants.

32 “The collaborative design process refers to verbal design protocols that have direct relevance to designers’ collaboration to solve a particular design problem”. The design communication includes the discussions between the designers in terms of how they develop, generate design solutions and communicate the design ideas (Güll & Maher, 2007, p. 6-7). The concept development process can be as well defined as a set of divergent phases (Figure 4), where the solution space is expanded, and convergent phases, where the ideas and concepts are selected and refined (Ulrich, 1995; Banathy, 1996, cited in Garrido, 2009, p. 13).

Figure 4. Concept development process - divergent and convergent phases. Source: Bergstrom (2009, cited in Garrido 2009, p. 13).

Sometimes, the designer’s mind starts to probe the visual images that maybe point trace to the concept when the research and analysis are completed or earlier. Designers may work more directly from analysis to the logical development of a design solution on some straightforward and simple projects. But even in these situations, most designers will weigh the relative value of their logical solution against the option of a more creative approach (Hurlburt, 1981, p. 26-27).

Detienne et al. (2004, p. 2-3) have identified various types of collaborative activities in design meetings. Activity types related to the object of a design task concerning the evolution of the design problem and solution include:

1. Design activity such as elaboration, enhancements of solutions, and of alternative solutions.

2. Evaluation activities, including evaluation of solutions or alternative solutions, on the basis of criteria. These activities may be supported by argumentation.

33 There is another type of activity which relates to the object of the design task, concerns the construction of a common referential by the group of participants: cognitive clarification activities, such as construction of a shared representation of the current state of the solution. Stempfle and Badke-Schaub (cited in Detienne et al., 2004, p. 3) found that some teams ignored cognitive analysis and that this led them to the premature evaluation of design ideas.

Gassel et al. (cited in Chamorro-koc, Davis & Popovic, 2009, p.1293) also found that by sharing their views, designers can get other designers to react to those views. Van Gassel argues that designers can grow experience and change individual mental model by integrating action, reaction and thought around ideas that are shared with other designers. Therefore, Designing is a social process where designers communicate with one another.

In the research of Chamorro-koc, Davis, and Popovic (2009, p. 1292), their case study deals with the identification of relationships between context-of-use and human experience and the ways in which these inform the design of products. One of the design tasks involved in the case study required consideration of particular usability issues for a given user group. It reveals that: “(a) variance between concepts was influenced by the designers’ individual experience of using or knowing about similar products; and that (b) the collaborative design approach prompted designers to a reflective design activity and assisted them in refining their design concepts”.

In addition, there are some differences of design thinking between each designer based on their experiences. For expert designers, the process was rich in details allowing them to converge ideas into one that satisfies usability requirements. For novice designers, the process stimulated new ideas based on the assumptions about features and functions. In this case study, it was observed that expert and novice designers applied different approaches to collaboration. For example, expert designers spent a significant portion of the time re-defining the boundaries of the brief, whereas novice designers placed high importance on meeting the objectives of the brief. In other words, designers’ experiences will affect the reflection mode and tendencies to focus on different scopes. Although the scopes may differ collaboration can stimulate more innovation, ideas and concepts.

34 On the other hand, some difficulties may occur within designers’ collaboration. Because of strong interdependencies between design decisions, it is difficult to converge on a single design and find a solution that is satisfied by all participants. This makes collaboration be challenging. Current collaborative design approaches are as a result typically characterised by heavy reliance on expensive and time-consuming processes, poor incorporation of some important design concerns (life-cycle issues such as environmental impact), as well as reduced creativity due to the tendency to incrementally modify known successful designs rather than explore radically different and potentially superior ones (Klein et al., 2003, p. 1).

Giudice (2011) thinks that excellent design ideas rarely spring fully formed from our brains. They are usually a result of ideas from many people with different directions of looking at the problem, repeated over time. However, most people may miss the ability of seeing a problem from different perspectives because they prefer to work alone or work with other like-minded designers, developers, and marketers. This kind of working mode can be slow, and the resulting solution can be limited. However, current studies relating to design collaboration typically display a positive attitude toward this issue representing a perspective that collaborative design is actually enhancing effectiveness and providing assistance.

Brand alliance

Many studies reveal that collaboration is established when companies are competing in emergent or competitive industries or are trying new technology strategies (Eisenhardt & Schoonhoven, cited in Melander, 2011, p. 18). “Brand management is also considered as a core competence in consumer marketing that can determine the success of a company. Its significance in industrial markets is far less explored” (Martinez & de Chernatony; Mudambi, cited in Bengtsson & Servais, 2005, p.1). Thus, the need to integrate new technology into a product can lead to collaboration between two firms (Melander, 2011, p. 18). Traditionally brands have been considered as the means to establish a desired position in the customers’ mind that through perceived added value could attract loyal customers that willingly pay a price premium for the product or service (Brown, Shivashanker, & Brucker, 1989; de Chernatony & McDonald, 2003, cited in Bengtsson & Servais , 2005, p.1).

35 In the 1990s, one consumer brand marketing strategy that experienced explosive growth has been the use of joint branding or co-marketing, in which two (or more) brands are presented at the same time to consumers (Spethmann & Benezra 1994; Simonin & Ruth 1998, p. 30). Activities of collaborative brand will increase profit for all partners. There are a lot of different terms that have been used to refer to co- operative brand marketing activities. The term “brand alliance” used by Rao and Ruekert (1994) implicates the short or long-term association or combination of two or more individual brands, products and/or other distinctive proprietary assets. These brands or products can be represented symbolically (e.g., an advertisement) or physically (e.g., bundled package of two or more brands) (Simonin & Ruth, 1998, p. 30) by the participating brands.

Overall, there can be recognised, three perspectives on brand alliances. “The first is concerned with the benefits and drawbacks for the company, next is the consumer effects, and finally the proposed fit between the brands entering the alliance”. Even though much literature stresses the benefits that companies obtain from alliances in relation to synergies, competitive advantage, and eliminating costs of entry, research in this field cares about what consumers think about brand alliances and how they perceive the brands (Boad & Blackett 1999; Rao & Ruekert 1994; Rao & Ruekert 1999; Simonin & Ruth 1998; James 2006, cited in Fenger & Carl 2010, p. 12). According to Ferrell and Hartline (2010, p. 226), brand alliance includes brand strategies, such as brand licensing or co-branding, that involve developing close relationships with other companies.

Brand Licensing

Brand licensing involves a contractual agreement, an agreement in which a company allows another organisation to use its brand on other products for a licensing fee. “Although this royalty can be quite expensive, the instant brand recognition that comes with the licensed brand is often worth the expense”. Licensing is also quite common in the characters and images from popular movies like Harry Potter to create a variety of products (Ferrell & Pride 2010, p. 221 & Ferrell & Hartline 2010, p. 206). Companies with strong brands have discovered that manufacturers were ready, willing and able to commit significant resources into building new licensed product

36 lines (Martensen 2013, p. 1).

“Brand licensing is the outsourcing of a brand's new product design in exchange for a small share of revenue” (Brand Licensing, 2013), “and it is used to be largely a partner function of promotional activity”. Many licensed products were give-away freebies. There are many reasons why licensing has grown so impressively and quickly and why it has become a real business prospect. The traditional reasons have not changed very much: “(1) New competitors, high advertising costs and new media vehicles required companies to look for innovative ways to reach consumers; (2) Mature markets and increasing competition forced companies to explore new growth avenues; (3) Financial exposure in licensing is very limited and the upside can be quite substantial; (4) Minimal risk makes licensing very appealing; and (5) Better and better companies are becoming licensees, further reducing the risk and boosting the attractiveness” (Feldman 2011, p. 1-2).

Licensing offers several advantages. It allows a company to earn increasing income with less expense and spread out its investment costs, and research and development. Moreover, granting a license protests the company’s patent and/or trademark against cancellation for nonuse, which is especially important for a company. (Onkvisit & Shaw 2004, p. 249).

Brand licensing can benefit an owner of a valuable brand name greatly. The trademark owner also receives an intangible benefit from free advertising that enhances the brand’s image and meanwhile gaining royalties from sales of products with its name or image. (Onkvisit & Shaw 2004, p. 249). The license agreement is including a guaranteed license payment or variable payments base on the profits of the license business. On the other hand, the licensee pays for the right to hold the license, which produces revenues to the licensing company (Fowler 2013).

Some licensors engage in brand licensing to earn additional revenues and to improve their financial results. Licensors are usually cost sensitive and try to minimize expenses related to licensing. On the other hand, licensors doing brand licensing have different purposes. Some want to enhance their brand value; others simply want to protect the trademark in other territories or classes and therefore prevent the third parties from free riding or counterfeiting the brand. (Binder 2011, p. 3). The other

37 benefit of licensing a business process is the promotion of brand recognition. “The licensing company should consider retaining the right to market the fact that the licensee has obtained a license from the licensing company”. As more people become aware that the licensing company is responsible for the licensee business production, this can provide brand credibility and recognition benefits for the licensing company (Fowler 2013).

Furthermore, Rao and Ruekert (1994, p. 87) consider that “if one brand’s name on a product gives a certain signal of quality, then the presence of a second brand name on the product should result in a signal that is at least as powerful, if not more powerful than the signal in the case of the single brand name. If the second brand name is unknown or hidden, the level of quality assurance is unaffected by the presence of the second brand name”.

However, licensing has its negative aspects. With reduced risk generally comes reduced profit. A manufacturer may nurture a competitor in the future who is gaining technological knowledge of products because of licensing a foreign company (Onkvisit & Shaw 2004, p. 249). Therefore, the competitor also has the right to use the same process of production the manufacturer uses. A licensing company may attempt to limit competition by limiting the scope of the license as much as possible. For example, the license may contain restrictions of time, quantity or geography to protect the market of the licensing company (Fowler 2013). The production process is a valuable property right. The risk with a license is that it increases exposure of the proprietary, confidential, and production process. It is a fact that the licensing company has no direct control over the contractors and employees within the licensee business. So the more people know the process, the higher risk the confidentiality will be breached (Fowler 2013). In addition, “lacking manufacturing control could also hurt the company’s reputation” (Ferrell & Pride 2009, p. 230). Thus, the more careful the detail of licensing contract is, the companies concerned will have more protection of their rights and interests.

Co-Branding

Co-branding allows the brand equity of multiple brands to create distinctive products

38 with distinctive differentiation (Ferrell & Hartline 2010, p. 206). Co-branding is formed under some circumstances. Many scholars (Abratt & Motlana, 2002; Baumgarth, 2004; Washburn et al., 2000; Besharat 2010, p. 2) attempt to define co- branding and implicitly suggest three criteria:

• Co-branding should be accompanied by a long-term agreement and co-operation.

• The name of both brands should appear on the product, logo, or product package.

• The primary objective is to launch a new product in a new or existing market.

Brands collaboration will enhance the value in the consumers’ minds toward the original brand itself and whole brand alliance (Simonin & Ruth 1998, cited in Besharat 2010, p. 1242). Previous research indicates the benefits of co-branding for participating brands. For example, co-branding may facilitate the transfer of positive brand associations from one brand to another. McCarthy and Norris (1999, cited in Besharat 2010, p. 1241) argue that co-branding also impresses customers the quality signals of a new product in the market. It means that partner brands will influence the quality perceptions of each other. The complimentary nature of the brands increases perceived quality and customer familiarity (Ferrell & Hartline 2010, p. 206). It can affect consumers’ mindfulness and assessment of a product. Collaborating with companies that possess a notable reputation will affect consumers concerning the brand impression. When people encounter a co-branded product marketed by a widely known and an unknown brand, they tend to assume the unknown brand shares values and images with the well-known brand (Besharat 2010, p. 1241). The different methods of brand collaboration demonstrate the possible relationships between brand alliance and consumers’ evaluation toward two brands.

Brand alliance actually includes different brands’ co-operation strategies (Dickinson & Heath, cited in Hsu, HC 2011, p. 9-10). In order to survive and make more profit, the increasing competition and growing complexity of products lead firms begin to transform their performance and cater to or follow the current market trends. Changing market conditions may cause an expensive and risky endeavor in product development and also influence the way of management. Hence, enterprises follow two strategies to response to these changes. They “(1) develop strategic alliances with

39 various external organisations (e.g. key suppliers, major customers, competitors, universities, research institutes, government agencies) to reduce costs and manage risks, for instance by sharing development costs, gaining entry to each other’s markets or exchanging technologies, and (2) build high-performance cross-functional teams (including designers, manufacturing personnel, marketing members and clients) within their organisation” (Bruse & Biemans 1995, p. 137-142). Either approach will help them to combine knowledge from different fields, as well as gain the acquisition of new technologies. It is believed that through technology and knowledge exchange, they may acquire more benefits than before.

Bruse & Biemans (1995, p. 142-143) claim that another main reason for increased collaboration with external organisations is the growing tendency of companies to focus on their core activities and sub-contract everything else. This tendency causes companies to buy in expertise for specific parts of the process. For example, companies may outsource organisations to develop innovative ideas for new products, conduct extensive market scanning studies, or execute technical tests on prototypes. Both practitioners and academics also point to the changing market conditions. They explain the reasons of the rise of strategic alliances are due to increasing political control, the globalisation of business, high costs, and economic conditions. It is too expensive and too complicated for any scale company to operate alone all the time. Dickinson and Barker (2007, cited in Besharat 2010, p. 1241) suggest that nonprofit organisations can also ally with commercial partners in cause-related marketing to acquire financial resources. Companies can apply co-branding concepts to cultural and artistic products (d'Astous, Colbert, & Fournier, 2007, cited in Besharat 2010, p. 1241), for example, The Guggenheim Museum in New York has many co-licensing projects. It has licensed with the design and product development firm named “Designtex” to produce an innovative co-branded line of textiles and wall coverings for commercial, hospitality, and residential environments. The Guggenheim Museum is also collaborating with Harry Winston (an American jeweller) and an award- winning contemporary furniture design and manufacturing company named STUA in Spain. All revenue that brought by the licensing program is used to support the Guggenheim Museum for its not-for-profit mission (Guggenheim Museum 2013).

40 RED Case study of co-branding – (Product)

The Global Fund3 provides opportunities for collaboration and co-financing and also represents one of the efficient avenues for business investment in several pandemics, such as HIV, Malaria and tuberculosis (GBC Health 2013). The Global Fund gives the non-government donors and private sector opportunities to make contributions on reducing diseases significantly. (Red) is one of these organisations. “(Red) is a RED4 corporate business model and (Product) is its trademark funded in 2006 by Bono, lead singer of U2, and Bobby Shriver, co-founder and chairman of Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa (DATA), specifically to address the need for sustainable, diverse funding RED sources” (The Bookings Institution 2013, p. 1). (Product) aims to fight the spread of AIDS in Africa. Since its initiation, the (Red) campaign has built the product brand by partnering with the world’s most iconic and profitable brands. These brands pay a RED fee to (Product) for marketing and administration to raise money for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. These partner companies have the right licensed from (Red) for using its label, and producing, marketing, and selling (Red) items. (Dadush 2010, p. 1270).

(Red) is a simple idea of helping people in need by transforming collective power as consumers into a financial force. There are more than 900 children are born HIV positive in Africa every day (The Global Fund 2013). “The aim of the campaign is that through these grants’ support of prevention, treatment, counseling, and care services, the number can be near zero by 2015” (The Global Fund 2013). The introduction on the (Red) website (2013) shows how the campaign works (Figure 5). RED When consumers buy the (Product) , up to 50 percent of profits made from sales will be donated to Africa and help people to fight AIDS. The manufacturers of the (Red) products will send the contribution to the Global Fund, and the Global Fund

3 The Global Fund is an international financing institution dedicated to attracting and disbursing resources to prevent and treat HIV and AIDS, TB and malaria. The Global Fund promotes partnerships between governments, civil society, the private sector and affected communities, the most effective way to help reach those in need. Cited from: , viewed on 29 Marh 2013.

4 A word indicating the corporate identity of a given corporate partner is intended to replace the word “Product”—e.g., RED RED (Starbucks) or (Nike) . As Tamsin Smith, former President of Red explained: “We call the parentheses or brackets the “embrace.” Each company that becomes (Red) places their logo in the embrace. And this embrace is elevated in superscript to RED RED the power of (Red). Thus the name: (Product) .” YoungMe Moon etal., Harvard Business School, (PRODUCT) (A) 4 (2009). Source from: [hereinafter HBS] (cited in Sarah Dadush 2010, p. 1270), viewed 19 February 2013.

41 will use the overall money generated to support the HIV/AIDS programs. They will also provide treatment to prevent the transmission of HIV. (Red) wants to communicate to consumers that when you are purchasing something you like, you also make the contribution to the people who need help ((Red) 2013). (Red) has many partners to support this campaign; most of them are well-known, such as Apple, Coca-Cola, American Express, Dell, the Gap, Microsoft, Motorola and Converse, etc (Ponte, Richey & Baab 2008, p. 5). These companies are allowed to co-brand with the RED (Product) logo on their products if they donate a certain percentage of the profits to the Global Fund.

Figure 5. How (Red) works. Source: (RED) website

To take the case of Apple’s iPod Nano for example, Apple uses the standard color of RED RED (Product) as a unique feature of the product after being authorised by (Product) RED and consumers can buy an iPod Nano (Product) for the same price (USD $199). The difference from other iPod Nano purchases is that when consumers buy RED (Product) , Apple will donate a percentage of gross profits from the sale of products to the Global Fund (Apple 2013). “The Global Fund will invest the money to the African region, providing funds to support local health units and experts, and maintaining and driving regional health plans” (The Global Fund 2013). For consumers, they not only have a new Apple iPod Nano but also the added value because of its obvious distinction and identification are different from other similar

42 products. It contains more public value and feedback while Africa’s sustainable health support can be increased with the prevention and treatment of disease.

RED (Product) is a single brand marketed among different products and companies, even though it is similar to some aspects to other cause-related marketing5 business. (Red) licenses only one company in each product category, which introduces a monopoly element within each product category (The Bookings Institution 2013, p. 1).

(Red) benefits from its brand recognition, marketing support, and ready access to celebrity support. “In this case the marketing tactic is based on a win-win mentality for the producer (corporation), consumers, and the cause (in this case, Africa)” (Phu 2010, p. 112). (Red) offers a way in which companies do not have to develop their own brand but approach demand by so-called conscience consumers (The Bookings Institution 2013, p. 1-2). Firstly, the producers of the products will obtain greater income by making the “for a cause” commodities; some of producers will market at a higher cost to ensure their own profits. Secondly, the consumers will also increase self-satisfaction with their purchases because of their part of “mercy” to Africa (Phu 2010, p. 112).

For instance, at “Gap”, a brand of clothing, Dan Henkle, Senior Vice President of Gap RED saw that the (Product) united Gap’s employees in a larger purpose for the affected African regions (Martin 2008, p. 31-32):

“We think this is a good extension some of the work that we’ve already been doing as a company. We’ve been sourcing product out of Africa for nearly a decade, and one of the things that we think is important is, if you’re doing business in Africa, you see the impact that diseases such as HIV/AIDS are having on people who are working and living there. And, as a responsible company, you need to be responding to that. So, we think it makes sense to invest long-term into this project because it invests into so much more with our employees.”

5 Foundation Center defines “cause-related marketing” (CRM) as “the public association of a for-profit company with a nonprofit organisation, intended to promote the company's product or service and to raise money for the nonprofit.” Cited from Nonprofit Charitable Orgs 2013, , viewed 19 February 2013.

43 Furthermore, “Henkle thinks that the funds raised with this initiative create a healthy sustainable work force, and beneficial revenue in the long-term for the company, which benefits all” (Martin 2008, p. 31-32).

Gap launched the “Gap Do The (Red) Thing” campaign in 2006. The campaign also invited many celebrities to wear a co-designed t-shirt from Gap and (Red) to promote the campaign. By exploiting their reputation, the campaign received increased attention from the public. The slogan and design on the Gap t-shirt and advertisements, for example, “Can a T-shirt Change The World? This One Can. All Gap (PRODUCT) RED clothing is designed to help eliminate AIDS in Africa”. It prompts consumers to feel the ‘urgency’ by communicating the sense of hopelessness that death is approaching to millions of Africans. Their lives will not be saved unless these consumers take immediate action. (Arkell 2008, p. 114).

The 2005-2006 report from the company clarified Gap’s commitment to the RED (Product) campaign as a combination of “design” and “virtue” because it assists the company, employees in Africa, and a non-profit cause. According to Gap, “donations alone are unlikely to resolve the major challenges faced by developing nations”. However, they claimed clearly that “their goal is to create a sustainable cash flow to the Global Fund, long after large donations fade away”. For them, the “power of knowledge” is accomplished through informing consumers through their marketing campaign (Gap, cited in Martin 2008, p. 23).

Cindy N. Phu (2010, p. 111) considers that the ideology of “doing good for the RED world” is the strategy that the (Product) campaign applies to encourage consumers to buy their products. According to Fiske (1989, cited in Phu 2010, p. 112), “consumers do not purchase for the sake of the dominant (corporations) power but as a means of personal choice and now with this campaign, it allows consumers to empower themselves through consuming commodities to save lives in Africa”. This is RED the philosophy that the (Product) campaign can be so successful (Phu 2010, p. 112).

RED Furthermore, campaign organisers think that the success of the (Product) initiates when it produces that repetitive purchase intention among consumers (Martin 2008, p.

44 44). “Socially conscious consumers are a potentially sizable share of the market: a “good cause” would motivate 89 percent of 13 to 25 year-old Americans to change brands if quality and price were consistent” (The Bookings Institution 2013, p. 2). RED (Product) hopes to encourage consumers to behave like having social consciousness by connecting an ethical issue to attractive products (The Bookings Institution 2013, p. 2).

The Global Fund (2013) points out that supporting Global Fund HIV/AIDS grants in Ghana, Lesotho, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, and Zambia, (Red) has contributed more than 195 million US dollars. 100 percent of this money goes to work on the ground – no overhead is taken by either (Red) or the Global Fund. However, at the same time some people keep a suspicious attitude toward the (Red) campaign – primarily about the level of transparency to its own supporters. There are also several studies that have been critical of (Red). The critics argue that the model of (Red) does not work in a transparent status. This is a weakness that should be rectified (Dadush 2010, p. 1273). “Consumers need more assurance their dollars are safe, particularly as (Red) has been questioned with transparency since its inception, leaving consumers at times confused how their purchases were benefiting the cause” (DaSilva 2013, p. 1). “Some companies (for example) promise to donate a certain percentage of profits from sales of (Red) products, but they do not specifically state how they calculate the profits” (The Bookings Institution 2013, p. 2).

However, we cannot deny that (Red) did make some contribution. At first glance, RED (Product) is a marketing gimmick about public welfare, but it is not just a marketing activity. The use of sustainable management concepts for social enterprise allows it to produce a higher and more sustained value. The idea and practice of RED (Product) will not let the charity become a burden on businesses and consumers, but unconsciously make the charity get into the consumer’s life. Meanwhile, they also successfully promote their product by causing the public to pay attention to the AIDS problem in Africa. From this case study, the ideology behind the consumerism and RED relationship between (Product) and its partnerships can be a reference worthy of a further discussion. They do need to improve the problem of non-transparency in the distribution of money to the social cause. After all, trust is important and meaningful

45 for consumers in terms of maintaining public confidence in charity.

Summary

The discussion above presents that collaborative design enhances the efficiency of design projects, the communication between stakeholders and shortens the time for modifying mistakes. Collaboration in the design process helps to fill the gap between different disciplines, including marketing, engineering and design. It also helps to collect and develop creative ideas, generate design solutions, and achieve a more complete assessment before production. On the other hand, co-branding raises the reputation and profit of participating enterprises, it is a contemporary design strategy that creates mutual interests for companies. Hence, the concepts of co-design are significant to the design process between stakeholders of the NPM workshop for designing and developing appropriate museum cultural products to fulfill the NPM philosophy of “Old is New”. This will be discussed in detail in Chapter 4.

The next chapter will provide an introduction to the National Palace Museum as a cultural institution which is undergoing change in its management strategies in line with the policy of the Taiwan government by focusing on attracting younger visitors and becoming competitive in the design and development of museum products.

CHAPTER THREE

The National Palace Museum (NPM)

47 CHAPTER 3 The National Palace Museum (NPM)

This chapter will provide a brief introduction to the history and background of the National Palace Museum (NPM), and the policies of the Taiwan government in supporting the museum to provide a platform for developing the cultural and creative industry. The chapter will also explore the museum’s important role in disseminating Chinese culture through activities and events guided by the “Old is New” philosophy as part of the NPM’s plan to introduce younger audiences to its extensive collection of artifacts and relics. The chapter will also discuss museum products and branding, and the NPM’s management strategy for the design and development of its products to be inspired and informed by objects from its collection.

Brief history of the National Palace Museum (NPM)

The National Palace Museum (NPM) (Figures 6 and 7) is the largest museum and collects the largest number of Chinese art in Taiwan. The NPM is also well known internationally for its extensive collection of cultural relics. From the introduction of the NPM’s official website, we are informed that museum’s collections had been through a very difficult time in history to ensure the collections’ safety from political turmoil until now.

The NPM inherits its rich collection from a long heritage accumulated over a thousand years spanning four consecutive imperial reigns – Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties – and consequently, the history of the museum is closely linked with the changes and development of modern China (Chou, KS 2010). The collection reveals a crystallisation of five thousand years of Chinese culture (Lin, PY 2010, p. 54). Thirteen years after the founding of the Republic of China, the cultural artifacts kept in the palaces were collectively itemized, and the National Palace Museum was born (NPM 2013a).

Figure 6. The National Palace Museum, Taipei. Photographed by the author, 15th June 2013.

Figure 7. Entrance of the National Palace Museum, Taipei. Photographed by the author, 15th June 2013. With the aim of preserving the imperial collections and palace treasures from the various Chinese dynasties, the NPM was officially opened on 10 October 1925 in Beijing, allowing members of the public and future generations to enter the palace to admire this cultural inheritance (NPM 2013a). The collections survived and experienced the national resistance to Japan, the Chinese Civil War and the large- scale migration, and it eventually took root in Taiwan (Lin, PY 2010, p. 57). The primary duties of the NPM during wartime were to protect and preserve the collection (NPM 2013a) (Figure 8).

The story of the NPM can be separated into two stages with the turning point in 1965. Because of the Japanese invasion and the civil war between the Nationalist Party and Communist Party, hundreds of thousands of pieces of historical relics had been transferred by the Nationalist Party from China to Taiwan. In 1965 the NPM was re- built in Taiwan, several generations of the cultural elite made efforts to operate the NPM and develop its academy, education, culture, display and other functions in order for it to become a museum with contemporary significance (Shih 2005, cited in Lin, PY 2010, p. 54).

On 18 September 1931, the Japanese army invaded northern China. In order to ensure the safety of the museum’s collections, the NPM was given orders to store important artifacts in crates so as to be ready for evacuation at any time. In 1948 the Central Government made the decision to send the most precious objects in the collections of the NPM to Taiwan. The decision also included relocating all documents and files from the collections of the National Central Library, Institute of History, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Education. The first group of crates was transported from Nanjing in China, arriving in Keelung (基隆) in Taiwan at the end of 1948; the second and third groups of crates arrived the following year (NPM 2013a). Only three batches of cultural relics arrived in Taiwan. A total of 2,972 crates were shipped; these accounted for only 22 percent of the items originally transported south from Beijing and 852 crates of the items from the Preparatory Office. These pieces represented artifacts of the highest quality from the collections. The Palace Museum in Beijing still retains about 10,000 boxes of the original cultural relics collection (Lin, PY 2010, p. 57).

Figure 8. Map of East Asia. Redrawn by the author.

Curator Period of service Tu, Cheng-Sheng (杜正勝) May 2000 to May 2004

Shih, Shou-Chien (石守謙) May 2004 to January 2006

Lin, Mun-Lee (林曼麗) January 2006 to May 2008

Chou, Kung-Shin (周功鑫) May 2008 to July 2012

Feng, Ming-Chu (馮明珠) 2012 to present

Figure 9. Curators of the National Palace Museum, 2000 to present.

Foundation of the NPM in Taiwan

The NPM has more than 690,000 items in its collection. In addition to the richness of the collection, it is even more important for a museum to offer an excellent preservation environment and methods of maintenance, as well as research staff to organize educational exhibitions. For these reasons the NPM has undergone several reorganizations and expansions of staff since its reopening at the Taipei suburb, Waishuanxi (外雙溪) in 1965. This has included five structural expansions, before reaching its current scale (NPM 2013a). The NPM’s collection is diverse, but due to the limited exhibition space, the exhibitions feature no more than 1,700 pieces each time. If the NPM were to renew exhibitions every three months without repeated displays, the cultural relics could be exhibited for approximately 100 years (Hung, C 2007, p. 370-372).

The NPM published the National Palace Museum Monthly and National Palace Museum Academic Quarterly in 1966, and also extensively improved the environmental conditions for the artifacts, has greatly expanded the exhibition area. In 1985, the unit “Relationship between Chinese and World Cultures” was created with the aim of increasing the knowledge of visitors to both East Asian and European cultures. New technologies were introduced, along with a multimedia display room; a series of academic events were held to celebrate the Museum's 60th anniversary (NPM 2013a). The curator of the NPM at the time actively improved the exhibition area, enhanced academic research, and promoted museum education, while the NPM completed a comprehensive relics inventory within two years (Chou, KS 2008, p. 13- 14) (Figure 9).

In 2000, Mr. Tu Cheng-Sheng (May 2000 to May 2004) as the NPM curator proposed a new construction project under the title of “The New Century of the NPM”. Importantly, the Executive Yuan 6 of Taiwan approved the establishment of a Southern branch of the NPM to balance the cultural development in North and South Taiwan. In 2003, it was decided the new branch to be built in Chiayi County (Pan, HH 2005, p. 315-316). The Southern branch was to be characterized as a “museum of Asian art and culture” that will primarily collect artifacts and relics from all parts of Asia, and will possess the functions of archiving, research, preservation, education and display of artifacts and relics from Asia (NPM 2013b). It is hoped the establishment of the southern branch will consolidate the expression of Taiwanese’s soul and spirit via the Asian vision and imagination of the museum. In other words, the southern branch is concerned with the overall image of the Asian civilization. When the museum contemplates the Asian civilization, it will reflect Taiwanese in the past, present, and future at the same time (Hou, ST 2005, p. 90).

Culture can be conveyed through museum exhibitions. Drawing upon its splendid collection, the NPM is able to organise several permanent and temporary exhibitions. Within more than thirty galleries, paintings, bronzes, ceramics, carvings, jades, lacquerware, rare books, calligraphies and historical documents have been displayed. The exhibits are aimed to provide viewers with a systematic understanding of Chinese culture and its rich art. The NPM also actively collaborates with local and international museums to facilitate mutual exchanges, and integrate its Chinese collection with the essence of local and foreign cultures, thus conveying a universal value of art and museums (Lu, RH & Liu, CC 2011, p. 23).

Permanent exhibitions are the most capable of showing the breadth and systematization of a museum collection. The NPM houses the imperial collection of four dynasties and fully demonstrates the imperial tastes as well as documenting the beautiful and delicate artistic achievements of ancient China. The exhibits are curated to allow viewers to grasp the development of Chinese art and civilization in a systematic way according to the material culture of the antiquities and in chronological order (Lu, RH & Liu, CC 2011, p. 23). On the other hand, the theme

6 The Executive Yuan is the executive branch of the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan) government. Its functions and obligations are stipulated in the Constitution of the Republic of China and the Organizational Act of the Executive Yuan. Cited from the website of the Executive Yuan, Republic of China (Taiwan), , viewed 25th March 2013. 51

exhibitions are thematic expositions featuring the profundity of the collection and the research achievements of the NPM staff (Lu, RH & Liu, CC 2011, p. 27)

To enhance their international reputation, the NPM actively collaborates with foreign museums to exchange items from collections for exhibition. The Museum has not only invited and arranged loans of artifacts from Taiwanese collectors and from China, the exhibitions also develop an international reputation. At the invitation of the Metropolitan Museum in the New York, the NPM contributed 452 selected pieces from its collection to the exhibition, “Splendors of Imperial China” which toured four major cities in the USA during 1996. In October 1998 a selection of 344 pieces were exhibited at the Grand Palais Museum in Paris, under the title “Memories of an Empire: Treasures from the National Palace Museum” (NPM 2013a).

Emphasis on local culture, fashion and innovations

Mr. Tu Cheng-Sheng (NPM curator, May 2000 to May 2004) introduced business management concepts and work systems to the museum. He tried to implement this conceptually with the local culture and the Taiwanese spirit to operate the museum. In response to Mr. Tu’s concept of managing the Museum as a business, the NPM issued the “Regulations on Management and Use of Income and Expenses of the Cultural Relics and Art Development Fund”, and introduced the “Friends of the NPM” and the NPM affinity cards (NPM 2013a). There are four kinds of “Friends of the NPM”, namely: “Select Friend of the NPM”, “Elite Friend of the NPM”, “Honorary Friend of the NPM”, and “International Friend of the NPM”. The difference with each kind depends on the level of contribution to the museum, such as the donation of money or artifacts. In order to encourage the public to participate in this range of memberships, subscription to “Friends of the NPM” can enjoy benefits in the museum, such as discount on the price of tickets or free copies of NPM annual reports. The affinity card of the NPM will identify each member of the “Friends of the NPM”. “Through this mechanism, the NPM hopes to promote general awareness of the NPM collection, to encourage public participation, and also enrich the country's artistic resources and upgrade our ability to acquire artifacts” (NPM 2013g).

Ms. Lin Mun-Lee (NPM Curator, January 2006 to May 2008), promoted the museum philosophy “Old is New at the NPM” (時尚故宮), and began to collaborate with

many local or international famous companies. After Ms. Lin, Ms. Chou Kung-Shin was appointed as the new curator of the NPN (May 2008 to July 2012). Ms. Chou endeavored to further enhance the standards of archiving, researching, exhibitions, education, preservation and other fundamental but essential functions of the museum. Her vision is to create a “new vivacity of the collection and new values for the National Palace Museum” (NPM 2013a).

The NPM tries to promote greater communication with China and other countries around the world. At the same time, nurturing talent and an audience appreciative of cultural objects are the business goals of the NPM. Curator Ms. Chou has also implemented business management, marketing and inter-industry affiliation concepts in integrating resources internally and externally to ensure the NPM has a more pluralistic exhibition environment (NPM 2013a).

In December 2008, “Cross-Strait Palace Museums” has become one of the important policies of the Taiwanese government to complement Government’s policy of promoting the normalization of cross-strait relations. The NPM has conducted active exchanges with various major museums in Mainland China, including the Palace Museum in Beijing, Museum of Shanghai, Museum of Nanjing and Museum of Shenyang. The cultural and exhibition exchanges with Chinese museums have ensured that regular collaboration mechanisms will be easier to establish in the future (NPM 2013a).

National Treasures in the NPM collection

The NPM has several iconic objects which have become key highlights of the museum’s collections; for example, the Jadeite Cabbage with Insects (翠玉白菜) (Figure 10) of the Qing Dynasty, Mao-Gong Ding (three-legged bronze cooking vessel) (毛公鼎) of late West Zhou Dynasty, and Meat-shaped Stone (肉形石) of the Qing Dynasty. The Mao-Gong Ding holds a pivotal position in the field of bronze and calligraphy. It contains five hundred words of inscription which is the longest inscription of current extant bronzes (NPM 2013h). The Jadeite Cabbage with Insects, and Meat-shaped Stone are well-known because the life-like appearance in form and

Figure 10. Jadeite Cabbage with Insects, Qing dynasty. From the National Palace Museum, Taipei. (翠玉白菜)

details are much appreciated as a result of exquisite quality materials, and fine carving workmanship

The NPM held the “National Treasures Grand Selection: Splendid Treasures Online Ballot” in 2011 simultaneously with the special exhibition “Splendid Treasures: A Hundred Masterpieces of the National Palace Museum on Parade”. Everyone was welcomed to vote online for his or her favorite national treasure in the NPM (Lu, RH & Liu, CC 2011, p. 79). The NPM also applied the themes of the Jadeite Cabbage with Insects, and Meat-shaped Stone to culinary dishes which were served in the restaurant in the NPM as a promotion for the exhibition.

In addition, the NPM collaborated with the EasyCard Company to design easycard for the Mass Rapid Transit System in Taipei, and the transport cards were available in the shapes of three iconic objects from the collection. As smart phones are becoming more and more common, the NPM also designs two phone applications for people interested in the NPM’s collections and with access to information on the collection at any time. These strategies bring the Museum closer to the public than before and also market its collections at the same time.

The Jadeite Cabbage with Insects is especially well-known to the public. The level of realism in this piece is such that it is almost completely identical to a real cabbage. This work was originally kept in the Palace of Eternal Peace within the Palace Museum, Beijing, which was the residence of Consort Chen of the Emperor Guangxu (reign 1875-1908, Qing Dynasty). For this reason, some scholars have surmised that this piece was a dowry gift for Consort Chen to symbolize her purity and to offer blessings for her bearing many children (NPM phone Application 2013). The green and white cabbage is a symbol of moral rectitude, while the insects at the tip of the leaves symbolize prosperity and continued blessings for future generations. The natural colour, hand carved shape, and symbolic ideas exist in perfect harmony, creating a shared aesthetic experience that is deeply moving (NPM phone Application 2013). This representative piece is the most popular item in the NPM collection, and the largest number and variety of NPM reproductions are derived from its fame and form. The various NPM reproductions of the “Jadeite Cabbage with Insects” range from cheap fridge magnets in resin to more expensive quality jade objects made with

the same proportion as the original piece. The products inspired by treasures from the NPM collection are just reproductions of the actual objects but manufactured in different sizes and materials according to the retail cost in the museum shop. From an innovative point of view, the cultural and creative program at the NPM can take the objects to a different level and use it as part of the museum’s branding.

The plan of cultural and creative development of the NPM

The Taiwan government sees the NPM as an important platform for developing the cultural and creative industry. The Government also established the plan of cultivating talent by assisting industry to support and sponsor artistic events, and increasing the opportunities for artists and industry to communicate with each other. The Government supports young artists by buying their artworks, promoting by exhibitions, holding events for communication and integrating relevant industries (Ministry of Culture 2009, p. 41). The national policy of cultural and creative industry development shows the Government’s commitment to support the NPM as a cross- border cultural and creative environment of technology and humanities by integrating digital technologies with the industry (Ministry of Culture 2009, p. 21).

For example, support in the use of digital archives to develop derivative products for rebuilding the images of collections and the marketing of the NPM with the strategy of globalization. As the NPM is a significant cultural institution with many international exhibitions for tourism, if the Museum can fuse digital technologies with the exhibitions, it can enhance the effectiveness of museum education and industrial competitiveness, and also encourage the chain of digital interactive industry to get involved. Thus, the NPM can introduce itself and its collections by various digital videos created according to the different target audiences, for example different age groups, and the video content will include digital animation, documentaries, films, advertisement images, and digital art. It is anticipated that the combination of technologies and art will attract new visitors who are interested in technology (Ministry of Culture 2009, p. 34-35).

The policy also points out that the NPM can communicate and collaborate with other countries via international work camps, seminars, forums and expos. The Government will invite experts in cultural creative design and marketing around the world to

Taiwan for exchange and to share their experiences. Meanwhile, it is essential to ensure that the NPM’s mechanism of collaboration has been well established to promote the collaboration between the Museum and industry. Hence, the Government hopes the NPM can cultivate the creative talents based on its rich collection, and to become a creative region that integrates industry, life, economics and culture (Ministry of Culture 2009 p. 51). In order to let the NPM become a platform for cultural and creative development, the policy indicates the details of the plan (Ministry of Culture 2009 p. 58-59) (Figure 11):

Figure 11. Taiwan government policy for the National Palace Museum, 2010-2013.

2010 1. Organising systematic teaching programs on cultural and creative design, as well as cultural depth of creative talents. 2. Organising advanced cultural systematized courses for cultural and creative talents and design. 3. Integrating the commercial system for utilization of NPM archive images. 4. Establishing the foreign distribution mechanism of cultural and creative products 5. Seeking international licensees for collaboration in marketing NPM products. 6. Actively participating in international cultural and creative design-related seminars or workshops. 7. Reinforcing collaboration with international media, so as to promote the cultural and creative contents of NPM. 8. Provide counseling and planning for industries seeking to enhance their design abilities, and evaluate outstanding businesses. 9. Inviting cultural and creative industries to participate in NPM brand licensing. 10. Participating in the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. 2011 1. Organising the local and overseas masters design training work camp. 2. Enhancing the cultural awareness of businesses collaborating with the NPM, and assisting such businesses with the use of the NPM archived images design database. 3. Assisting businesses to collaborate with cross-disciplinary designers. 4. Commercial system for promotion of NPM cultural and creative products in Taiwan and overseas. 5. Exploring opportunities for international, cross-industrial commercial alliances. 6. Recommending talented staff for studies or exchanges at international workshops. 7. Assisting in international design conference to promote cultural and creative industry. 8. Inviting cultural and creative industries to participate in NPM brand licensing. 9. Participating in various exhibition events and display outstanding products derived from the NPM collection; exchanging knowledge with local and overseas businesses. 2012 1. Organising an international professional cultural and creative business operation work camp. 2. Organising a series of seminars on themes relating to inter-disciplinary collaboration of cultural and creative businesses.

3. Organising an international conference on cultural and creative industries. 4. Assisting businesses to make use of cultural and creative industrial designs to generally enhance the aesthetics of their products. 5. Assisting local cultural institutions to develop and design cultural and creative products. 6. Actively participating in international design exhibitions and shows, as well as household products and gifts expos. 7. Recommending talented staff for short-term studies or exchanges with international cultural and creative institutions. 8. Provide counseling and planning for industries seeking to enhance their design abilities, and evaluate outstanding businesses. 9. Inviting cultural and creative industries to participate in NPM brand licensing. 10. Participating in various exhibition events and display outstanding products derived from the NPM collection; exchanging knowledge with local and overseas businesses. 11. Sharing actual techniques and experiences with relevant local and overseas institutions, and promoting international collaboration and exchanges. 12. Promoting the “Alliance of derivative product development of cross- museums”, and recruiting domestic museums to join this plan to enhance the value-added applications of domestic museums’ collections and promote the study and understanding of museum shops and cultural marketing. 2013 1. Organising an international professional cultural and creative business operation work camp. 2. Organising an international conference on cultural and creative industries. 3. Assisting businesses to make use of cultural and creative industrial designs to generally enhance the aesthetics of their products. 4. Enhancing the cultural awareness of businesses collaborating with the NPM, and assisting such businesses with the use of the NPM archived images design database. 5. Assisting local cultural institutions to develop and design cultural and creative products. 6. Exploring opportunities for international, cross-industrial commercial alliances. 7. Provide counseling and planning for industries seeking to enhance their design abilities, and evaluate outstanding businesses. 8. Inviting cultural and creative industries to participate in NPM brand licensing. 9. Participating in various exhibition events and display outstanding products derived from the NPM collection; exchanging knowledge with local and overseas businesses. 10. Sharing actual techniques and experiences with relevant local and overseas institutions, and promoting international collaboration and exchanges. 11. Promoting the “Alliance of derivative product development of cross- museums”, and recruiting domestic museums to join this plan to enhance the value-added applications of domestic museums’ collections and promote the study and understanding of museum shops and cultural marketing.

In response to the Government’s policy, in recent years the NPM has been hosting international symposiums, developing cultural and creative films, and offering museum educational experiences where the real and virtual complement each other,

setting up digital museum system, and many design competitions to encourage companies, students or designers to participate.

The “Old is New at the NPM” project was the beginning of a series of cultural and creative industry plans organised by the NPM. This two-year plan was held from 2005 to 2007. The main concept of “Old is New at the NPM” was to activate the whole museum by emphasising innovation and interpreting the ancient relics with contemporary design skills and creativity to convert into creative products. The classic in the past could be the fashion at that time, and the current fashion can also become a classic in the future. Although the NPM collections consist of antiquities, new ideas can still be created from the objects via creative interpretations and contemporary thinking. The difference between the old and the new is just the changes of every era. Thus, the series of “Fashion of the NPM” began (Chen, 2008, cited in Huang, H 2009, p. 56). In addition to trying to subvert the established impression, “Old is New at the NPM” breathes new life into a new era. “The NPM becomes not only the museum's brand, but also is the brand of aesthetic life” will be the museum’s main goal (Hsu, CH 2012 p. 66).

The concept structures of the “Old is New at the NPM” project are: (1) Across from the east to the west: cross-cultural differences, to show the East Asian style; (2) Links the old and new, from the tradition to the innovation, old story with new packaging; and (3) Into the future: to create unique value and develop cultural output value (Lu, YJ 2007, P. 42). The former curator, Ms. Lin Mun-Lee points out that the target audience for cultural and creative products is the young generation. In addition to letting young people understand that the NPM is relevant to them, cultural and creative products will lead them to understand the beauty of the NPM collections (Song 2007, cited in Peng, SC 2010, p. 32).

In 2008, Chou, Kung-Shin took over the job of the NPM’s curator. Chou actively promotes cultural and creative industries, and hopes to raise the cultural aesthetics of Taiwanese society. In order to form a complete cultural industry service mechanism, it needs to combine the museum’s research and collections’ preservation from the headstream with marketing strategy development from the midstream, and then combine with educational promotion and product sale from the downstream (Chou

2009, cited in Huang, H 2009, p. 53). Therefore, the NPM plans to make the “cultural and creative industrial park” as a platform for the revitalization of cultural industry development in Taiwan.

The cultural and creative development of the NPM has been implemented through cooperating with industries and professional design teams in Taiwan and international design industries. The NPM also organises student design competitions and design workshop. Via international experts and related industries in Taiwan, the NPM tries to inspire creative ideas in modern and traditional conception from different cultural backgrounds. By the establishment of cross-industry alliances, licensing model, feedback mechanisms, and related intellectual property rights security, the creation could be practiced and enhances the international competitiveness of creative industries in Taiwan in the future (NPM 2013c).

Workshop for cultural and creative development

The NPM has been holding the “Workshop for cultural and creative development” project for five years since 2009. It is a training project of the NPM which is different from the “Old is New at the NPM” project. But the concept of “old is new” is behind these two projects. The “Workshop for cultural and creative development” is also the case study in this research; refer to Chapter 4 for analysis of the interviews with selected workshop participants and design outcomes.

The “Workshop for cultural and creative development” selects industries to become research and development (R&D) design teams for designing derivative products of the NPM. The workshop aims to serve as a platform for the provision of the NPM’s resources, education and training. This training program is designed for the industry field and targeted at “team” training. The training program is not merely the traditional style of teaching, but combines elements of aesthetics appreciation, living art, NPM collection, design and R&D, so that the participating teams will be able to produce substantive design with cultural and creative concepts, which can be submitted as product proposals. The program also introduces NPM’s product development-related systems and quality management. It hopes to enhance the quality

59 of museum-related industries, and establish a collaboration and marketing model between the NPM and the cultural and creative industries (NPM 2013d).

(1) The workshop participants:

Every year, the workshop selects around twelve to fifteen design teams. The NPM stipulates each team is up to three to five members, and has to enrol as a group. Team members are required to be full-time employees of the company (including supervisors) or its contractors. Members should include financial analyzer, designer, marketing sales, or the research and development production expertise. Each member must have at least three years of related working experiences.

(2) Curriculum planning:

The workshop lasts for over twenty-four weeks, or approximately six months, and in principle there is one full-day program every week (Figure 12). The workshop is divided into three stages: Stage one consists of eight weeks of “aesthetics and perception” including creative dance, music appreciation, drama, cinema and life aesthetics experiences. Stage two consists of twelve weeks of “heritage studies”, gaining basic and more advanced knowledge about the NPM collection, including calligraphy, painting, ceramics and porcelain, bronzes, silk tapestries, Ming and Qing carvings, curios, curio boxes, and rare books; during this stage there will also be special programs or artifacts guided tours in line with permanent or themed exhibitions, annual exhibitions, and local or international exhibitions of the NPM. Stage three consists of four weeks of “design and creativity”, with topics including sharing and creativity, creative proposals and exchanges, cultural thinking and special design topic discussions (Figure 13).

If it is necessary, the NPM will organise experiences and visits for participants with subjects including museums, artistic and cultural events and performances, spatial experiences, food and culture, and relevant industrial examples, so that participants can share and exchange experiences with other enterprise (NPM 2013d) (Figure 13).

Stage one Stage Two Stage Three

Aesthetics & Heritage Design & Perception Studies Creativity

8 weeks 12 weeks 4 weeks

Figure 12. Structure of the “Workshop for cultural and creative development”, National Palace Museum. Redrawn by the author.

Figure 13. Overview of annual curriculum of the “Workshop for cultural and creative development”, National Palace Museum.

Aesthetics & Perception Heritage Studies Design and Creativity

Initial research of the aroma An art pilgrimage of Chinese ECFA (Economic Cooperation culture of eastern world. calligraphy. Framework Agreement) and cultural and creative industry between Taiwan and Mainland China. Introduction of curriculums. Enamel palette. Analysis of products of gift shop in NPM. Meeting and interweaving of Appreciation of Chinese To build a design team with NPM and industries. classical paintings. innovating idea. Values and creative trend of international design. Comment on practice. Thoughts and implementation of A visit to Enzan Kiln. Concept and cases of all- sound aesthetics of Asian music. purpose design. Experience sound (1). Meaning of culture and creation. The NPM authorizes already Instruments in the contemporary collaborated developing brand. life; antiques and treasures in the future generations. Experience sound (2). Books as paintings of mind (1): To give antique new creation. fate of scholars in Song Dynasty and their calligraphy creation. Teamwork and creation. Books as paintings of mind (2): Design and creation —European culture and calligraphy of design style. scholars in Suzhou in Ming Dynasty. Appreciation and analysis of Creative aesthetics of archaic Look around design in traditional wares for flower jades (1) fashion of an age — European—good creative design arrangement. understanding the trend and idea. Refreshing and delighted — evolving of decorative motif having a glance at the culture of aesthetics. Chinese usage of aroma. Demonstration of appreciating aroma. Guide to exhibition zone for aromatic containers (香具) of NPM collections. The aesthetic conception of Creative aesthetics of archaic To give antique new creation.

Chinese linear calligraphy and jades (2) blueprint and contemporary modeling design. assembly — creative aesthetics Direct observation of color of design of shaped pattern. aesthetic conception in eastern world versus contemporary Guide to exhibition of jades. color scientific spirit in western world experience colors. The trilogy of semi-cursive Generality of history and culture Design and creation. script – body art of Cloud Gate. of tea. Comment on practice. Looking for art creation from living. Exploration of aesthetics. Aesthetic wisdom in dramas. Craft fashion in Taiwan – The Types of facial makeup in brand Yii’s shaping and its operas – experience eastern works appreciation. aesthetic colors. International design trend and the brand Yii’s international marketing strategy. Cultural and creative industries Glory of clay – to know how of NPM. ancestors created civilization from fire and soil. Aesthetic wisdom in dramas. Relaxing and enjoying among Body experience of Beijing the polite arts – life and creation opera. (taking old days for example Types of facial makeup in and put into practice today). operas – experience eastern aesthetic colors. Casually dancing while slowly A visit to a ceramic workshop. walking. Workshop for listening to body message – intimate contact. Mechanism of collaboration. Appreciation and analysis of calligraphy of NPM (1). Appreciation and analysis of calligraphy of NPM (2).

Appreciate semi-cursive script. Drawings embedded stories and characters. New experience of five senses. Palace and Zhejiang Sect paintings in Ming Dynasty. Creative marketing – classic Beauty of lacquer ware. transferring type of art marketing thought. Experience tea demonstration Flavor, through mind: tip for outdoors. appreciating paintings in Song Dynasty. Guide: pens contribute immortality. Living aesthetics and innovation Household utensils (ceramics) a of five senses. visit to a workshop. Classical and modern creation in Experience making enamel. music. Walking in the sound outdoors. Artisan’s design and excellent skill: exhibition of sculptures made of bamboos and nuts in Ming and Qing Dynasties. Artisan’s design and excellent skill: exhibition of sculptures of ivory and rhinoceros horns in Ming and Qing Dynasties. Guide of exhibition of 62

sculptures. Hundreds of pieces in Qing palace: curio boxes and discussing sandalwood furniture in the palace of Prince Gong. Guide to the exhibition of curio boxes. Foresight, interdisciplinary, Appreciation bronze wares with circumstance, contents – creation; Transformation of talking about the developing inscription on bronze wares. thinking mode of cultural and creative industry. New soul of cultural and Guide to exhibition of bronze creative industry – characteristic wares and inscription. person. Art and life of tea set – tea Appreciation and analysis of tasting and appreciation in all famous drawings in NPM (3) the past dynasties. stories of characters. Model, appreciation, and Appreciation and analysis of analysis of traditional tea set. tapestry in NPM. Flower arranging demonstration. Life creative aesthetics. Wall-free museums – taking digital collections of books and drawings in NPM for example. Founding a team and team Beauty of ceramics. creation training. Guide to exhibition of porcelain. Museums and cultural and Beauty of jades. creative industry. Guide to exhibition of jades. Department of cultural and Creating experience of Li Chih- creative marketing and you. Wen Mechanism of collaboration Beauty of pottery coloring. Guide to the special exhibition Beauty of old porcelain of cultural relics of NPM. decorated with colored drawings. Guide to exhibition of porcelain. Sophisticatedly drawn and sculptured in detail – ancient Chinese woodcuts. Practising woodcuts rubbing and guide to woodcuts appreciation. Appreciating Chinese drawings. Guide: modeling and aesthetic sensibilities. Experience of making lacquer wares. Appreciation and analysis of famous drawing (2) Chinese flower and bird painting.

[Translation by Chang Yo-wei]

Apart form the workshop of the NPM which is organised for designers and design firms, other museums conduct workshops on art and design to promote museum education. But most of these workshops are designed for the public in general to learn art and design skills, and with the aim to extend knowledge of the museum. For example, in contrast with the NPM workshop, the design workshops of the Vitra Design Museum in Germany are open for public access. These workshops are conducted not for designing museum products, but for facilitating various target audiences to experience and understand the design process, development of imagination, manual skills and rational thinking. The purpose of the Vitra Design Museum’s workshop is to raise the awareness of people’s recognition towards everyday culture around us, and to arouse their creative engagement in the everyday life (Vitra Design Museum 2013).

The Vitra Design Museum workshops respectively target at children, schools and adults. For children, the workshops provide design and architecture theme and hope the junior participants can use their natural creativity and inventiveness to explore and compare various colours, shapes and materials (Vitra Design Museum 2013). In the process, children can develop their manual skills, practise their imagination and learn the fundamentals of construction. On the other hand, for schools the workshops aim to focus on the conceptions of design and architecture, and provide insights into the design process and the associated challenges of logical thinking, imagination and manual dexterity. Moreover, the workshops also introduce basic architectural terms and analyse various types of spaces to participants (Vitra Design Museum 2013).

The Vitra Design Museum’s workshops for adults aim to welcome individual participants and families as well as groups and companies. The workshops mainly let participants experience the process of product design from the design concept development, the phase of sketching to the finished product. Other relevant topics of workshops focus on the usage of individual imagination, basic knowledge of construction and the practice of manual skills to create a functioning object, or preparing special workshops which are related to current exhibitions of the Museum (Vitra Design Museum 2013).

The workshops of the Vitra Design Museum integrate knowledge-based and practice- based courses, and place importance on the training of creativity and imagination development, knowledge conveyance and practical manual skills. These workshops not only educate the public with the basic knowledge in the fields of product design and architecture, but also aim to increase people’s experiences of every life and the individual responsibility to enhance and improve our designed environment (Vitra Design Museum 2013).

The NPM’s collaboration mechanism

The NPM has three ways of authorization, which are brand licensing, image licensing and collaborative development (the specific introduction of brand alliance is discussed in Chapter 2). In 2010 (from January to December), the NPM had 79 collaborating companies by collaborative development, 38 applications from image licensing, and had granted brand licenses to 19 businesses. And in 2010 (from January to December), the NPM’s income from image licensing was up to 11 million New Taiwan dollars, from brand licensing was up to 20 million New Taiwan dollars, and the total output value of cultural and creative products of NPM was around 1 billion New Taiwan dollars (NPM 2013e).

The NPM invites the brands that have mature production line and distribution channel to collaborate by brand licensing. Collaborators have to pay for the NPM’s registered trademark and relics’ images for commercial use. The products have to show both logos of the NPM and manufacturers. Thus, the brand licensing arrangement at the NPM is similar to co-branding (Kuo, YJ 2007, p. 52). The NPM claims that brand licensing will help to complement both the NPM and collaborators (NPM 2013f).

The image licensing of the NPM can be divided into three kinds, they are for non- commercial use, commercial use, and advertisement. For example, the NPM will charge for the reproduction of object images from the museum collection even if the reproduction is in textbooks for education and non-profit use. Image licensing for the reproduction of images in publications or for derivatives is classified for commercial use and the appropriate fee will apply. The third type of authorization for promotional purposes is by showing the image in an advertisement or poster (Kuo, YJ 2007, p. 53),

an image licensing fee will apply.

The collaborative development in the NPM stipulates that products will not show the name or brand of manufactures, and the products will be only sold at the NPM’s distribution point. The collaborator cannot sell the same products. The representative of manufacture is the NPM. It means that the NPM guarantees the quality of products, and the products also represent the NPM (Curator Ms. Chou 2012, pers. comm., 29th May). The extent that the NPM takes part on the management of brand licensing and collaborative development is higher than image licensing.

Sometimes there are some problems within collaboration if two collaborators have different perceptions or viewpoints toward products. The Italian brand, Alessi, has been collaborating with the NPM by brand licensing since 2005 and launched a series of products of “The Chin Family” (Figures 14, 15 and 16). The concept of “The Chin Family” was generated from the portrait of one of the Emperors in Qing Dynasty, Qianlong (乾隆)7. Alessi’s designer, Mr. Stefano Giovannoni, had been inspired from this portrait and designed a series of salt and pepper containers, egg cups, etc. in various colour combinations. The series of products also contains Queen Chin and King Chin spices grinding jar; Mr. Chin egg cup, timer, and Mr. & Mrs. Chin salt and pepper container group. These products are sold in the NPM’s gift shop and the global five thousand distribution points of Alessi (NPM 2013e).

However, in 2009 Curator Ms. Chou indicated that this series of Alessi designs is too superficial, and that Alessi apparently does not understand Chinese culture. Curator Ms. Chou suggested that in the future before a design brand collaborates with the NPM, designers had better be trained by the NPM. Curator Ms. Chou stated that a cultural and creative product design should contain cultural profundity and connotations. If creativity is not supported by culture, the creativity is dried up. Even though Alessi is a well-known leading design brand in the world, she thought that their design still did not represent the essence of Chinese culture (Wu, YH 2009).

Nevertheless, “The Chin Family” range of designs has generated the market value more than 600 million New Taiwan dollars by 2008, and it is very popular in Europe.

7 The portrait of the Emperors, Qianlong, Qing Dynasty. Source from: , viewed 16th May 2013. 66

Figure 14. Male container from the Chin Family series. Designed by Alessi for the National Palace Museum, Taipei.

Figure 15. Female figure from the Chin Family series. Designed by Alessi for the National Palace Museum, Taipei.

Figure 16. Condiment set from the Chin Family series. Designed by Alessi for the National Palace Museum, Taipei.

Alessi’s manager, Mr. Ding, indicated that product design should focus on consumers’ preference and reaction, and in fact “The Chin Family” design range is quite welcomed by consumers. Since the international response toward the products is good and the products also enhance the reputation of the NPM, the collaboration between Alessi and the NPM should be in a mutually beneficial status (Wu, YH 2009). Mr. Ding also said that Alessi respects designers’ creativity very much, because “creativity is better than everything”. He indicated that Alessi would not compel designers to change their design ideas in order to meet some cultures or ideologies, or even the commercial interests. Therefore, it is difficult to ask an internationally renowned designer to attend the training class of the NPM (Chou, MH 2009).

From the viewpoints of Curator Ms. Chou and the Taipei manager of Alessi imports above, it can be inferred that during the “collaboration” between the NPM and Alessi there was an absence of a briefing and design development process between museum and designer – similar to the “Workshop for cultural and creative development” – concerning the product design concept before the design was confirmed and launched into production. It should be emphasised that Alessi is an international design brand with a unique brand of humour and whimsical delight in its products. Since aesthetics and humour are cultural-specific qualities, and Alessi products are marketed worldwide including Asia, Europe and North America, it would be reasonable to expect that the Alessi humour may not be fully appreciated by all consumers in Taiwan. Moreover, it would be unreasonable to judge the success or failure of the Alessi “Chin Family” design range of products according to the NPM criteria which is determined by different cultural values and objectives.

The example above shows that negotiation between client and designer is necessary for any collaboration including product licensing as with the case of the NPM. Although the result of collaboration between the NPM and Alessi seems to be successful, there is room to address and negotiate finer details in aims and outcomes during the design process. The “Workshop for cultural and creative development” planned and implemented by the NPM will be discussed in detail as strategy and model for collaboration between the client and designer in Chapter 4.

Museum shop – branding and products

Branding

The museum shop sells products for visitors to take home as gifts and souvenirs, and helps to provide more information about the collections (Ambrose & Paine 1993, p. 59). Although the museum shop was originally conceived as a means of generating financial contributions to museums, they necessarily fulfill a part of the museum’s overall objectives, particularly education (Lovelock & Weinberg 1989; Theobald 2000, cited in Mottner &Ford 2005, p. 830). At a corporate level, the museum shop also provides a retail space and important role for mission-related opportunities (Mottner & Ford 2005, p. 829), and public relations (Ambrose & Paine 1993, p. 59) through its educational resources and brand products.

The relationship to a museum’s collection can take the form of merchandise reflecting a historical period and artists whose works are displayed. The degree of educational orientation is manifested by the degree to which the educational nature of the product mix reflects the collection and the educational value of the products. Within the context of product relatedness to the museum, reproductions of the museum collection itself and unique custom-made products are identified as tactics associated with an educational strategy (Theobald 2000; Wilson 1988, cited in Mottner &Ford 2005, p. 831).

Nowadays, many museums market themselves as a brand to attract the public to visit museums. “They use private-labeling programs that allow museum shops to carry mass-produced products with the museum’s label and therefore maintain an appearance of being related to the museum itself without incurring large development costs” (Bennett & Gabriel 2000, cited in Mottner & Ford 2005, p. 831). “The contemporary use of the museum label to increase sales by relying on the name or “brand” of the museum is in part due to the fact that products associated with a good cause sell better” (Bennett & Gabriel 2000, cited in Mottner & Ford 2005, p. 831). “A branding is a distinctive identity that engenders loyalty. Branding consists of creating and maintaining a body of programs and attitudes that convey a clear promise, encouraging familiarity, and generate ongoing support” (Wallace 2006, p. 1). Museums need a strong brand image because competition is tougher than ever.

“Museums compete for visitors not only with other museums, but also with a worthy selection of cultural institutions from performing arts to libraries” (Wallace 2006, p. 1). In other words, people will choose other cultural institution as their leisure activities, museums are not the only option. Therefore, how to brand a museum is an increasingly important task for museums.

Branding a museum gives it an image and personality that supporters can identify with. Branding a museum starts with identifying its mission, it continues when the museum develops a personality, a way of collecting and interpreting and talking that has a distinctive style (Wallace 2006, p. 2).

Good branding speaks about the mission and vision to all the people that a museum touches. A consistent look and attitude help people feel familiar with the museum, and comfortable in giving it their loyalty (Wallace 2006, p. 2). Branding reaches out in many ways, through collections, exhibitions, publication, marketing materials, web site, partnerships, recognition awards, docent tours, store merchandise, programs, events, and signage, but always with the same personality (Wallace 2006, p. 2). Branding also helps to tell the story of a museum and its exhibition (Wallace 2006, p. 27). From another point of view, a good branding also can help museums to get different sources of income.

Cheng Su-Ya (2007, cited in Li, YE 2010, p. 34) takes the NPM as an example to explore the combination between tourism and marketing strategies of the museums. It indicates that while the NPM’s image transformed, the NPM not only represented the local culture but also faced the impact of the internationalization at the same time. The NPM reverses the ancient old image with new ideas and create a new image of a diverse and lively manner. “Strategic alliance cooperation and exchange” (such as the loan exhibition and feedback exhibition) and “Authorization and cross-industry cooperation” are the NPM’s strong business projects (Li, YE 2010, p. 34). The NPM tends to increase the economic value by cross-industry alliances between brands for antiquities activation (Li, YE 2010, p. 34).

From the viewpoint of Wallace (2006, p. 81), museum shops have practiced good branding longer than any other part of the museum. They are the education extensions of museums. Good branding at retail includes the merchandise itself, packaging,

69 signage, staff attitude and the retail space. When visitors purchase a souvenir, they buy the memory as well. They can remember exhibits better and recall more of their experiences.

Li Yue-E’s thesis (2010 p. 23) indicates that a museum needs to discover its depth with fully entrepreneurial management and marketing. If museums coordinate with national policies arrangement, tourism benefits will be very obvious. Huang Kuang- Nan (2007) mentioned a point in his book Museum Enterprise that museums are the focus of culture and tourism, and also the hub of the cultural value and industrial chain. Museums converge with the humanities and the arts. For this reason, museums not only disseminate knowledge, but also create economic cultural value.

According to the definition defined by the museum community and museum policies in Taiwan, the museum’s position and definition has transferred towards a different direction. It has transferred from a traditional collection and display function to the emphasis on exhibition function. Therefore, the operation directions of museum and cultural institutions are more and more approaching the thinking which is based on the social and educational meanings (Li, YE 2010, p. 30).

Jonathan Bryant attributes museum marketing to the change in the environment, such as the economic downturn, government’s subsidy reduction and reduced private donations (Chang, YC 2003, p. 15). These reasons lead to a competitive museum environment. Museums need to change their management style in order to survive. The state-owned museum is a non-profit organisation. The most important thing for the marketing function of a non-profit organisation is the fulfilment of the organisation’s mission. The basic mission of the museum is to showcase its collection according to its special characteristics, the collection and interpretation of objects, and to educate the public and encourage them to support the museum (Chang, YC 2003, p. 15). In short, when museums face a transformation, it is necessary to alter the operating patterns and use their advantages to market themselves and achieve sustainable development

Museum products

Museums are instruments of communication; a museum display is a branch of the mass media (McLean 1997, p. 129). Communication in the museum includes museum’s image or the general experience of the visit (Hooper-Greenhill 1994, cited in McLean 1997, p. 129). Thus, communication is reflected in the entire experience of the museum (McLean 1997, p. 129). The image of the museum develops attitudes in the public which in turn is the agglomeration of the product, accessibility and promotion (Falk & Dierking 2000, p. xii). In addition, museums can be described as public institutions for personal learning, and places where people seek out to satisfy their learning needs (Falk & Dierking 2000, p. xii).

The museum shop is primarily an extension of the educational aspect of the museum and can be an important source of income. Since public perception of the museum shop is closely tied to the parent institution, it is the responsibility of museum shop personnel to be fully aware of the source, quality, authenticity and educational worth of all items sold in the shop (MSA 2000).

According to the functions defined by the Museum Store Association (MSA) founded in 1955, a museum shop should possess special characteristics as follow (Lin, SH 2010, p. 13):

1. Having the ability of supporting the educational mission of museum.

2. Retailing in museum gift shops can be the economic support of the museum.

3. The consumption behavior in museum gift shops can be an extension of visiting experience.

What is the museum product? The product is a bundle of images in the mind of the museum visitor as user, with the nature of the reaction to the museum product being psychological, rather than physical (McLean 1997, p. 105). The user aggregates impressions of the product (the museum experience), and all input (the display, the appearance of the attendants, or the atmosphere) are equally important to the composite product received by the user (McLean 1997, p. 105-106). Museum products can be considered as the ‘experience’ of the museum (McLean 1997, p. 105-

106). Museums are tourist destinations (AAM 1984), and tourist-related products have a high incident of relatedness to the site (Littrell et al. 1993), souvenirs often from part of the museum shop’s product assortment but do not necessarily have any educational value strictly as a result of their connection to the site (Theobald 2000, cited in Mottner & Ford 2005, p. 831). Souvenir type products in the product assortment are a manifestation of the financial objectives and strategy of the museum. The presence of souvenirs serves largely to capitalize financially on the customer’s need for mementos of a visit (Mottner & Ford 2005, p. 831).

It is essential for a museum to understand and anticipate the needs of the public, assess its resources, and develop products that reflect the needs of visitors (McLean 1997, p. 127). If museum products are the focal point for satisfying user needs, it is worth considering what these needs may be in terms of a museum. Graburn has identified three human needs that the museum can fulfil: ‘the reverential experience, an associational space and the educational function’ (McLean 1997, p. 106). In the language of marketing the museum collection, its conservation, and exhibition, can be termed the ‘core’ product, and these products are central to advancing the institutional mission (Lovelock & Weinberg 1988, cited in McLean 1997, p. 107). The other products or services provided by the museum are the ‘secondary’ or ‘augmented’ products, which complement or facilitate consumption of the core products (Lovelock & Weinberg 1988, cited in McLean 1997, p. 107). The augmented product also includes products that are termed ‘resource-attraction’ products, which are designed to generate funds and other donated resources (Lovelock & Weinberg 1988, cited in McLean 1997, p. 107).

Chang Yu-Chien’s dissertation (2003, p. 26) – on the building of museum image through institutional marketing – pointed out that the museum marketing system includes product, price, path and promotion. Consumers can be satisfied through buying a product. The product does not necessarily have a form or shape. It can also be a service, experience or feeling. According to Chang (2003), the products can be divided into the core product, tangible product and augmented product. Tangible products have five characteristics: packaging, features, style, quality, branding name. Some visitors shop for their own use, some for gifts. Each is buying a piece of the museum. The selection will range from practical to luxurious, fun to educational, and

all must be in sync with the museum's mission. This is especially important because there are other markets for the store, beyond visitors or shoppers (Wallace 2006, p. 83).

Museum products include services provided by the museum staff, buildings, equipment, customer service, collections, image representation and activities and so on (Chang, YC 2003, P.28). Every product has a life cycle. For efficient and sustainable museum management, each product requires periodic review, rearrange, redesigned, repackaged, renamed or eliminated. Museums have to select what they want to offer, because there is no museum can meet all the requirements of the audience at any time (Chang, YC 2003, P.28).

Museum products can be categorized as heritage relics, museum publications and derivative products. Generally, derivative products sold in the shop inside the museum make up the biggest portion of museum products. They are often derived from the museum’s collection or exhibited items (Chen, KC 2005, p. 6). More than that, cultural derivative products have their own unique styles and are different from the replicas of classic artifacts which are often stereotyped by most people (Chen, KC 2005, p. 6).

There are three motivations for museums in Taiwan to be enthusiastic about introducing cultural products in recent years. Firstly, the museum’s social image and functions are transforming; museums are not just emphasising the status of possessing fine collections, but also strengthening the functional significances of research and education. Visiting museums is no longer just an educational activity but gradually becoming a tourist activity (Hsu, GM 1994, p. 3). Secondly, museums are under operating pressures when faced with the competition from other cultural institutions (Li, JC & Ho, MC 2009, p. 72). Thus, museums need to pursue a wide range of management and development strategies including revenue raising through derivative products inspired by their collections. Thirdly, museums can extend their influence and continue reminding the public of the museum’s existence, and achieve effective sale of cultural products (Li, JC & Ho, MC 2009, p. 73). From the above, it shows that the museum’s products help to increase museum’s income, enhance the

museum’s image and competitiveness, and also let the museum to be remembered by the public and maintain the museum’s sustainable operation.

Indeed, from the current development model and operating condition of museum’s cultural products in Taiwan, the intention of most of the museums in developing cultural products is to increase the museum’s revenue (Li, JC & Ho, MC 2009, p. 73). However, the museum’s cultural assets are the core of the cultural and creative industries. Hence, museums should consider about converting from the stage of “developing the merchandise sold in museums” into “how to communicate museums’ culture to the public” (Li, JC & Ho, MC 2009, p. 73).

Similarly, Chen Kuo-Cheng’s (2005) research – on shop ecology and cultural products of museums in Taiwan – indicated that before the new museology was fully developed, research on museum products was still in the initial stage, and cultural products were not worthy of any independent research. But nowadays museums should be striving to fulfil the needs of its various visitors through its cultural

products (McLean 1997, p. 107). Besides, Huang I-Ru (2009) thinks that the focus of some museum products over emphasise replicating the original artifact. They are not designed and developed to meet the needs of customers in the market. In other words, most of the museum products are replicas, and museums do not pay much attention on utilizing the museum collection as creative ideas to design creative products and consider the needs of customers. Products and culture have dependent interactive relations; products are the entities of culture. The association of culture and product forms a symbolic meaning which means products are no longer just objects for consumption; people can understand products through decoding the meanings (Chen, cited in Peng, SC 2010, p. 22).

Internationally renowned museums such as the British Museum in London, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, express an active and optimistic attitude to museum-inspired products (Dan, XB 2010). The British Museum Company8, for

8 The British Museum Company (BMCo) is a registered charity established in 1973 to encompass all commercial activity undertaken by the British Museum. The British Museum Company employs staff to fulfill a number of activities including wholesale and retail, licensing, publishing and merchandise. Cited from: , viewed 18th April 2013.

example, created two new departments, Buying and Product Design Development, both which work closely to create a complete range of products to cater to the museum’s six million visitors across four shops, and supplying the growing wholesale and online businesses (British Museum 2008). The Product Design and Development Department is responsible for the design of more than 100 new products a year. These include categories as diverse as jewellery, metalware, textiles and ceramics. The brief involves working with experts and freelance designers cross the museum to gain insight into the collection and ideas for new products. The British Museum creates a wide range of high quality gifts, clothing and souvenirs based on the museum’s collection (British Museum 2008).

On the other hand, the cultural and creative industries associated with museums have successfully spread around the world in recent years. In order to embrace this global trend, the NPM works hard to build a stronger brand image and promote the essence of Chinese art and culture internationally. The NPM also adds value in cultural and creative products hoping to achieve the concept of “Bringing Art to Life and Life to Art” (Lu, RH & Liu, CC 2011, p. 89).

In order to have a complete system of derived products development, the NPM established many policies on licensing, marketing and products development. Three times a year, the NPM publicly recruits companies to combine its artifacts, digital images and cultural elements to create replicas, souvenirs and other creative products. With the support of the NPM, the companies can increase the cultural and artistic value of their designs and utilize the Museum’s distribution channels to obtain more business opportunities. At present, the NPM recruits and trains qualified professionals to encourage private enterprise to participate in developing derivative products through the NPM’s joint development mechanism and their distribution channels. Once the objective of improving the quality and creativity of products has been achieved, it will be easier to reach foreign markets and fulfil the NPM’s outreach function (Lu, RH & Liu, CC 2011, p. 93).

Museum product design – management strategy

Product design strategies

Design refers to a process which shapes the physical form, content and symbolic meanings of objects. Design is also a creative activity including the redesign of current products or the development of entirely new products (eds. Pratt & Jeffcutt 2010, p. 182). The purpose of design is to meet the needs of customers, and the purpose of strategies is to achieve the aim of right communication (Huang, H 2009, p. 22). Thus, design strategies locate the product and decide the cost structure of product for customer. Brooke (1991) believes that only through applying the right strategies, design can be seen as an effective process to ensure customer satisfaction (Huang, H 2009, p. 22).

In the case of the NPM’s “Workshop for cultural and creative development”, innovation is crucial. There are many types of innovation. Some things are considered innovative because they improve life quality. Other things are innovative because they have a radical impact. Others are considered innovations simply because they are new. Sometimes innovations do not even have to be new: old thing in new forms or combinations are often considered to be innovations (Souder 1987, p. 2). From Souder’s (1987, p. 5-6) theory, an innovation process is any system of organised activities that transforms a technology from an idea to commercialization. The process may or may not lead to a commercially successful.

Nigel Cross (2011, p. 55) cites product designer Kenneth Grange as an example whereby Grange’s work is not based on just the styling or re-styling of a product. His designs often arise from a fundamental reassessment of the purpose, function and use of the product. Ulrich and Eppinger (2008 p. 35) classify four types of product development projects:

1. New product platform

This type of project involves a major development effort to create a new family of products based on a new, common platform. The new product family would address familiar markets and product categories.

2. Derivatives of existing product platforms

These projects extend an existing product platform to better address familiar markets with one or more new products.

3. Incremental improvements to existing products

These projects may only involve adding or modifying some features of existing products in order to keep the product line current and competitive. A slight change to remedy minor flaws in an existing copier product would be an example of this type of project.

4. Fundamentally new products

These projects involve radically different product or production technologies and may help to address new and unfamiliar markets. This kind of project would involve more risk.

Following the classification by Ulrich and Eppinger (above), the NPM “Workshop for cultural and creative development” would meet the criteria for types one, two and four of product development projects with its design and development of new museum products. Through collaborative development, brand licensing and image licensing, the NPM needs to produce various kinds of products to attract different targeted consumers. Therefore, the NPM needs to launch new products, derivative products and basic products. An effective platform can allow various derivative products to be created more rapidly and easily, with products possessing the features and functions desired by a particular market segment (Ulrich & Eppinger 2008, p. 40- 41).

When visitors go to museums, there are needs other than keeping memories of the museum experience when they return home. Hence, museums need to identify types of customer needs. Before identifying customers needs, companies need to set up their goals. The philosophy is to create a high-quality information channel that runs directly between customers in the target market and the developers of the product. This philosophy is also built on the premise that those who directly control the details of the product, including the engineers and industrial designers, must interact with customers and experience the use environment of the product (Ulrich & Eppinger

2008, p. 54). Without identifying customer needs, the development team may never develop a deep commitment to meet customer needs (Ulrich & Eppinger 2008, p. 54).

The process of identifying customer needs is an integral part of the larger product development process and is most closely related to concept generation, concept selection, competitive benchmarking, and the establishment of product specification (Ulrich & Eppinger 2008, p. 54). Before developing their products, some companies will gather some raw information from customers as a reference. Interview or questionnaires can be good ways to gather information. The other way is to observing the product in use. Watching customers use an existing product or perform a task for which a new product is intended can reveal important details about customer needs. Ideally, team members observe the product in the actual use environment (Ulrich & Eppinger 2008, p. 57).

Product development is also an interdisciplinary activity requiring contributions from almost all the functions of a company. According to Ulrich & Eppinger (2008, p. 3) three functions are almost always central to a product development project:

(1) Marketing: Marketing often facilitates the identification of product opportunities, the definition of market segments, and the identification of customer needs. Marketing also typically arranges for communication between the firm and its customers, and then set target prices and oversees the launch and promotion of the product.

(2) Design: The design function plays the lead road role in defining the physical form of the product to best meet customer needs.

(3) Manufacturing: The manufacturing function is primarily responsible for designing, operation, and/or coordinating the production system in order to produce the product.

Museum cultural product design

There are some extant studies regarding museum products of the NPM. Teng Pei- Yun’s (2005) research was focused on two famous and large-scaled historical museums in Taiwan – the NPM and the National Museum of History (NMH). Teng (2005) found that although the two museums had set up an internal department of product-designed development, design activities were limited by cost. The research also found that most of time, both museums usually adopted product designs that were designed by manufactures.

Teng’s research also indicated that although the NPM and NMH had collaborated with several international brands and famous designers, the practice would easily ignore the institutional image and the future direction of the museums. Therefore, the marketing of museum products should be completely detailed and planned to match the style and the institutional image of the museum. Moreover, museums should pay more attention to the intention of product development, and the original historical meanings of the artifacts, and also clarify the position of products and aim the products at different types of visitors (Teng, PY 2005, p129).

Hsu Chia-Li (2007) analysed the mode of the NPM’s cultural products by utilising the museum’s “Old is New” positioning. The study focused on the differences between creative cultural products and cultural products. The main difference was presented in the aspects of expressiveness and divergence. Hsu’s research indicated that creative cultural products are more interesting and entertaining than cultural products because creative cultural products emphasised the satisfaction of customers and are also generally liked by the public (Hsu, CL 2007).

Hsu (2007, p. 16) also found that designers in her research focused on the performance of external form instead of working with an understanding of the cultural meanings of the selected artifacts from the museum collections. Thus, Hsu recommended that designers should experience the culture of the artifacts during the design process. Hsu concluded that by knowing and understanding the culture, designers would be able to produce designs from a unique cultural aesthetic perception. Hsu also found that the designers in her research used different forms to

emphasise the symbolic connectivity between products and collections by selecting symbols meaningfully in the design process (Hsu, CL 2007). When compared with other cultural products, creative cultural products were more symbol-oriented.

Research by Ho Ming-Chuan, Lin Chi-Hsiang and Liu Yi-Chun (1996) indicate that the “message” conveyed by cultural products is the major communication between people and products. The message conveys the material properties, function, structure, aesthetics, safety, taste and style of the product. These characteristics are closely related to culture. Daniel (2011) considers that it is important to focus on the implication of the artwork when designing a product. Many product designers only tend to see the beauty of cultural products instead of the significance of the artwork itself (Li, TL 2012, p. 40).

Conventionally, the development and production of creative products are not within the museum’s mission, function and role. In the past ten years, only a relatively few number of museums have paid attention to this function. Although, increasing numbers of museums are actively involved in the development of cultural products in recent years, museums usually do not employ a full-time product designer or a design team within its staff organisation. Thus, when a museum promotes the design and development of cultural products, museum management and staff have to work with product designers by outsourcing (Peng, SC 2010, p. 29).

In order to ensure that a product design will meet the demands or goals of the client, it is important to apply effective design strategies during the design process. Research by Ho Ming-Chuan et al. (1997; Huang, H 2009, p. 22) indicates that a sound design strategy should propose a series of design guidelines for new products through the analysis of the external environment (market and industries) and internal organisation (resource, structure and process). Ho emphasises nine factors of strategy formation: (1) Product value; (2) Operation and use; (3) Enterprise image; (4) Cost of development; (5) Research and development skills; (6) Manufacturing; (7) Safety rules; (8) Culture; and (9) Environmental protection (Huang, H 2009, p. 22). In order to define “design strategy”, it is necessary to define the following questions (Teng, CL 2000, p. 61):

1. Who: who is the operator? Are there various types of designers? 2. What: what is the product? (specific product, series product or new product) 80

3. How: what is the main content? (design resource allocation or the factors which affect external environment and internal organization) 4. Why: what is the aim? 5. When: when is the timing? (What time will the strategy be applied?)” [Translation by Chang Yo-wei]

From the list of factors that Teng and Ho listed, it indicates that product value is listed as the number one factor, and culture is listed as the eighth factor. In other words, product value is prioritised over other factors in design strategy. However, museum creative products are designed based on the cultural meaning and background of the museum collection. Museums pay more attention on the cultural factor than product value itself. Ho’s (1997; Huang, H 2009, p. 22) research argues that the design strategy for museum products should be considered differently from the design strategy for generic product design because of different focus and purposes.

The process of cultural product design can be divided into three stages, including culture acquisition, symbol transformation, and product design (Peng, SC 2010, p. 24). Peng Shu-Chen cites Xu’s view that the difference between cultural products design and general products design is that in most of the cultural product design process, designer will not consider consumer demands or target products in advance, but will consider its contained cultural meaning (Peng, SC 2010, p. 24). Thus, the cultural viewpoint should be the essence in the cultural product design and present the context of the relation between cultural meaning and products (Xu, cited in Peng, SC 2010, p. 24).

Cultural products have specific characteristics. According to Throsby (2003, cited in Peng, SC 2010, p. 26), cultural products should integrate creativity in the creating process; cultural products should possess cultural connotation and express specific symbolic meaning; cultural products should possess intellectual property rights. Cheng Zi-Long, Hung Ya-Hui and Hsu An-Qi (2005) also identified that cultural product design can be classified under three levels of artistic association: (1) Creating art; (2) Less artistry but with a high degree of cultural meaning; and (3) Sometimes only possessing a symbol of cultural content or meaning. Hence, when determining whether the product is a cultural good, we have three characteristics to assess: (1) the

81 creative elements of cultural connotations; (2) conveying specific symbols and meanings; and (3) the intellectual property rights of the cultural connotation (cited in Peng, SC 2010, p. 26).

In contrast with products of a general nature, when museum cultural products convey product information with stories and cultural connotation to consumers, it can achieve consumer recognition, and also stimulate consumption. At the same time, the consumer is also gaining further understanding of the cultural significance of museum relics. There are no specific rules or styles in representing the form of cultural products. Analysis by Yung Don-Han (2009 p. 27) identifies the following criteria for museum cultural products according to the 2005 research by Cheng Tzu-Lung, Hung Ya-Hui and Hsu An-Chi:

1. Products should contain creative elements.

In the production process of cultural goods, it must have creative elements. Through creative, the combination of cultural and commodity establish the success of cultural products

2. Product’s content should be with specific cultural recognition and significance.

The difference between cultural products and general merchandise is the element of cultural identity. Therefore, cultural products ought to have the trait of cultural identification.

3. Products should possess cultural connotation and story.

Another important point of cultural products is the expression of a story with cultural intension. Through the story, it would connect culture, merchandise and consumer together. It will not only pass on cultural intension, but also attract consumers to learn more about the cultural connotations of products.

4. Products should have the trait of having intellectual property rights.

The process of the cultural goods’ production comes from designers’ brainstorming. Thus, cultural goods also need to contain intellectual property rights. [Translation by Chang Yo-wei]

Hou Po-Lun (2007, cited in Hung, CL 2010, p. 14) defines a cultural product as the result of the designer converting cultural issues to symbols which are applied to the product for sale in the market. On the other hand, the museum cultural product is related to the field of art, and also helps to promote art education and the appreciation of aesthetics and design in everyday lives (Hung, CL 2010 p.18).

Huang Kuang-Nan (2007, cited in Hung, CL 2010, p. 18) points out that museums are characteristic in demonstrating the function of “spiritual value indication”. Therefore, when developing and designing museum cultural goods, the product should include the qualities of a tangible entity, as well as the awareness, promotion and discovery of emotional knowledge (Huang 2007, cited in Hung, CL 2010, p. 18). The visitor can continue to experience art upon leaving the museum through cultural products which are museum-authorised copies or objects designed with an emphasis on the spirit of the art and cohesive imagery (Hung, CL 2010, p. 18). For these reasons, the museum shop should not only be positioned as a tool for raising revenue, it should be more sustainable with broader thinking and a well-planned strategy to achieve the purposes of education and communication. In other words, museum management should balance the institution’s strategies for education and economic development (Mottnera & Ford, 2005 cited in Hung, CL 2010, p. 19).

Hung Chia-Li (2010, p. 19) also classifies the functions of museum cultural products into seven different kinds. They are:

1. Experience of artistic life: by development and design, to implement in life and then experience and feel the art.

2. To learn art education: by development and design, directly or indirectly to learn art education.

3. Art Experience Sharing: by development and design, the audience can share their artistic experience to friends and family around.

4. Art memory extension: through development and design, to extend the good memories of art appreciation.

5. Dissemination of art knowledge: through development and design, the best channel for the disseminating the artistic knowledge.

6. Promotion of artistic aesthetics: through development and design, it will be easier to promote and train intangible aesthetic taste.

7. Promotion of economic actions: via development and design, to provide customers economic activity in the gift shop. [Translation by Chang Yo-wei]

According to Hung’s research above, when museum products demonstrate all of the above functions, museum visitors will be able to have more opportunities for a relationship with the museum. It will enable museum visitors access to educational knowledge on the museum and its collections, and also lead consumers to return and participate in future art exhibitions.

In addition to the functions of museum merchandise, Chen observes that it is important to understand the essential characteristics of a museum product should include (2004, cited in Li, TL, 2012, p. 41):

1. First of all, the development of all designed products must be based on museum collections. Many products sold in the museum shop are based on the replica or interpretation of its collections, and the research and development of educational personnel, thus representing the biggest difference from general gift shops.

2. Products need to be consistent with museum’s corporate images.

3. Products need to cater to the museum audience or target consumers of museum shop.

4. Products need to be consistent with the overall concept and image of the museum shop.

5. Products need to conform to a pricing strategy which sets different prices for the various target consumers. [Translation by Chang Yo-wei]

Newcomb (1998, cited in Li, TL 2012, p. 44) considers it is important for museum management to develop appropriate products which are unique and cannot be purchased from other gift shops. In addition, Newcomb (1998, cited in Li, TL 2012, p. 44) also argues that it is important for business competition to establish a museum shop with personal characteristics. Kilkenny (2010, cited in Li, TL 2012, p. 44) also observes that most museums in the United States will develop museum cultural products according to current trends, such as green products which have attracted a lot of attention in recent years.

Summary

Through the support from the Taiwan government, a time-honored background of history and rich heritage assets help to make the National Palace Museum became a large platform for cultural and creative development. In addition to training young designers through its many specialised workshops, the NPM also focuses on developing a closer relationship with the young generation, and ensure the institutional image be more youthful and relevant to the target audiences. Furthermore, the NPM collaborates with designers to ensure that the design and development of museum products become more creative by implementing a mechanism for collaboration which attracts companies and professionals, so that the management of the museum products can be more sustainable.

On the other hand, design can help to deepen the understanding of the museum, especially sound product design strategies. Design mainly regards cultural products as a kind of product that have been given the meaning of cultural context. Observations from this research demonstrate that the image of cultural products is regarded as the most important characteristic that conveys meaning and message. This emphasis on the visual image is the mainstream of designer focus in current museum cultural products for the Taiwanese market. However, the main function of cultural products is to transform from “conveying the message” to “creating the experience” (Li, JC & Ho, MC 2009, p. 80). From the museum management perspective, the design of cultural product should focus on the museum customers’ experience of culture.

In the following chapter, I will examine collaborative design between the NPM and participating design companies in the “Workshop for cultural and creative development”. Through analysis of responses from five selected workshop participants, the research findings will provide an understanding of the collaboration between the NPM staff and designers during the process of developing museum cultural products.

CHAPTER FOUR

Workshop for cultural & creative development

CHAPTER 4 Workshop for Cultural & Creative Development

Management at the National Palace Museum introduced strategies to attract design companies and professionals for collaboration in the design and production of museum products. The “Workshop for cultural and creative development” (WCCD) is the result of the NPM plan to be engaged in the design process for developing creative products which will appeal to the museum visitors while ensuring that the objectives of the museum are addressed.

This chapter examines the “Workshop for cultural and creative development” (WCCD) in the National Palace Museum (NPM), in particular, the responses from NPM management and selected designers with varying degrees of experience and participation in previous workshops. With ethics approval obtained from the UNSW Human Research ethics Advisory (HREA) Committee, interviews were organised and conducted with two NPM staff and five designers during 29th May 2012 to 23rd April 2103 (Appendix 2 – 8). The collected data was analysed to understand the dynamics in the “collaboration” between the NPM and designers during the process of design and development of new museum products based on inspiration from the NPM collection.

Research method

Ms. Chou Kung-Shin (Curator, May 2008 - July 2012), and Ms. Sun Hung-Ling (Current Section Chief - Department of Cultural Creativity and Marketing) were selected as the NPM staff for the interviews in view of their respective roles and responsibilities in the museum management structure. The NPM lists on the museum website all companies and design professionals who had participated in the “Workshop for cultural and creative development” from its inception in 2009.

All companies listed on the NPM webpage were contacted for participation in this research; only nine confirmed interest in the participation. The nine designers were

invited by emails and informed the purposes and intentions of the interview for the research. During the interview, they provided me a lot of valuable information to let me gain an understanding of the workshop experiences and their designs. Due to the short duration of this research, five designers were selected based on the following criteria:

1. Diversity in the participants e.g. design company or sole practitioner. 2. Different modes of collaboration with the NPM. 3. Diversity in design practice e.g. range of museum products. 4. Constructive responses to the workshop experience.

The five participants include: JIA (homeware design), Chullery (jewellery design), Taiwan Textile Research Institution (TTRI), Bright Ideas Design (BID, multi-media) and Billy King (jewellery design) (Figure 17).

Years of Design company co-working with Mode of collaboration Description the NPM JIA Since 2010 Brand Licensing / Co-branding Homeware Design Chullery Since 2008 Brand Licensing / Co-branding Jewellery Design Taiwan Textile Textile research Research Institute None None institution (TTRI) Billy King Since 2003 Collaborative Development Jewellery Design Jewellery Bright Ideas 2006 to 2008 Collaborative Development Multi-Media Design Design

Figure 17. Five participants in the “Workshop for cultural and creative development” conducted by the National Palace Museum, and selected for this research.

In analysing the data collected from interviews, four issues are selected for discussion in this chapter. These issues are the (1) aims of the workshop; (2) communication between the NPM and designers; (3) responses from the designers; and (4) workshop challenges and outcomes. The analysis aims to examine factors which influence the

collaboration between the NPM and the participating designers during the design and development process.

Aims of the workshop

The nurturing of a profound understanding and appreciation of Chinese culture establishes the foundation of the “Workshop for cultural and creative development”. Since 2009 the NPM has implemented the workshop for five years based on available resources. The NPM collection of over 690 thousand artifacts is one of the advantages and reasons that the museum is able to support the workshop continually. The NPM collection can be an inspiration for designers to bring their creation into full play. Section chief Ms. Sun (2013, pers. comm., 23rd April) from the museum’s Department for Cultural Creativity and Marketing indicates the NPM hopes to become a platform for cross-industry, cross-border, and cross-disciplinary intersections between the NPM and industry. The Museum also hopes to enhance the quality and content of museum-related industries to build the collaboration and marketing model for museum and industry (NPM 2013c).

While Taiwan Government actively promotes the cultural and creative industries, being a leading museum in Taiwan and possessed of international reputation and abundant art collection, the NPM hopes to integrate all the resources of design and culture elements to build an exclusive training course for domestic industry (Ms. Sun).

Ms. Sun (2013, pers. comm., 23rd April) points out that the NPM has developed a considerable number of museum products over the years. In the past, the Museum usually accepted design proposals for consideration and assessment from manufacturers without any criteria, and generally the quality of design proposal is inconsistent and lacking in creativity and diversity. Objects in the NPM collection are classified and ranked for status and national significance in Chinese culture according to a system based on the number of stars. Several of these prestigious objects have been reproduced as museum products but without the quality sought by the NPM.

These designs were always inspired from several star items, such as “Jadeite Cabbage with Insects”, “Meat-Shaped Stone”, “Mao-Gong Ding”,

“Autobiography” and so on. Therefore, the NPM hopes to introduce more interesting collections and cultural content to manufacturers through the workshop. Thus, manufacturers can create the products with more cultural content to build the brand value with cultural characteristics and differences (Ms. Sun).

The “Workshop for cultural and creative development” was funded under the cultural and creative industry plan of the NPM. Before the commencement of the workshop, the NPM had already organised several museum sponsored product design competitions. In contrast to the competitions organised by the NPM, the workshop is a training program for participating designers and design companies. Instead of submitting competition entries directly to the NPM for consideration, designers can look for inspiration from the NPM collection by participating in a structured curriculum based on understanding and appreciating Chinese culture through the museum’s collection.

Curator Ms. Chou (2012, pers. comm., 29th May) states that the NPM’s cultural and creative plan is aligned with the major policies of the Taiwan government, thus the NPM established many policies for the cultural and creative industries. The NPM policies include: (1) Holding art and cultural exhibitions and activities; (2) Combining art collections with traditional Chinese opera to provide multi-sensory learning; (3) Conducting cultural and creative industry development workshops and exhibiting the achievements of the workshops; (4) Implementing annual design contests for NPM cultural and creative products; (5) Conducting cultural and creative product co- development business (three times a year, collecting design proposals from enterprises and manufacturers); (6) Actively promoting the museum’s brand licensing business; (7) Conducting a distribution and outsourcing business for cultural and creative goods; (8) Engaging in cultural and creative industry exhibitions: including participation in international book fairs, promotion of domestic cultural and creative industries, and the exchange of cultural and creative industries with China; and (9) Integrating cultural and creative goods with local manufacturers to benefit traditional industries (NPM 2013f).

Curator Ms. Chou (2012, pers. comm., 29th May) indicates: “If the NPM provides a qualified platform of learning to integrate the retailing system, it will promote the trend of cultural and creative industries in Taiwan”. Thus, if the NPM integrates all

91 the advantages it has, it can be a good conduit to assist the development of cultural and creative industries. These policies also reveal that the NPM not only communicates with local industries, but also keeps touch with international cultural and creative activities, and will help to enhance public culture, promote national economic development and make the museum a database of inspiration for the cultural and creative industries.

The NPM’s policies are based on the government policies. Referring to the NPM’s current regulations and the government policies makes the strategies of the cultural products. Brand authorized is that when you want to combine your own creative products with NPM, you have to pay the authorization fee. (Curator Ms. Chou)

The above comment from Ms. Chou affirms the commitment of the Taiwan government in supporting the NPM to promote cultural and creative industries, and that the NPM’s policies are guided by government policies. Brand authorisation is perceived as the strategy for the NPM to collaborate with industry and enhance the public awareness of culture and creation. In 2002 the Taiwan government prioritised the cultural and creative industry as one of the key projects for national development. As the regulations and mechanisms of development for promoting cultural and creative industries were not completely planned at that time, the cultural and creative industry resources could not be integrated, and the government also had the problem of limited investment budget. Under this condition, the cultural and creative industry in Taiwan was not well developed at that time. Thus the Government proposed the law of the cultural and creative industry development based on industrial characteristics and developing requirements in 2009 (Ministry of Culture 2010a, p. 1).

With one of the decrees legislated to promote the development of cultural and creative industry, the Taiwan government is able to lease or license through authorisation to provide public cultural and creative assets, such as books, historical data, collection of artifacts, or audio-visual materials. Here the decree states that such promotion cannot violate the laws and regulations relating to intellectual property rights. This applies to many high levels of cultural and creative assets belonging to the nation. The National Palace Museum (NPM) and the National Museum of History (NMH) are the two cultural institutions in Taiwan which possess rich cultural assets and values, and can offer resources for cultural and creative businesses to create industrial and economic

value (Ministry of Culture 2010a, p. 5). The government believes that promoting cultural and creative industry via museums will bring economic growth and encourage new value and new life for Taiwan’s cultural assets.

The idea of the “Workshop for cultural and creative development” was initiated by Curator Ms. Chou. From her experience Ms. Chou stated that she had not come across any artistic event similar to the model for the NPM workshop to date, thus making the workshop unique in museum management. Ms. Chou (2012, pers. comm., 29th May) adds:

I did not refer to the mode of museums from other countries. It’s my own creation. It’s different from counterparts of other countries. I am very familiar to the NPM. Consequently, the establishment of the workshop was based on years of multi- experience and care of the cultural creative industries. We have to understand this organization well and put the right one in the right place. To make the project into reality, we have to educate participants well and enhance the teamwork ability of them. Besides, we have to know how to design the course of the workshop. And we designed the courses to be three stages based on the educational theories. All workshops are totally free. The NPM will modify our courses depending on opinions from the trainees. Sometimes we also invite lecturer from other countries. (Curator Ms. Chou)

Curator Ms. Chou served as a secretary of the NPM from 1972 to 1983 during which she was responsible for the research and to coordinate and integrate the museum business. Ms. Chou was appointed as the museum’s Exhibition Section Leader from 1983 to 1999, and her duties included exhibition planning, and developing the business of promoting and exhibiting fine art. Subsequently Ms. Chou taught at Fu Jen Catholic University from 2002 to 2008, and her academic research and expertise included: organisational management, museum education, museum marketing and communication, and museum and the study of cultural and creative industries. The various roles of Ms. Chou at the NPM provided her with unique insights in museum management and museum studies, leading to her appointment as curator of the NPM in 2008.

A background of practical museum-related experiences and academic research and expertise enabled Curator Ms. Chou to conceive and convert her ideas for the

“Workshop for cultural and creative development” as a feasible strategy into practice. Therefore, in her role as the curator of the NPM, Ms. Chou focused on promoting the “Workshop for cultural and creative development” as a communication platform for combining theory and practice in museum management. The workshop also sketched out a new vision for the direction of cultural and creative development at the NPM.

In accordance with the organisational structure and department duty analysis of the NPM, there is an educational exhibition unit. This unit is further divided into the departments of education promotion, exhibition design, visitor services, IT hardware and information software. The specific duties of the educational exhibition unit include: planning and executing of educational activities and visitor services; design and planning of museum exhibition spaces; and design and planning of exhibition hardware and software. According to the viewpoints of NPM staff responsible for planning educational activities, the curriculum for the “Workshop for cultural and creative development” is based on course planning theories. The satisfactory feedback in surveys from workshop participants conforms with the program of teaching activities, and act as a reference for adjusting and improving the courses and selection of teachers. Curator Ms. Chou (2012, pers. comm., 29th May) also points out:

The museum has its especially important missions: those are collection, research, exhibition, education, conservation and entertainment. Cultural and creative industries and entertainment are related to education. And the significant function of gift shop is to extend educational function and bring the nice memories home. Most of the museums with certain degree all contain the department of gift shop. (Curator Ms. Chou)

Due to the educational function of the museum, if the museum can combine the cultural and creative industries with museum products, it will make the educational function be more extensive. Theobald (2000, p. 48) also thinks that a product must make a genuine contribution to the museum’s stated educational purposes or overall mission to qualify as related. A museum must first have an articulated purpose or mission statement before anyone can begin to judge whether or not the products contribute to it. Museum store managers need to become familiar with their institution’s mission statement so that they can evaluate their merchandise accordingly. Each museum store should have a mission statement too.

Cultural and creative industry (culture, creation, and industries) is influenced by multiple fields. If we look narrowly, it can be divide into more parts: culture and creation field, creation and industries filed, culture and industries field. Museums collaborate with culture, creation and industries is in the relationship between points, and mass production will be the result if museums collaborate with industries. Thus, I invited some industries to the workshop even though they did not collaborate with the NPM before. And I also invited some famous worldwide Taiwanese brands. The workshop provides them courses for 6 months and trains them to enhance their ability in culture and the arts. (Curator Ms. Chou)

Since the workshop intends to train young designers and also promote cultural and creative industry, the training courses have to be carefully planned, even the recruitment for design teams is based on special criteria. Ms. Sun points out: “The curriculum planning for the workshop mainly took a step-by-step approach, it emphasised on ‘to experience’ rather than just simply passing the information of heritage knowledge”. Both Curator Ms. Chou (2012, pers. comm., 29th May) and Ms. Sun (2013, pers. comm., 23rd April) clearly indicate that the workshop mainly focused on the overall performance of a group rather than personal performance.

Any kind of company can participate in this workshop; each team has to include at least four members (including staffs from different departments and also CEO). When the courses are finished, they have to hand over its completed products (NPM 7+8). It is inevitable that the NPM should cautiously to set up the courses to catch the businesspersons’ notice. The workshops must be attractive to the participators and make them feel really learn soothing in the cultural creation. The workshops are very popular at present. (Curator Ms. Chou)

The curriculum was designed similar to the EMBA curriculum of Business School, and put the emphasis on the team’s overall performance and learning effectiveness of research and development rather than personal performance. (Ms. Sun)

Our recruitment and election targeted at a “team” rather than “individual students”, they attend as a “company”, or government-registered organization and team to enroll in the workshop. The selection standards include: 1. Team ability (45 percent) (Including the person in charge in a department, designers, marketing, planning and

business personnel). 2. The project proposals (30 percent) (Examining the feasibility and completeness). 3. Company performance (25 percent) (The company's brand or image, works, etc.). (Ms. Sun)

The interviews revealed the curriculum designed by the NPM is for participators to experience various artistic activities to get more inspiration instead of attending a general history class. Besides, the curator thinks that the design project must include experts from different fields, so that the design project will go through a comprehensive evaluation to get the best result. According to the NPM’s policy, the workshop was also designed for industries and stressed on “team” practical training (NPM 2013f). So team ability takes up the biggest portion of selection criteria and the project proposal is the second important point. It means that the NPM hopes a design proposal can be designed and evaluated based on different areas of expertise within a team, and also presents the creativity process via brainstorming by the designers.

Referring to Chapter 2, the collaboration and evaluation within a design group and the circulation phases of divergence and convergence in the creation activity help to create appropriate design concepts and examine the feasibility of design. It can save both time and money for the result. Thus, through the communication, interaction and information exchange between each department, designers can resolve the uncertainty and problems earlier during the initial stage of product design and make the project more efficient. On the other hand, the “Workshop for cultural and creative development” differs from other museum events in that participation in the workshop is totally free, albeit participation is restricted to designers and representatives from design companies. As the curator said, the workshops must be attractive to the participators and make them feel well worth trying. For some newly established companies or small companies, this is a very attractive condition. As long as the criteria of the NPM is met, any type of company can engage in the workshop, and may get the chance to sell their products in the NPM. The NPM becomes a platform of marketing for these companies.

The workshop has been conducted for five years to date, and the fifth workshop is ongoing at the moment of writing this thesis. Ms. Sun (2013, pers. comm., 23rd April) indicates that during the first four years the workshop had trained 59 teams with 247 members. The types of collaboration between the NPM and designers resulting from

the workshops include eleven collaborative development, eight collaborations in brand authorization, and four collaborations in image authorization.

The final design artworks do “not necessarily” become NPM’s products. Design teams can decide if they want to become collaborators of the NPM. If they are willing to become collaborators, they have to follow the rules and various mechanisms for evaluation. (Ms. Sun)

We hope to introduce and promote NPM’s collection and cultural elements to various industries (especially the cultural and creative industry) so that they can use as the design element. Designers' works in the workshop will be not necessary to enter into a contract with the NPM, it has to depend on the participator’s decision. Therefore, we do not have a certain schedule for collaborative product development. Furthermore, we hope the workshop can bring the “far-reaching impact” to the NPM and participants, rather than pushing them to come up with specific products design in a time. This is not the NPM’s intention. (Ms. Sun)

The designers and design enterprises have their own consideration of the feasibility of their design or other conditions if they want to collaborate with the NPM, especially the proportion of financial returns. According to the special report of NPM’s cultural and creative design competition, all production costs have to be paid by these collaborators, but profit sharing has to wait until the NPM starts selling products. The total duration may take two years which means these collaborators may have to wait for two year to get the returns. For collaborators, the costs for product development cannot cost too much, but the products have to be easy for sale, so that they can earn the profit within two years (In-News 2013). These conditions are difficult to get a balance. Thus, they have to carefully consider the collaboration with the NPM. One of the selected companies indicated that they got less business profit in the collaboration with the NPM, thus they will choose the most economical and practical way to work with the Museum. However, the collaborator acknowledged that the NPM is a good platform for companies selling products. For this reason, companies that will continue collaborating with the NPM are usually large-scale enterprises. Thus, designers and companies should consider how to gain profit by the collaboration with the NPM effectively.

On the other hand, the NPM hopes that the workshop will achieve the aim of educating designers and design companies in the first place rather than receive immature designs. Thus, the establishment of collaboration is influenced by many factors. In order to select the best design for museum products, the NPM invites experts from the fields of design, Chinese history and culture, and heritage studies to advise in the content workshop. Ms. Sun (2013, pers. comm., 23rd April) points out:

In general, people who provide professional suggestions including heritage experts in the NPM, the contractor in charge of the cultural and creative marketing at business, the industry's well-known designers or scholars. In principle, there will be three experts from the Museum, and three are not. (Ms. Sun)

When reviewing the manuscripts, the NPM will invite the worldwide famous, well- judged, and conceptive designers or experts to do the survey. (Curator Ms. Chou)

Ms. Sun (2013, pers. comm., 23rd April) also points out the curator does not participate personally in the workshop committee to assess the design proposals, but the committee members are selected by the curator. Thus, it can be said that the curator indirectly participates in the assessment and the deputy curator usually serves as the chairperson. The workshop committee consists of staff representatives from the Department of Cultural Creativity and Marketing, Department of Antiquities, Department of Painting and Calligraphy and external experts. The committee is composed of different members for each assessment, and the NPM does not reveal the names of committee members. On the other hand, the selected designs from the workshop do not necessary proceed to the manufacture and production stage. The NPM will encourage participants to produce their designs but will not force any production, as it depends on the decision of the designer or company. In fact, the workshop is only for education and training, not for production.

Ms. Sun (2013, pers. comm., 23rd April) also emphasises the NPM would offer suggestions rather than examine the designers’ concepts and proposals. The workshop committee members are responsible for advising on the correct use of the NPM’s logo on the product or correcting the interpretation of history. This is to make sure the NPM’s products correctly convey the right information of the cultural relics. After all, the NPM’s customers come from different countries. Since the change in the Taiwan

98 government policy on cross-strait travel between Taiwan and China has changed, Taiwanese and Chinese nationals can now travel freely between both countries. Therefore, tourists and visitors from China have become the biggest proportion of the NPM customers, followed by the Japanese.

When I visited the NPM gift shop during 2012 – 2013, I noticed that the merchandise display includes both high-end and low-end positioning of the products. Some brands which are “co-branding” with the NPM set up their own sections and counters in the gift shop. They even send their own professional sales staff to serve customers. This service can prevent foreign customers from not understanding and appreciating the meaning of products and also provides museum visitors with attention and customised services. After all, some high-end products are designed with deeper and significant cultural meanings and backgrounds, and it is necessary to explain the meaning to customers. With professional guidance, customers will more likely be informed and convinced, and purchase museum products based on cultural significance.

Reflecting on aims one and two of this research, the discussion shows that the NPM understands its vantage of abundant collections to become a cultural platform for the cultural and creative industry, and it also has the power of influence on promoting the cultural and creative industry in Taiwan especially with government support. The NPM also has a mission to communicate its products to customers, and extend its responsibility in passing down Chinese culture to the young generation, and maintaining the quality proof of museum products. Being the platform for cultural and creative development, the NPM can fulfill its educational function more effectively than before by merging society and industries, and getting close to the public. The NPM plays the role as a connection between the Taiwan government, industries and people. Through the NPM workshop, industries are able to experience how Chinese culture integrates with creativity, and articulates its modern features in product design in the future.

Communication between the NPM and designers

Curator Ms. Chou, Kung Shin, founded the planning and establishment of the “Workshop for cultural and creative development” since 2009. Through the workshop,

99 the NPM hopes to build a communication platform for industries or designers and let them understand the NPM’s aims and determination of developing cultural and creative industries. At the same time, the NPM also expects the workshop as a platform for meeting with various manufacturers and design teams to understand their profession. The provision of communication platform from the NPM can be used for the exchange of information and idea negotiation, and also to establish a solid foundation for future collaborative development. Ms. Sun (2013, pers. comm., 23rd April) indicates through the workshop, the NPM hopes to promote mutual interaction and understanding with cultural and creative industries to enhance the quality of collaboration.

Due to the NPM’s popularity and reputation, tourists are interested in visiting the NPM. There are huge business opportunities, thus, many industries are increasingly interested in developing the NPM’s products. However, a lot of industries usually do not know how to become a product development partner with the NPM or they are not familiar with product development mechanism. Thus, one of the motivations of operating the workshop is to seek potential industries to participate in this activity and build a system to allow potential industries have a better understanding of the NPM’s intentions and operation mechanism. (Ms. Sun)

There are 12 to 18 companies participate in the workshop per year. So far (2009 – 2012) there are 59 firms engaged in the workshop (including brand licensing, image authorization, collaborative development), and designers will be trained and educated by the NPM. In this long-term case, the NPMs’ cultural products proceed to be extended, and these industries also increase their profit and enhance products’ quality (including culture and creation). Combining the traditional culture with innovative ideas make the products more creative. The NPM can be the source of inspiration and the platform of infinite creations. Therefore, the income of the NPM gift shop is growing day by day. For manufacturers, they not only have platforms in the NPM, they also have their own platforms around the world. (Curator Ms. Chou)

Curator Ms. Chou believes under this arrangement, the NPM provides resources and the museum and workshop participants can both benefit from the collaboration. Through the workshop, the NPM hopes to build a good relation with cultural and creative industries to co-create common interests. The ex-curator of the NPM, Ms. Lin, Mun-Lee (2006 - 2008), considers that the NPM should think and function as a

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modern museum. After decades of political, economic and environment changes, the NPM already has experienced different expectations, conditions and circumstances. Therefore, the NPM should use a new perspective and language to see and interpret the artifacts in its collection, and furthermore, to create new value (Ho 2008, cited in Lin, YS 2008, p. 67).

Besides following the decrees and procedures, the workshops (such as reviewers) are the best channel to communicate between the NPM and the business associates involved. The judges will evaluate their design artworks. If companies are eliminated by the workshop, the judges will also tell them the reasons. The cooperators contact with the NPM directly, and their design must include design concept and the design object. The NPM will let them realise that products must reach elite quality at the applying stage and under standard procedure. However, the most important stage is still the learning stage. (Curator Ms. Chou)

In addition, besides the workshop, Ms. Sun (2013, pers. comm., 23rd April) points out that other product development activities held in the NPM also contribute to the communication or negotiation channel for designers or the industry, including annual design competition of national treasures, and cultural and creative expo or exhibition. The Department of Cultural Creativity and Marketing is in charge of the cultural and creative product development in the NPM. It is divided into four minor sections, which are the Section of Foundation, the Section of Publication, the Section of Licensing and the Section of cultural and creative industry. Ms. Sun (2013, pers. comm., 23rd April) states that the NPM website also lists the rules for collaborative development, brand licensing and image licensing. The Department of Cultural Creativity and Marketing often deals with inquiries from manufacturers or companies (including telephone calls or meeting in person). The NPM believes that the museum provides a smooth channel for communication with the museum sector and, cultural and creative industry, and a lot of information is also posted on the NPM website for public access.

According to the interviews, it seems that the NPM did not lead the part of design and creation in the workshop. Most of the designers participated in the internal group discussion to create the design concept, and they did not have an in-depth discussion with the NPM before the review stage. JIA (2012, pers. comm., 8th June), Billy King

101 jewellery (2012, pers. comm., 30th May) and TTRI (2012, pers. comm., 1st June) all indicate that they participated in an internal survey and discussion to build their design concepts and then proposed to the NPM at the last phase. Due to the rule of the workshop, the composition of each design team has to include the representatives or heads of department from finance, design, marketing sales, research and development, and production. Thus, through discussion by a team with multiple expertise and skills, the design concepts could be more complete and comprehensive. As discussed in Chapter 2, collaborative design between each department helps to solve many problems in the design process. Carter & Bake (cited in Sun, SY 2010 p. 14) also pointed out that departments of design, manufacturing and production should have a common perception from the beginning of product development process (Refer to Chapter 2). It will be easier to reduce the probability of error in product development if design problems are detected sooner. Thus, it is clear that the aim of the NPM workshop is also to decrease design problems during the design process while expecting products with good quality.

JIA (2012, pers. comm., 8th June), Billy King (2012, pers. comm., 30th May) and TTRI (2012, pers. comm., 1st June) also indicated that there were two assessments in the workshop, but there were no discussions between participants and the NPM before the assessment. The workshop committee would give them with some feedback. The participants’ responses also confirmed that the NPM did not take part in the workshop during the formation of design concept, and this probably because the museum staff and invited lecturers are not the experts in design. Ms. Sun (2013, pers. comm., 23rd April) points out:

The NPM invites lecturers, experts in product design, scholars of heritage collection to provide suggestions to designers or correct their design, especially when designers’ concepts show improper interpretation of collections. The workshop will make sure these participants will not make the same mistake when they go through the NPM’s other design assessments or become the NPM’s collaborators in the future.

Although the NPM did not give any suggestions to the designers or design team during design process, the courses in the workshop can be seen as a different way of communicating and “briefing” on what a NPM product should be. Curator Ms. Chou

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(29th May 2012) indicates that quality and design concept are the key criteria for assessment. Ms. Chou also points out that the learning stage of the workshop is important for designing a museum product because it can be the foundation of design concepts. The NPM and designers have to reach a consensus before production. Thus, the workshop will let designers understand the key criteria set by the NPM. JIA (2012, pers. comm., 8th June) points out:

The NPM arranged experts from every department (Bronzes Department, Ceramic Department, Painting and Calligraphy Department, etc.) to the students to explain the characteristics and spirits of various exhibits and also arranged each person in charge to guide and explain to students. Lecturer would let designers look at the products of former workshop, introducing stories behind the products, and the reflection of the market.

JIA’s comment shows that the NPM also notices the significance of consumer preference besides the creation and cultural meaning of the museum product. JIA (2012, pers. comm., 8th June) also recalls that after a series of courses and orientation from the museum, the NPM workshop program would focus on the intensity of connection between museum products and artifacts from the NPM collection, and the correct use of the NPM logo. Billy King Jewellery (2012, pers. comm., 30th May) thinks that through his past experiences of participating in workshops and collaborating with the NPM, he has an understanding of the kind of design that is close to the NPM expectations.

The NPM’s derivative products focus on educational purpose, and products without the spirit of collections would be rejected. The aesthetics and market value of products are also the important elements for designs. We enhanced the part of aesthetics for commercial purpose, and the NPM committee felt satisfy with our decision. (Billy King Jewellery)

Meanwhile, Chullery (2012, pers. comm., 9th June) also adopts an opinion similar with Billy King Jewellery. Chullery has also been collaborating with the museum long before the workshop, and the company understands the rules and procedures of the NPM. Hence their current design style will not be a lot different from before even if they participated in the workshop. Therefore, it seems that companies which have collaborated previously with the NPM will understand well the criteria set by the

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museum. It was much easier for such companies to provide designs appropriate for the NPM, while the museum will not have too many issues with their designs. The design companies that collaborated with the NPM for the first time may confront unexpected issues and situations when carrying out the project, and such companies have to try harder than those with long-standing cooperation with the NPM.

The design companies and designers communicate their ideas and present their designs to the NPM in various ways. Bright Ideas Design (2012, pers. comm., 7th June) used three-dimensional graphs and animation to explain design concepts as the main part of the proposal. TTRI used power point to present and explain their ideas, design concept, design elements, and product dimensions. In the presentation TTRI (2012, pers. comm., 1st June) also includes information on the project costs and profit division for consideration to the committee.

On the other hand, some compromise may take place during the process of negotiation between the NPM and design company. Billy King Jewellery (2012, pers. comm., 30th May), Chullery (2012, pers. comm., 9th June) and Bright Ideas Design (2012, pers. comm., 7th June) indicate that they did not encounter situations that required compromise, because they understand the requirements of the NPM very well. Chullery (2012, pers. comm., 9th June) also thinks that the designer should ensure that the proposed design must connect with the NPM collection, and must be stylistically representative of the era of the selected artifact or relic. Sometimes the only change needed requires amendment to minor details in the design.

Compromise does not just happen in the collaborative relationship between the NPM and designers, it also happens during the design process for the team. JIA (2012, pers. comm., 8th June) thinks that it is difficult to decide on a balance between the products bearing likeness or unlikeness to the artifact in the museum collection during the design process. Furthermore, the company may also have to compromise in the production stage due to cost consideration.

We have to keep the balance between abstraction and concretion. If we redesign the selected collection with abstract concept, the public will not easily connected to the NPM; but If we redesign with a concrete concept, it will has no different with the original relic. Therefore, we have to be careful on every detail. Another situation is

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that we have to face many problems of specifications and materials. We have to adjust our design again and again. Although the adjustments are not very obvious, the influence on production is huge. (JIA)

On the other hand, JIA (2012, pers. comm., 8th June) observes that sometimes compromise is needed within a design group. A product development process needs to go through multiple checkpoints and inspection of all aspects. No matter designers, engineer and production units or marketers, they may insist on different viewpoints based on their specialized field, they may all have blind spots too.

If every member is opinionated, then the failure probability of this product will be much higher. Thus, the design needs to comply with the inspection of all aspects will be undergoing constant adjustments to minimize various blind spots. Of course, designers have to have a reasonable explanation to all participating personnel and let them know designers’ intention. And engineer or production units must make reasonable production to take into account the quality and cost. Marketers also timely put forward the viewpoint of the market situation and confirm the market. These results are generated through continuous communication and coordination. (JIA)

Bright Ideas Design (2012, pers. comm., 7th June) describes the members of their design team consisting of the manager of the marketing department, the director of animation department, and the leader of design department. Thus, they tend to design with an approach which can integrate the advantages from these three departments. The leader of design department (2012, pers. comm., 7th June) states:

The marketing department is the one that a product designer who contacts with most. Product development needs a lot of investment, so a product planning usually needs to consider the product’s topic, position and how to sell products and the target audience. Hence, the marketing department is usually required to provide the maximum assistance, such as providing suggestions of marketing plan and market reflection to designers. Sometime, they will turn down designers’ concepts but sometime they will help designers to proceed to the right direction.

In other words, designers and marketing department have to communicate thoroughly to obtain a good assessment of products. In this way, it will decrease the risk of failed production. TTRI (2012, pers. comm., 1st June), however, points out 105

that they did encounter a financially risky situation which affected the plans for production. Design companies have to pay all production costs, so they have to take into consideration the quality, quantity, marketing, product range and price structure. It is difficult to meet all these requirements for one product. TTRI (2012, pers. comm., 1st June) thinks that: “Consumers will not necessarily buy products if the products are sold at an expensive price”. TTRI identifies a dilemma: the company believes that products with a cheaper price will be sold much easier, but it is hard to achieve the NPM’s strict criteria for quality based on reduced production costs to ensure a low price product. Moreover, due to the profit division portion for collaborating with the museum and determined by the NPM, the only way is to raise the retail price to get more profit, but this will cause the problem of slow-selling. Thus, TTRI expresses the hope that the NPM can adjust its criteria and conditions to become more flexible for the industry.

The NPM also notices the issue raised by TTRI, and understands some companies have raised concern and disagreement about the mechanism for product development and licensing (including rules and licensing fee). However, the NPM is a government organisation, the design and establishment of policies are under the norms of government’s laws and regulations. In the case of the NPM’s position, licensing fees or revenue processing must comply with the relevant provisions introduced by the Taiwan government. If the museum can get the maximum benefit, the NPM can get the recognition from the government which will affect future policy making. Also it can be the foundation for the NPM promotion of future business. From the industries’ position, in addition to the hope of getting recognition from the NPM, they also hope to obtain considerable profits from the collaboration which is perceived by the cultural and creative industry as a commercial operation. These are the practicalities of what industries expect. However, under competitive circumstances, the only feasible way for the industry to compromise is in adopting a strategy of small profits and quick returns, while maintaining collaboration with the NPM to develop museum related products. In order to keep the workshop and collaboration sustainable, the NPM should show an understanding of the practical difficulties in production and the realities of competition, and the design companies should be clear regarding the intention and purpose for participating in the workshop. Therefore, the workshop can truly achieve the museum’s aims only with effective

106 communication and negotiation between the NPM and industry.

In conclusion, for some of design companies, the NPM workshop is not only a platform but also a channel to establish the first contact with the NPM. It is also a burgeoning stage of the whole product development process in the Museum, which informs workshop participants of its product development mechanism. The workshop also offers participants an opportunity to consider and evaluate further collaboration with the NPM. The communication channel provided by the NPM workshop seems to explain the Museum’s rules and legal aspects of the collaboration and licensing mechanism, but does not facilitate discussion of design concepts, design development, and negotiation of production. Responses from the selected workshop participants demonstrated this essential aspect of the collaboration. The workshop indeed provides cultural knowledge and the Museum’s philosophy of an NPM product, but it lacks the finesse in negotiation between the Museum and designers as workshop participants in the design concept and design development for proposed products. The gap between nurturing and acquiring cultural knowledge and the practical application of cultural elements – inspired by objects in the NPM collection – in the some of the proposed designs demonstrate that obstacles in creative collaborations need to be addressed. For example, by enhancing the communication between NPM management and designers, the collaborative design process between the Museum and workshop participants can clarify and establish mutually understandable purposes and agreeable targets which can reduce misunderstanding and excessive compromises.

Responses from the designers

The intention of the “Workshop for cultural and creative development” is to stimulate inspiration for the designers with Chinese culture and hope that they apply historical knowledge and aesthetic understanding as design elements. Selecting appropriate artifacts or relics from the NPM collection is essential at the beginning. The design concept would base on the artifact’s history, background or appearance (form, shape or colour, etc.). The designers understand that the products they propose have to be connected to the NPM collection. Thus, having a proper understanding of museum collection is crucial. The JIA design company is co-branding with the NPM which

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means their designs have to represent the spirit of the museum and JIA. Thus, JIA chooses artifacts or relics from the museum collection that can reflect the identities of JIA and the NPM.

Designers will propose the design concept and go through the internal evaluation. Although the concept is inspired from the exhibition items of the NPM, products’ characteristics have to be in accord with the JIA. (JIA)

Billy King Jewellery (2012, pers. comm., 30th May) chose his source of inspiration from artifacts which are rare among the heritage collections in the museum for developing derivative products. He thinks that Chinese painting belongs to the category that most designers would not usually select as artifacts for design inspiration. So Billy King Jewellery considers his choice of Chinese painting for design inspiration as a challenge. Besides, he indicates: “We considered about commercial value, market demand and the spirit of exhibits, so we did not choose popular items on purpose.” Bright Ideas Design (2012, pers. comm., 7th June) indicates no pre-conceived direction for the proposal, so first of all the design team had to decide a direction to develop. Bright Ideas Design observes that Chinese calligraphy and porcelain show contrasting features and qualities which can be represented in the designs of derivative products in different ways. The team opted to choose one from the two forms of Chinese art to clarify their direction. The designer (2012, pers. comm., 7th June) from Bright Ideas Design explains the rationale:

We chose calligraphy as our design element. If we chose utensils to be our inspiration, we had to consider whether to retain the original shape. If we did, it is hard to be innovative enough than before. Therefore, we chose calligraphy due to its content, meaning and pattern of lines.

On the other hand, Chullery (2012, pers. comm., 9th June) points out that the NPM has more than 690,000 relics, so the selection range is wide. Therefore, Chullery chooses relics as a source for inspiration from the NPM collection based on the criteria – a prosperous time during which artistic techniques and skills had been well developed, that is the Qing dynasty (A.D. 1644-1911). The aesthetic forms and design techniques are also the key points for Chullery to decide on which relics from the NPM collection can be selected as design inspiration. TTRI (2012, pers. comm., 1st June) is

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a textile research institution which employs experts in patterns for fabrics, therefore they selected artifacts from the NPM collection which can be an inspiration for design applications on fabrics. For example, a Song dynasty ju ware bowl in the shape of a lotus” (青瓷蓮花式溫碗) was one of their selected artifacts for inspiration; the “ice crack” lines on the glazed surface of the bowl was a feature which the TTRI believed could be used as an inspiration to reflect the characteristic of the NPM ceramics collection. The interviews indicate that the selected participating companies considered different criteria when selecting objects from the NPM collection for design inspiration.

The interviews also demonstrated that the selected participating companies considered how the derivative products inspired by selected artifacts or relics from the NPM collection would communicate meanings associated with the museum. Chullery’s museum products are usually made with Chinese symbolisms for fortune and blessing, thus reflecting some of the popular themes associated with artifacts and relics in the NPM collection. JIA is more focused on the appearance and functions of the derivative products. In addition, since co-branding is the level of collaboration that JIA and Chullery work contractually with the Museum, their museum products will display the logos of the NPM and the company while presenting both identities at the same time. Thus, when designing derivative products, participating companies like Chullery and JIA would consider more about their own image and identity, and make this feature become a design element.

On the other hand, other companies collaborated with the NPM in different modes, such as brand licensing and image licensing; in this instance the derivative products will only be shown with the NPM logo. The designs of this arrangement have to be the representative of the NPM. Therefore, brand image will not be the prior consideration for the company to design the museum product. Besides, the designer also has concerns about the degree of innovation, and that repetition in design will affect the products’ salience in consumption and marketing.

After the decision of the relic selection for inspiration is completed, the next step for each participating design company is to form the design concepts. The kinds of product that the company wants to design will also affect the formation of design

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concept. JIA (2012, pers. comm., 8th June) and Chullery (2012, pers. comm., 9th June) point out that before considering and developing design concepts, the designers usually observe artifacts and relics based on type, era, material and techniques. The designers can interpret and represent their ideas based on these elements to make the proposed designs and artworks connect with objects chosen from the NPM collection.

The item must represent the spirit of the NPM and connect to the contemporary life. Then we will consider the alteration on the exhibits’ appearance. (JIA)

The designer would try to figure out the technique of the relic and how to transform it to contemporary jewelry design. Designer usually applies Chinese blessing words to product design. There are many series of different design with different themes, but design elements would be the same. (Chullery)

The concept behind the workshop is to convert the “old heritage” into the “new product”. Therefore, the feature of modernity is a common point that designers presented in their design. The designers consider that their designs have to convey the characteristics of the selected artifacts and relics with less repetitive and more contemporary features; thus the degree to which the museum products appear modern or not is an important point for assessment by the NPM. On the other hand, it is obvious that the designers have their own perspectives on how to draw cultural elements from the NPM collection of artifacts and relics for their design proposals.

JIA, homeware design company, Taipei

Since JIA is a homeware design company, creativity is the crucial and necessary element in its approach to the collaboration with the NPM. According to promotional literature from JIA, the philosophy of the company’s design is to attempt to strike a balance between the old and the new, and aim to interpret traditional Chinese materials and craftsmanship through modern design typologies and creative thinking. Their products are based on “Chinese culture but across the boundaries between Asian and Western culture” (JIA brochure 2012).

JIA chose a string-patterned celadon wine vessel (青瓷弦紋樽) from the Southern Song dynasty as their inspiration (Figure 18). JIA designers (2012, pers. comm., 8th June) indicate: “We hope to retain or extend the original usage of the collection. It has

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simple lines and it is a wine vessel. In the Chinese culture, wine and tea has similar cultural meaning”. So it means the designers will not transform the form of the chosen relic literally into a contemporary object with different functions.

We transformed the wine vessel into the tea set to fit the contemporary life. Every designer’s design skills are different, but the major design elements we chose came from relics’ appearance. The original purpose and the implications of the exhibits are not the first elements we consider. And we hope to retain or extend exhibits’ original function, and try to attract customers with relic’s appearance. (JIA)

JIA chose the appearance and physical form of the wine vessel to be their first consideration, and this characteristic become the major design element rather than vessel’s original function and cultural meaning. The designers choose the relic for its simple lines which conform to the aesthetics and style of JIA products. According to the company’s website and promotional brochure, most of JIA products are designed with simple lines, shapes and colours. The designers at JIA intend to present their products with uncomplicated interpretation and will not make the designs miss the point. The design of the “String tea set” for the NPM is the derivative of the “string- patterned celadon” wine vessel from the museum’s collection (Figure 19). The product is designed using different materials including porcelain, cork and bamboo, and the designers intentionally retained the form of the “feet” or base similar and in reference to the original wine vessel. In the final design for the “string tea set” JIA borrowed elements from a traditional art form that can be directly referenced to Chinese antiques, but at the same time express the simplicity of contemporary design. Consumers familiar with Chinese traditional ceramic art can easily relate to the original source of inspiration for the “string tea set” from the form and materiality of the design. Thus, the “string tea set” reflects the combination of modernity and tradition in Chinese art and culture, and the spirit of the NPM and JIA. Apart from the workshop, JIA also designed a set of cutlery for the NPM inspired from the poem (宋徽宗詩帖卷) by Emperor Song Hui Zong (宋徽宗, A.D. 1082 – 1135) with strong calligraphic lines of shou jing ti (瘦金體, a calligraphy style created by Emperor Song Hui Zong) (JIA 2013, p. 25) (Figure 20). The designer shaped the western cutlery set with hard but smooth lines of calligraphy (Figure 21). The handles of cutlery not only show the endings of calligraphic skillfulness but also are slightly thickened to

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Figure 18. String-patterned celadon wine vessel, Song dynasty. © National Palace Museum, Taipei. (青瓷弦紋樽)

Figure 19. String Tea Set. Designed by JIA for the National Palace Museum, Taipei. (弦紋茶組)

Figure 20. Calligraphy for poem by Emperor Song Hui Zong, Song dynasty. © National Palace Museum, Taipei. (宋徽宗詩帖卷)

Figure 21. Calligraphy - Cutlery set. Designed by JIA for the National Palace Museum, Taipei. (書法系列 – 西式餐具組)

consider the user’s comfort.

Billy King Jewellery, jewellery design, Taipei

Billy King Jewellery has a different point of view regarding the process for collaborative design with the NPM. The designer (2012, pers. comm., 30th May) states: “We have to keep the creative spirit in our products. Products are the combination of creative culture and creation was the second key point that we are concerned with”. Thus, Billy King’s designs are chosen to represent the artistic conception and the significance of the original painting. Creation was not the most important skill they wanted to apply in their design. Billy King (2012, pers. comm., 30th May) points out: “Usual topics, such as animals and plants, will not be selected. That was the reason why we choose ‘Zhong Kui in the Wintery Forest’ (寒林鍾馗)”. This painting, dated

A.D. 1534, was painted by Wen Zheng-Ming (文徵明, A.D. 1470 – 1559) (Figure

22). The inspiration from the Zhong Kui painting led to the design and production of “Wintery Forest” pins made from metal alloy and pearls which are detailed interpretations based on plum blossoms in the painting (Figure 23).

Bill King Jewellery explains how he transformed his design concepts inspired by the Zhong Kui painting into products:

The original idea of this painting is to represent chilliness of the forest. Therefore, we used the method to enhance the rift of trees significantly, and decorating pearls to replace snow on our products. The use of pearls was to increase the quality of products.

Besides the “Zhong Kui in the Wintery Forest” painting, the designer also chose a Qing dynasty porcelain vase painted with red plum blossoms on a coral red background (磁胎洋彩霽紅梅花膽瓶) (Figure 24) as an inspiration for the depiction of floral forms in the “Plum Blossom pin” design (Figure 25). Billy King Jewellery not only interpreted the significance of the relic, but also used the combination of different materials to increase the quality of products, including pearls, shell and zircon. In the designs for the “Wintery Forest” pins, Billy King Jewellery focused on expressing the atmosphere showed in the painting rather than creative expression. The designer (2012, pers. comm., 30th May) mentions that the participating designers

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Figure 22. ‘Zhong Kui in the Wintery Forest’ by Wen Zheng-Ming, Ming dynasty. © National Palace Museum, Taipei. (寒林鍾馗)

Figure 23. Wintery Forest pins. Designed by Billy King Jewellery for the National Palace Museum, Taipei (寒林胸針)

Figure 24. Porcelain vase with red plum blossom painting on coral red ground, Qing dynasty. © National Palace Museum, Taipei. (磁胎洋彩霽紅梅花膽瓶)

Figure 25. Plum blossom pin. Designed by Billy King Jewellery for the National Palace Museum, Taipei. (梅花胸針) understand the purpose of the workshop is to educate a younger generation of designers. Therefore, from their understanding, the participating designers believed the most important cultural element presented in products is the spirit of the artifacts and relics in the NPM collection. This is why Billy King Jewellery chose the Zhong Kui painting as the inspiration and basis of how they interpreted the relics.

Chullery, jewellery design, Taipei

Chullery has been collaborating with the NPM since 2008. Compared to other selected design companies, Chullery’s museum products for the NPM belong to the high-end category. Chullery considers its products as usually characterised by “stylish classic” and “modernistic tradition” motifs, and also emphasising humanism and cultural heritage. Before collaborating with the NPM, Chullery’s designer Ms. Lin Fang-Chu has taken “innovation from tradition” as her consistent rule for design since the very beginning (Chullery 2013). Thus, Chullery’s products are full of references to Chinese style and Chinese design elements. In the design process, the designer tries to understand the artistic techniques used in the making of the artifacts or relics, and attempts to interpret design concepts with contemporary design skills. Chullery (2012, pers. comm., 9th June) states: “Before designing products, designers will investigate and study the background of cultural relics. Designers will take the sections of characteristic or overall characteristic from the relics to be design elements”. Thus, the products of Chullery are designed with the same philosophy and cultural context, but expressed through different design skills.

Normally the designer would apply the Chinese auspicious words and the pattern to the design. Chinese ancient cultural elements are very crucial in the design. For examples: The pronunciation of butterfly and bat in Chinese represent blessing. The pronunciation of auspicious cloud means good fortune. Designer would refer to the shape or meaning of relics. (Chullery)

In Chinese decorative arts – such as ceramics, jewellery and textiles – motifs based on flora and fauna are often incorporated as design elements to visually symbolise blessings and messages for good fortune, longevity and prosperity. The Chinese pronunciation of words denoting these selected motifs rhyme with auspicious words and phrases. For example, the Chinese word for bat (fu, 蝠 ) sounds phonetically the

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same as fortune or wealth (fu, 福) even though the characters are written differently. This homophonic characteristic of the Chinese language provides a repertoire of visual forms for the artist to symbolise words and phrases which are familiar to persons with a knowledge of Chinese art and culture.

From the discussion on the design process by Chullery, one learns that the focus of the design concept prioritises the symbolic meanings represented in the form or decoration of the artifact or relic selected from the NPM collection. Chullery (2012, pers. comm., 9th June) also points that: “The material selection is also a way of expressing design concepts. The different combination of materials expresses different meanings”. Chullery’s positioning of museum products and design concepts also fit with the NPM identity and image. Thus, they know how to express the spirit of the museum products to accord with the needs of the NPM.

At Chullery, Ms. Lin works with a unique and particular way during the design process. She collects parts of original antiques, artifacts and relics from antique shops and integrates the collected part(s) in her design to create a new object. Each object is a unique piece. The difference in her design approach with other designers is that Ms. Lin literally takes a part from the original antique and re-assembles with new material to create another object; thus presenting another interpretation of the NPM concept of “Old is New”.

Chullery views the meaning, form, figure, and pronunciation of Chinese auspicious words as inspiration, and applies variations and combinations of different materials to highlight the message symbolically and visually. Chullery (2012, pers. comm., 9th June) also indicates that their products are designed as heirloom pieces with the intention of transmitting Chinese culture to descendants. Since the mechanism of the workshop in the first year was not completed at that time, Chullery did not design any product for the NPM. But Chullery keeps the same philosophy for the design and making of every piece of design from the company.

For example, two jewellery pieces based on inspiration from the NPM collection show the aesthetics and concept of Chullery’s design. In her design for a pendant inspired by an imperial seal in the NPM collection, Ms. Lin based the design on an

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imperial seal found in the printed article “Fortune for descendants”9 published during the reign of Emperor Qianlong in the Qing dynasty (Figure 26). The calligraphic style of the seal inspired the shape, materials and composition of the pendant. It is a creative attempt by Ms. Lin to merge the beauty of the Chinese characters with opulent materials to express the aesthetics and cultural cultivation. Ms. Lin’s interest in the materiality and making processes of jewellery and court accessories from the Qing dynasty led to inspiration in an imperial scepter, ruyi, made from silver with intricate inlay of pearls, and precious and semi precious gem stones (Figure 27). Her interpretation of the imperial scepter led Ms. Lin to the design for the ruyi pendant micro-set with pearls and rubies (Figure 28). Through the lens of the “Old is New at the NPM” concept Ms. Lin concedes that she is able to fulfil her aims to transform the beauty of cultural products in the NPM collection into art for the contemporary life style (Chullery 2013).

Taiwan Textile Research Institute (TTRI), Taipei

TTRI has never collaborated with the NPM prior to participation in the “Workshop for cultural and creative development”, and the company has few experiences in designing museum related products, even though there has been several attempts. TTRI chose many relics as objects for inspiration, such as porcelain from the Song dynasty and traditional flower-and-plant paintings (Figure 29). TTRI designer (2012, pers. comm., 1st June) explains: “We gathered every potential idea in the team meeting initially. We found design elements from museum collections and tried to print on the fabric”. Before starting designing, designers would study all the details about the era, background, data resources and the spirits of collections, and these details all became design elements.

We tried to develop the products of ru ware bowl (汝窯溫碗) in the shape of a lotus flower, and we mixed the unique color of the bowl with other patterns and transformed the lotus shape of it into different figures. We also designed a windbreaker that can be pocket size clothing and umbrellas. We would not design a product which is too avant-garde or too expensive, so we would design the cloth in a basic style. (TTRI)

9 An image of imperial seal is found in the printed article “Fortune for descendants”, source from: , viewed 7th July 2013. 115

Figure 26. Pendant inspired by a seal of Emperor Qianlong, Qing dynasty. Designed by Chullery for the National Palace Museum, Taipei. (故宮宜子孫項鍊)

Figure 27. Ruyi with silver and pearl inlay, Qing dynasty. © National Palace Museum, Taipei. (銀鑲珠寶靈芝如意)

Figure 28. Ruyi pendant micro-set with pearls and rubies inspired by an imperial sceptre. Designed by Chullery for the National Palace Museum, Taipei. (故宮真如意項鍊)

Figure 29. Painting of chrysanthemums, Qing dynasty. © National Palace Museum, Taipei. (鄒一桂畫菊)

In describing the design process, TTRI shows that the design concepts and materials considered by the team depended on cost consideration. Most of the TTRI designs focused on the application of patterns and the variations. The proposed design of decorative patterns for the windbreaker and umbrella was inspired by two paintings of flowers and plants (Figures 30 and 31). The illustrated examples are reconstructions made by the author and are based on the proposed TTRI designs. Although designers at TTRI knew the significance and cultural meanings of the paintings from art reference books, manuscripts and catalogues, the proposed designs did not express the combination of creativity and contemporary culture. Most of designs consist of patterns cropped and drawn from original paintings, and directly applied to the clothing and umbrella in a repeating format. The NPM did not proceed with negotiating with TTRI on the development and production of the proposed museum products.

Although the TTRI is an institute for textile research, the drawback for the company in the collaboration with the NPM can be attributed to the priority on textile design and less on marketing and product branding, and possibly more time allocated to design and development of the visual outcomes.

Although TTRI did not produce their designs in the end, the design team indicates many practical problems that needed to be overcome during the design process. The team found a gap in communication between the stages for design concepts and the process for manufacture. At times it was difficult to get general consent within the design team due to differences arising from members with various specialties. Another technical issue arose because the proposed colour schemes for the clothing and umbrella looked different after the sample printing tests before production. Thus, organisational and technical problems at different stages of the design and development process affected the design concepts and development of proposed museum products for the NPM.

Bright Ideas Design (BID), multimedia company, Taipei

Bright Ideas Design (BID) has collaborated with the NPM from 2006 to 2008 in designing museum products, and the company has also participated in several exhibitions and designed the website of the NPM for several years. Thus, in a sense

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Figure 30. Proposed pattern for umbrella. Designed by the Taiwan Textile Research Institute (TTRI) for the National Palace Museum, Taipei. (Reconstruction drawn by the author).

Figure 31. Proposed repeat pattern for umbrella. Designed by the Taiwan Textile Research Institute (TTRI) for the National Palace Museum, Taipei. (Reconstruction drawn by the author). BID knows how the NPM behaves. BID designs for the workshop were inspired from the art of the four great calligraphers in Song dynasty (A.D. 960 – 1279). For the workshop inspired collaboration with the NPM, the design team at BID proposes concepts and designs for homeware products like light fittings and furniture as they perceive this as a niche market for the museum and BID.

As the artifact-inspired products of the NPM are lack of mass pieces of furniture and furnishings, we decided to develop this kind of product. (BID)

Designers at BID were considering target consumers when they developed design concepts. At the beginning BID had hoped to produce their designs, but realised that if they decided to design furniture, the investment of time and cost would be considerable, and the retail price would be higher for consumers. BID also perceived that the NPM assessment of their concepts and designs might not be accepted favourably by the company. Thus, BID viewed this design project as a conceptual project useful for practice and not for production. Due to this reason, the first point of consideration for this project was creativity because BID could try something that was more complex without having to think about the costs and marketing. Furthermore, BID also saw this project as a challenge to see if they could work on a product development using the advantages and expertise of each department. BID found out that this model was achievable.

The BID designers (2012, pers. comm., 7th June) state that: “Calligraphy is a feature belonging to the East Asian unique culture and symbols, and it can catch the attention of foreign tourists”. The designers believe that although calligraphy is not as concrete in representation as Chinese painting, it has the beauty of abstraction. Therefore, calligraphy is a good element to be applied to design concepts and will not affect or alter the integrity of the image of the selected artifact or relic.

The BID designers intended to inject the attitude of idyllic joy and peace from four renowned Song dynasty calligraphers into modern life, for example, the calligraphic inscription from the Song dynasty “Purple-and-gold inkstone” album (紫金研帖) (Figure 32). They experimented with various colours and materials (such as wood and linen) on products to emulate the original tastes of the simple life of the ancient Chinese but with high quality. The BID design concept was to recreate the lived

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experience of the literati during the Song dynasty in contemporary life, while pursuing spiritual fulfillment and self-cultural enrichment. The BID designers relied on 3D simulations to communicate visually a range of museum products in interior scenarios for the contemporary home, including table lamps (Figure 33), and textile designs for furnishings (Figure 34). The designers (2012, pers. comm., 7th June) presented their designs using digital media and they pointed out:

We explained the characteristics of displayed products through animation and brand card. We hoped that people who buy the products could get more knowledge of the heritage through the presentation of multimedia or three-dimensions. (BID)

When Bright Ideas Design presented their designs to the workshop committee, they used 3D stimulation graphs and animation to explain the design concept, and they indicated that they did not encounter any problem in passing the two evaluations by the NPM. Through graphic simulation using digital media, BID designers aimed to interact with the public and make their designs convincing to consumers and the NPM committee. Through the design concepts the designers also aimed to encourage the audience to learn and gain more information of the NPM collection through the application of selected artifacts to museum products. Attracting audiences to feel interested in the information of collection is one of Bright Ideas Design’s marketing strategies. Because of the consensus established between BID and the NPM from past collaborations, the BID team knew how to present their ideas that would satisfy the NPM. Thus, BID did not have to alter their design ideas during the two evaluations by the NPM. Although this design project was considered as just a practical exercise for BID, it fulfilled a collaboration with high negotiation between team members from different disciplines.

Overall, the interviews with selected participants in the “Workshop for cultural and creative development” show that most designers will try to interpret the spirit of the artifacts and relics from the NPM collection in relation to significance in Chinese history and culture. In addition, the designer will avoid choosing objects from the collection which are overexposed as “star attractions” or used as motifs for museum products with high repetition rate. For example, JIA (2012, pers. comm., 8th June) mentions that they chose the Song dynasty string-patterned celadon wine vessel because it is one of the most important objects in the NPM collection, but it is not like

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Figure 32. Calligraphic inscription from the “Purple-and-gold inkstone” album, Song dynasty. © National Palace Museum, Taipei. (米芾書識語紫金研帖)

Figure 33. Proposed desk lamp. Designed by Bright Ideas Design for the National Palace Museum. (黃州寒食桌燈)

Figure 34. Proposed textile designs for cushion covers. Designed by Bright Ideas Design for the National Palace Museum. (紫金研抱枕組)

the “Jadeite Cabbage with Insects” and “Meat-shaped Stone” which have been overly used as design motifs for reproduction as museum products. The interviews also indicate that previous experience with the NPM workshop or similar design experiences with museum product design will help the designer to gain a better understanding to express the object’s significance or characteristics, and represent the relic with proper interpretation. The proposed museum products vary in forms, materials, dimensions and functions, and each product required different design skills and expertise, but generally the aesthetic, historical, physical, material and spiritual significance of collection were the ways that the designers connected their proposed designs with the artifacts and relics, and the NPM. There were also many factors that affected the formation of design concepts, such as the various methods of licensing between companies and the NPM, the retail price and the cost of production. These factors are the key points to communicate and negotiate during design process.

The NPM intended the workshop for nurturing young designers to appreciate the beauty of Chinese culture, and to perceive the Museum collection from different perspectives. Analysis of the workshop process demonstrates close adherence to the aims of the NPM, but also presents how designers responded to the cultural knowledge and experiences learned from the workshop. Although participating in the same courses conducted by the NPM, each workshop participant (designer or design team) submitted design proposals which demonstrated the various factors influencing the designer’s thought process to a certain degree. The various design industry collaborators licensed by the NPM for designing and producing museum products represent diversity in the design field, and demonstrates the NPM’s interdisciplinary approach in the development of museum products.

From the initial stage of selecting objects and relics from the NPM collection for inspiring design concepts, each stage of the collaborative process presented challenging considerations. For example, the consideration of the purpose of the workshop, the mission and philosophy of the NPM; the familiarity or popularity of the selected relic in the context of public recognition; creativity of design concepts; economic, technological and technical constraints in production; appropriate application of cultural elements in the product; and the connection between cultural relic and proposed museum product. It would seem that even though some workshop

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participants possess well-versed design skills and creative design thinking, more mutual interaction between the NPM and designers will be necessary for productive outcomes. If the NPM wants to establish a better foundation for future collaboration, it has to give more assistance to design teams which have less experience in designing museum products.

Workshop challenges and outcomes

The intention of the NPM to hold the workshop is to offer the younger generation of designers an opportunity to know Chinese culture better and to train young talented designers. Curator Ms. Chou believes that designers will learn how to appreciate the beauty of Chinese culture and find design inspiration from collections.

They learn how to work out the teamwork. The NPM has so plenty of resources, and this enables them to gain inspiration of design constantly. It also teaches them how to get the inspiration and develop their perception. (Curator Ms. Chou)

Through the “Workshop for cultural and creative development”, the NPM hopes to cultivate talented designers, and expects the workshop can build a model of collaboration and marketing between museum and the cultural and creative industries (Taiwan XKB 2012). Curator Ms. Chou indicates that her ideal cultural and creative product is not only of fine appearance but also contains cultural profundity. According to Ms. Chou this kind of product is unique and full of vitality. It can add new value to the amazing creations of the ancient culture, and affect the modern identity of contemporary society; even waking up the public emotions of the national mission. On a practical level, the success of cultural and creative products can create an amazing output. While promoting Chinese culture to the world, it will also increase the revenue of the Taiwan treasury10. On the other hand, creative cultural products will attract visitors to return to the NPM, and also raise the museum’s reputation for its many design activities. Compared to the museum’s image in the past, at present many people think that the NPM’s image has become younger and more interesting (Lin, YS 2008, p. 85). Ms. Sun also keeps a positive attitude concerning the enhancement of cultural content for museum workshop participants. She (2013, pers.

10 Cited from PChome News, Ten questions from readers: Chou Kung-Hsin, Pchome News, , viewed 14th May 2013. 120 comm., 23rd April) believes the “Workshop for cultural and creative development” achieved certain educational purposes:

Companies experienced the training courses have better understanding of applying the NPM’s cultural elements, and their design inspiration would not just only focus on those popular exhibits. They would market their products by telling the stories of relics and making products contain profound content. (Ms. Sun)

On the other hand, the participating designers share some similar opinions. Their responses reveal that the workshop courses are varied; not just confined to one art discipline; practical; and also theoretical. Except for general artistic knowledge, the workshop also taught the designers how to inspire their five senses. Many designers think they have learned a lot of concepts they have never been in touch with before. They also feel that the courses are interesting and novel to them. Designers get to realise the relevance of background information, and the understanding of the NPM collections become the foundation of inspiration for designing museum products. The various courses also enhance the designers’ many interests, and let them have more experiences and perspectives to apply in the design process:

We can understand the culture, the lifestyle and the viewpoint of art in the ancient time. (JIA)

Three stages courses are absolutely helpful to our design. The courses include practice part and there are many experts from different fields to provide their professional views and concepts. After experiencing the workshop, we know how to grasp the spirit of collections, grip the characteristics of items, and put our creative into our products with the focus of collections. (Billy King Jewellery)

The courses in the workshop increase our impression toward museum collections. It is a useful source of inspiration for design. (Chullery)

The courses are helpful. The courses started from the basic knowledge, such as dancing and sound, and also experiencing the essence, drama and dancing. It is an initiation stage. Lecturers would ask trainees to share their ideas and have more interaction with other trainees. The workshop would take all the trainees to the exhibition rooms. (TTRI)

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We realise that the educational significance is the main intention of the workshop. And the most helpful thing for designers is to understand the collection completely. It is important for creation and design. (BID)

Via training in the workshop, most of the designers think that personal benefits are more obvious than business benefits. The designers indicate that personal benefits mainly focus on the growth of cultural knowledge, as well as learning how to convert the features and background of selected artifacts and relics from the NPM collection into design elements. They also have gained impressions of the museum objects which are different than before. In addition, the diverse courses of the workshop also gave students many interesting experiences:

We can get to know the background of the collections and learn more knowledge of the culture and ancient lifestyle. We also learned how to appreciate the ancient beauty. (JIA)

There is definitely commercial benefit existed. For personal part, I gain more knowledge about collections. I also have some interesting experiences that I have never had before. I usually keep adding many things into my designs, but now I understand that the more simple the design is, the subject would be more easily presented. Now I can demonstrate the topic by simple design, and change strategy appropriately when material is not perfect. (Billy King Jewellery)

The jewellery we sell in the NPM is really popular and getting better and better. One of the reasons is that the NPM also cooperate with other companies. This situation would promote the cultural creative trend. (Chullery)

We have more personal benefits than economical benefits, but we were inspired when we learned how to look at the collection from different viewpoints. (TTRI)

There is no immediate reward of commercial profit, however, in personal part, we can learn and accumulate some aesthetics and advances cultural implications that we cannot learn in ordinary time. (BID)

Bright Ideas Design (BID) (2012, pers. comm., 7th June) also points out that they realised that the significance of the courses in the workshop is to cultivate design talents. This view is shared by the perception that the NPM is successfully becoming

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a platform of offering resources and educational training. Although not every designer was successful in obtaining the commercial interests, the NPM has certainly achieved the purpose of education. The designers mostly keep a positive attitude regarding the NPM’s efforts in promoting cultural and creative industries and holding the workshop. The designers are grateful that they still have the chance to gain further artistic knowledge after graduating from design school, and have the chance to come into contact with different fields of art because of the variety of disciplines in the courses.

The workshop was totally free. The NPM spent a lot of time and did a lot of efforts on the courses. This was a good opportunity for us to understand the NPM’s collections. The NPM invited many experts from different fields to introduce cultural relics, and let designer obtain inspirations from collections in the design process. (JIA)

I think the workshop was terrific. I never experience this kind of courses before. (Billy King Jewellery)

Basically the NPM put much effort on promoting the cultural and creative industries. All the courses in the workshop were very interesting. (Chullery)

The NPM collection is settled systematically and good for cooperators to use the information on the production. (BID)

However, the workshop participants have some suggestions for the NPM. They maintain different points of view regarding the optimum length of time of the workshop. Some participants consider that the workshop took too much time while some consider the time can be longer. JIA (2012, pers. comm., 8th June) and Billy King Jewellery (2012, pers. comm., 30th May) indicate that the courses were good but limited to fundamental knowledge. It would be better if the NPM holds other advanced courses.

Every participant’s knowledge regarding history relics and cultural creation is different. It is hard to access further information or discussion. (JIA)

The workshop was only held for six months and we just learned some basic knowledge. We hope the NPM can hold an advanced workshop in the future and let us have further understanding. (Billy King Jewellery)

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Nevertheless, JIA (2012, pers. comm., 8th June) and TTRI (2012, pers. comm., 1st June) think that the courses which lasted for six months were too long. As the designers have to work for five days of a week in their respective companies, they will feel tired if they spend the whole Saturday at the workshop. So they suggest that the NPM can make some adjustments to the length of time.

The courses were eight hours a day on Saturdays and lasted for six months, and it was too tired for us to attend. Thus we recommend that the workshop can shorten the time of courses. (JIA)

The workshop could have more outdoor courses, thus the trainees would be more interested in the courses. We also think that the courses lasted for six months was too long, it would easily make us feel tired. (TTRI)

Bright Ideas Design (BID) (2012, pers. comm., 7th June) also points out the company has faced the problems of cost with self-funding the production of prototypes or sample products. They suggest the NPM can offer financial support for prototype production in the future. Since the participants were mainly design companies rather than manufacturers, BID (2012, pers. comm., 7th June) also suggests the NPM can integrate design companies and manufacturers in the workshop. It will be easier for participants from the design and manufacturing sectors to exchange viewpoints and communicate during the workshop, and maximise the potential for manufacturing and production of their designs. It represents a complete and more efficient process for the design, development and manufacturing of new products. On the other hand, the workshop participants hope that the NPM can be more flexible concerning the proportion of profit division and sharing, and authorization fee. Presently the participants have to pay all costs for design development, prototyping and manufacturing, and run the risk of stock management at the same time. So the participating companies hope that the NPM can alter the rules of collaboration.

We hope that the NPM could have more flexible rules of collaboration. Such as the profit division part is unfavorable to the industries. The authorisation fee is a little bit expensive for us. Besides, the authorisation fee, we also had to pay the entire production fee. In addition, the products were only printed the NPM’s logo, and the NPM only provided a platform for us to sell our products and did not guarantee the products would be sold out. However, the stock problems of products are not

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concerned with the NPM. Furthermore, we had to pay 60% income of products for the patents of the NPM. So it was uneconomical for us. (TTRI)

Due to the cooperation rules of the NPM, when we collaborated with the Museum, the profits we got are relatively low. In this situation, it is really hard to reach the NPM’s expectations and market price at the same time because of budget limitation. (BID)

From the standpoint of the NPM, Ms. Sun (2013, pers. comm., 23rd April) points out some difficulties regarding the operating aspect of the workshop. In order to let participants obtain fine learning experiences and useful knowledge, the NPM has to arrange and organise a series of systematic curriculum. The planning of the curriculum program reveals certain difficulties in the duration and design of the courses. Ms. Sun (2013, pers. comm., 23rd April) indicates that in fact they have noticed the problem of an inflexible timetable for the workshop. After all, the workshop is planned for every Saturday over a period of six months, and the tight program schedule can be toilsome for guest lecturers, NPM staff and participants. Ms. Sun (2013, pers. comm., 23rd April.) states:

These participants were sent by their companies, so not every participant is interested in the cultural learning. Six months is necessary for training courses, otherwise the workshop will become useless.

Ms. Sun observes that the outcome of the workshop cannot be seen immediately, after all, the influence of cultural nurturing is slow and has to take time. So it is hard to figure out an ideal way to achieve a good outcome with less time. Besides, the NPM does not have the coercive power on the participants as well, so it is hard to further gain knowledge about the follow-up effect. Moreover, most participants lack knowledge about the NPM collection and history; hence it increases the degree of difficulty on the design of the workshop courses. Thus, the courses for the workshop have to be specially designed and connected with many interesting events to attract the industry. In addition, every company has its own intentions and expectations regarding the workshop. From the standpoint of the museum, the NPM is unlikely to fulfill each individual request.

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Some companies hope to sell products in the NPM, some hope the NPM can offer more resources and service, some engage in the workshop just because they are interested in the NPM’s collection, some participate in the workshop to see the possibility of the collaboration with the NPM and some just want to be the NPM’s collaborators so they engage in the workshop for more chances. (Ms. Sun)

The NPM notices some participating companies have a little disagreement about the mechanism for determining the various levels of product development and licensing (including rules and licensing fee). These companies hope that the NPM can keep a more flexible attitude on the various rules and licensing fees. However, the NPM is a government organisation, and the design and establishment of policies are under the norms of government legislation and regulations. In the case of the NPM’s position, the issue of licensing fees or revenue processing must comply with the relevant provisions. If the museum can get the maximum benefit, it can receive recognition from the government and this will affect policy making, and it can be the foundation for the promotion of future business. From the cultural and creative industries’ position, in addition to receiving recognition from the NPM, they also hope to obtain considerable profits from the commercial operations. This is what the industries expect. However, under competitive circumstances, the only feasible way is for the industry to implement a strategy of small profits and quick returns, while keeping the collaboration with the NPM to develop museum related products. Ms. Sun (2013, pers. comm., 23rd April) also states:

The workshop has been running for five years, and this year we tend to do an overall assessment of analysis regarding the outcome of design teams. We will have a complete assessment till then to be a reference for adjusting or improving the workshop, so we do not have a final conclusion about the outcome of the workshop so far.

In order to keep the workshop and collaboration be more sustainable, the NPM should understand more regarding the practical complexities of product development, production and manufacturing; the participating companies should be aware of the intention(s) for engaging in the workshop. Therefore, the workshop can truly achieve its aims only with effective communication and negotiation between the NPM and industries.

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The NPM not only facilitates collaboration between industries and national artistic institutions, but also endeavors to promote museum cultural and creative development. Analysis of the interviews with selected workshop participants reveals the workshop indeed achieves the aim of nurturing and training talented designers, and also discovers prospective and potential partnerships. Meanwhile, the workshop is also an attempt by the NPM to establish a model that is suitable for various industries from different domains. Through the workshop, the Museum conveys its demands – expectations and requirements – for museum products, and the designers and design teams participating can also understand which kind of collaborative mechanism is the best for them, or if the NPM is the appropriate and complementary partner to work with. The workshop integrates factors – culture, creativity, commerce and management – that ensure museum products can be more representative of the cultural institution, and with better quality in design and production. For participants, the experience of the NPM workshop and its specific methodology of design interpretation can be extended to their future design projects. Even though the workshop seems to be successful in general, somehow both the NPM and participants still need to enhance communication and negotiation for maintaining the quality of the workshop.

Summary

Each of five design studios interpreted and responded to the NPM workshop brief with various approaches and results. JIA focused on selecting one Chinese relic from the NPM collection for inspiration which led to the design and development of one table object. The designs by JIA and Chullery bear some reference to elements borrowed from the original selected objects respectively; they do not imitate the “old” but rather bring the designs to a contemporary expression. The designs of Billy King Jewellery mainly focused on representing the essence of Chinese relics. Through creativity and the application of various material selections, their designs show quality and the consideration for commercial value and market demand. While Bright Ideas Design (BID) extended the design of museum products to a set of integrated furniture and accessories that responds to a particular inspiration and aesthetic, the intention was to view the workshop as an opportunity to experiment with design concepts (Fig. 4. 12). BID realised with practicality that such big pieces are not

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feasible in terms of production and manufacturing, and that it is unusual for a museum shop to include furniture as merchandise. The Taiwan Textile research Institute (TTRI) focused on the conventional method of repeating a pattern and changing the background for a range of colour schemes. This approach is typical of the methods practised in textile design.

The objects designed and proposed by JIA, Chullery, Billy King and the Taiwan Textile Research Institute (TTRI) reflect the range of objects – from competitively priced to high end – sold at the NPM shop. The NPM’s experience with the five selected design companies which are examined in this research demonstrates a contrast with the museum’s business relationship with the Italian design company, Alessi (Refer to Chapter 3). Alessi was independent in the process for the design, production and marketing of its products whereas there is an attempt by the NPM to communicate and nurture the initial research phase of the design process for the participants of the workshop. Although most design companies which participated in the workshop have commented positively on the intention and educational aspects of the workshop, many considered it worthwhile for the NPM to establish more opportunities for communicating with the designers before the assessment process. The general feeling is that the design outcomes will fit more with the NPM’s aims and enhance the potential for successful collaboration.

It is worth noting that some of the participating design studios remarked that the licensing arrangement with the NPM could be discussed further with the view of reducing the fees in exchange for more production. If the NPM is willing to lower the licensing arrangement fees, then companies can have much more access to the collection. Despite the different types of contractual agreement that each company has negotiated with the museum, most participating design companies are aware that they have a positive relationship with the NPM. The companies can have the opportunity of selling products in the museum and they can try different business models to find out which model is the best choice for them. From the viewpoints of the designers who participated in the workshop, the end product summarised the philosophy of the NPM on museum products. The quality of the museum products as a result of the workshop also provides the NPM with pride to sell the design objects in the museum shop and market the cultural value of the museum. The workshop can become a

128 model for future collaboration between the NPM and design companies. Future participants of the NPM workshop can view the various experiences of participating companies, including the five in this study, as examples of the numerous ways for approaching the collaboration with the museum. The potential for developing a range of related museum products based on object(s) inspired by the NPM collection is demonstrated by the conceptual range of integrated products for interiors by the team at Bright Ideas Design (BID) (Figure 35).

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Figure 35. Concept for integrated design objects inspired by calligraphy from the National Palace Museum collection. Designed by Bright Ideas Design.

CONCLUSION

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Conclusion

This research aims to examine how the National Palace Museum organises the collaborative development of museum product designs through the “Workshop for cultural and creative development”. In order to demonstrate this, it was my aim to identify the cultural significance of the NPM and the process of the museum’s collaboration with the cultural and creative industry. The NPM has the cultural responsibility of passing down Chinese culture to the younger generation in Taiwan. Meanwhile the NPM has also been given the duty by the Taiwan government to promote the cultural and creative industry in Taiwan. To fulfill this mission, the NPM established a series of collaborative mechanisms for those in the cultural and creative industry who are interested in working with the museum. It not only provides a platform for industries to showcase themselves and/or their products and services, but the museum also nurtures young designers in Chinese culture, and promotes cultural and creative development. The NPM has conducted many design competitions to promote cultural and creative development, and the “Workshop for cultural and creative development” is an example of a unique model among the various strategies of the museum.

This research started by reviewing current literature on collaboration in the design process, and examples of collaboration between museums and designers in the development and production of museum products. The research continues with an examination of the historical and contemporary role of the NPM as a case study. Using data collected from interviews with senior NPM staff and five selected participating design companies from the NPM workshop, this research explores the aims of the NPM, the communication between the NPM and designers during the workshop, responses from the designers and NPM on the collaborative process, and the challenges and outcomes of the collaboration during the workshop. The following summarises some of the findings from the research.

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Aims of the NPM

The NPM is a government organisation, and its rules and regulations are established based on the Taiwan government’s policies. The NPM hopes to develop a program with the cultural and creative industry to develop museum products. Museum products can shorten the relational distance between the NPM collection and the public, and also help to enhance the cultural aspects in our lives. Aligning the museum’s mission with the government’s policy, support and expectations, the program of cultural and creative development at the NPM has become more complex for management and planning.

As the government endowed the museum with the responsibility of promoting the cultural and creative industry in Taiwan, the NPM endeavors to develop museum products by according cultural relics as inspiration in the design of innovative products. This research identifies the museum’s intention for holding the “Workshop for cultural and creative development” is for training design talents by viewing cultural appreciation and understanding of Chinese art at the NPM collection as design inspiration to enhance the strength of cultural and creative industry in Taiwan. Besides cultural awareness and educational purposes, the workshop also offers participants the chance to collaborate with the NPM. It is also an opportunity for the Museum to seek potential collaborators and communicate with stakeholders in the cultural and creative industry. For the collaborators with the NPM, participation in the workshop can prevent the risk of developing museum products with the wrong appreciation and interpretation of Chinese culture as defined by the Taiwan government and hence the NPM, and also the experience will become a foundation for future collaboration with the museum.

The “Workshop for cultural and creative development” has been organised and conducted for five years. The NPM believes that derivative products with cultural meaning are valuable to national aspirations and to the museum’s coffers, hence the NPM hopes that companies participating in the workshop can incorporate Chinese culture in their designs. The workshop is also perceived by the NPM to provide designers with an opportunity to communicate with other industries. To ensure an effective curriculum program for workshop participants, the NPM designed special

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courses based on three fields – Aesthetics and Perception, Heritage studies, and Design and Creativity – and staged over 3 phases (Refer to Chapter 4.)

To be eligible for the workshop, the NPM requires each company to nominate a team with various expertise to qualify for participation. This criteria shows that the NPM hopes that design teams can discuss and present their best ideas through communication and collaboration with professionals from various fields within a team. In addition, the NPM establishes various levels of brand authorisation for the cultural and creative industry to collaborate with the museum according to the company’s respective focus and needs. It should be noted that the NPM workshop becomes a channel and strategy to extend the educational function and purpose of the museum.

Overview of the workshop – communication, collaboration and interpretation

The fame, reputation and popularity of the NPM attract many companies to collaborate with the museum for co-developing museum products. For these companies in the cultural and creative industry, the NPM workshop can help them to gain a better understanding of cultural relics in the museum collection, and the collaborative mechanisms of the NPM. The NPM has noticed that some design proposals which were received in the past were usually lacking in creativity or failed to express the spirit of the relics in the museum’s collection. Thus, the NPM views its role as educator in the communication of cultural knowledge and possibly creative suggestions during the workshop. The workshop is also regarded as a good channel for the NPM to seek and initiate communication with potential collaborators.

Generally the workshop participants appreciated the specially designed series of lectures from museum staff and invited experts. It appears that the direction of communication tend to be from museum to workshop participants for the purpose of appreciating and learning about Chinese culture through the museum’s collection. From the interviews with participating designers, it was obvious that the design groups were leading discussions during the design process, and the NPM did not involve its staff in this phase. Communication between the NPM staff and participating designers only took place during the assessment phase of program. The purpose of the assessment was to view the appropriateness of design proposals,

133 marketability of products, and whether the spirit of Chinese culture inspired by objects from the NPM collection has been embodied in the designs.

The design processes of the five selected companies revealed that they selected appropriate relics as the inspiration according to different criteria including the avoidance of over-exposed or iconic objects from the collection, personal response to artworks which resonated with the individual designer; appreciation of the physical form and materiality of the selected object, etc. (Refer to Chapter 4). Some designers had no problem with adapting and applying design elements borrowed from the selected artifact or relic to their proposed design since these individuals have established long-term collaborative relationships with the NPM. This finding indicates that some designers know the expectations and standards of the NPM in terms of museum products, and that there is a certain degree of understanding between the two.

However, companies with no prior contact with the NPM and have just joined the workshop process will more likely miss the criteria and expectations of the museum due to the lack of experience and prior communication. It raises the issue of how and when this knowledge should be communicated from the NPM to the designer for the collaboration to proceed effectively and efficiently.

Not surprisingly the five selected participating design companies showed diverse ways in responding to the workshop and design brief in view of the various levels of experience and prior collaboration with the NPM. Some of the proposed designs reached an innovative level as is reflected by the price of museum product, e.g. the string tea set designed by JIA. Other designers tended to focus on the pragmatics of development and production costs and a favourably priced object, e.g. wintery forest pins designed by Billy King Jewellery. Bright Ideas Design (BID) looked upon the workshop as a platform to experiment with design concepts which integrate a suite of products inspired by an artifact from the NPM collection; in this instance the designer is satisfied with not proceeding to production but valued the exposure and potential recognition by the NPM of his potential in proposing innovative museum products. (Refer to Chapter 4 for a discussion on these designers.)

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The NPM insists that the main intention of workshop is to nurture the appreciation and education in Chinese art and culture through objects from its collection in designers, so it is not responsible for producing the outcomes of the workshop. Some participating companies believe that collaborating with the NPM definitely has advantage to highlight the company’s reputation. However, most participants have concerns regarding the production costs, so the company will choose the most economical and practical way to work with the museum. From my observation, large- scale companies will usually continue collaborating with the NPM, while some small industries may retreat because of the museum’s strict regulations. After all, not every mode of collaboration will result in a museum product that will display the name of company and raise awareness of the company brand.

Workshop outcomes and feedback

Indeed the NPM holds a very important position in terms of conveying Chinese culture to the public through its collection, exhibitions, and museum products. In order to encourage young people to engage with Chinese culture, the NPM tries different strategies to manage the museum education program. It was innovative for the NPM to consider the idea for the “Workshop for cultural and creative development”. Perhaps this idea was based on the museum’s less than satisfactory arrangement with Alessi. Perhaps the NPM may want its business relationship with Alessi to be more aligned with its philosophy while continuing to sell the Alessi range of products. After all, the museum intends to train and educate designers through this workshop to nurture the “Old is New” objective.

The NPM believes that once the participating companies have experienced the workshop, they will have a better interpretation of “Old is New”. Most of the participants maintain positive viewpoints towards the NPM’s endeavor in nurturing talented designers and developing the cultural and creative industry. Feedback from interviews with the five participating designers indicates that the workshop was a very impressive and unique experience for them. Participants indicated that the personal benefit was more obvious than commercial benefit, especially the development of cultural knowledge for the individual. For the participants, some of their expectations were accomplished at the workshop, while this was not the case for others,

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particularly in the negotiation of licensing and profits. Therefore, from a marketing perspective, participating companies also hope that the NPM can make the enterprise arrangement be more flexible, especially in the regulations for licensing fee and division of profit.

Although the workshop has been conducted for five years, the NPM continues to face the difficulties of workshop schedule and curricula planning. Companies participating in the workshop also reported similar problems since the activities and timing for industry and cultural institutions are often at odds with each other. Some of the companies consider the workshop curricula rather elementary, and even hope that the NPM can arrange advanced courses to continue museum education.

Moreover, the participating companies and the NPM differ in their views on the purpose of the workshop. Most of the companies hoped to see results as soon as possible, but the NPM believes that the effects of the workshop will only show after a period of time. This mismatch in expectations from the NPM and participating companies results in the difficulty of reaching a consensus. The five selected companies differ in size and scale of operation, hence they collaborated with the NPM in different modes as discussed in Chapter 4. Feedback from the participating companies identifies essential issues for consideration by the NPM management in view of the museum’s plan for continuing with the workshop for collaboration with design companies.

Over all, the NPM clearly expresses its objective of “Old is New” for museum product design through the workshop and other design competitions. The workshop is a unique model, not only for museum product designs, but also for museum education programs, especially the well-planned three stages of curricula, and the selected lecturers and experts. The opportunity of collaboration with the NPM because of its abundant cultural knowledge and collections were the main reasons attracting design companies to participate in the workshop. One of the purposes for conducting the workshop is to correct or improve upon past situations, for example, the inappropriate interpretation of cultural relics for application in the design of museum products. Another reason is that the NPM is responsible for promoting the cultural and creative industry, an appointment by the Taiwan government. Moreover the NPM also intends

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to rebrand itself with the new image of integrating culture and contemporary design to engage new and young museum visitors, and build connections to the public

Various collaboration models and enterprising attempts on museum product design also show the determination of the NPM to produce a diverse range of museum products inspired by objects and relics in its collection. Judging by the designers’ responses to the workshop, the NPM can consider the necessity of increasing assistance or communication during the courses with participants. On the other hand, the process of integrating what the designers learned from the workshop into the design, development and production of museum products is another issue that can be addressed further.

Since the participants differ in expectations and purposes towards the workshop, except the courses, the NPM may clearly explain its collaborative mechanism to participants at an early stage to reduce the risk of being misunderstood. Meanwhile the designers and design teams should evaluate their situation in the context of the various NPM collaboration mechanisms to decide whether to collaborate with the Museum or not. In addition to considering the appropriate type of collaboration with the NPM, there are factors during the designing and production processes which will influence the formation of design concepts. The design outcomes of the workshop will depend on the designer or design company participating in the workshop including scale of operation and mode of collaboration with the NPM. The responses from workshop participants who were interviewed for this research agreed that the aim of the NPM to nurture young designers in interpreting the beauty of ancient Chinese art for application to contemporary design concepts was achieved in the workshop process.

Limitations

The “Workshop for cultural and creative development” has been conducted by the NPM for five years and the fifth workshop has just started. Over this period the number of workshop participants has totaled over 70 firms as listed on the NPM website. However, not all listed participating companies are from the cultural and creative industry; other industries specialise in paper, building materials and mechanical engineering. Due to the short duration of this research, and the focus on

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the cultural and creative industry, only representatives from this sector were considered for examination, and shortlisted to five design companies for interviews. With a small number of participants for analysis, this research recognised that the findings presented a limited but informative insight into the experiences of design companies which ranged from small to large-scale operations. To date the NPM has not conducted an overall evaluation of the workshop, but it is not the intention of the scope of this research to evaluate the proposed designs for museum products or the success/failure of the workshop in view of time constraint. Rather the research focused on the workshop and the relationship between the NPM and design companies during the collaboration process – for example, transfer of cultural knowledge, communication between the museum and design teams, clarification of expectations, client-designer feedback, and enterprise negotiation (Chapter 4). This research mainly focused on the discussion of the workshop activities between 2009 to 2012. The analytical outcomes of this research are only relevant for this period, and may not necessarily apply to workshops or other museum product design competitions held in the NPM after 2013. In selecting the methods of information gathering by interview, and archival and document research, this research was limited to provide relevant qualitative analysis to explain the nature of the workshop and collaborative process. Although the museum products selected for analysis and discussion in this research demonstrated meaningful design concepts and quality designs considered by museum management, it was not intended to include sales volume, consumer responses and commercial success of the designs within the limitations of the study. The research findings also manifested that intra- communication between members of the design team can influence the direction for the design and development process during the workshop, and consequently impact on the proposal for the museum product. This is issue was not explored in the present research due to the short duration for the project. However it is a significant issue that warrants further research since collaboration within a design team, and between the museum and design company are crucial for the development of museum products which will fulfill the criteria of the NPM. Another issue which was not explored in this research because of time concerns the process implemented by the NPM during the workshop to assess the design proposals from participating companies. Further research in the assessment process will assist in understanding the alignment of museum criteria with the participating designers’ responses to the brief.

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In conclusion, the National Palace Museum organises the “Workshop for cultural and creative development” in a very structured way albeit with good intention. After all, the workshop is recognised as a strategic channel for both the NPM and companies from the cultural and creative industry to create opportunities for collaboration. Moreover, by implementing the “Workshop for cultural and creative development” as a nurturing and educational program for design companies, the NPM can fulfill and achieve the “Old is New” concept and convey Chinese culture to more young people through museum products that are developed as a result of inspiration from relics in the museum collection. Observation from interviews with NPM staff and participating designers indicates that the issues summarised in this conclusion can affect the experience and outcome of each design company, the marketing of the workshop to prospective companies in the cultural and creative industry for collaboration with the museum, and ultimately the goals of the NPM. The concept for the “Workshop for cultural and creative development” follows some of the principles and characteristics of collaborative design, and is a unique program that can be developed and refined as a management strategy to facilitate the dynamic relationship between the National Palace Museum and the cultural and creative industry in the design and development of museum products.

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APPENDICES

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Appendix 1: Ethics Approval

This project obtained ethics approval HREA on 08/05/2012 from The University of New South Wales, Human Research Ethics Advisory (HREA) Panel.

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Appendix 2: Interview Questions for National Palace Museum staff associated with the “Workshop for Cultural & Creative Development”

1.What are the reasons for the NPM to promote cultural and creative industries? 故宮積極推廣文化創意產業的原因為何？

2. What are the aims of the NPM to promote cultural and creative industries? 故宮在推廣文化創意產業上所著重的目標為何？

3. In the development process of cultural and creative industries in the NPM, what missions are important? 在故宮積極發展文化創意產業的過程中，有哪些重要任務？

4. What are the NPM strategies in the process for collaborating with cultural and creative industries? 故宮與文創產業合作的過程中，有何重要的策略？

5. How do you define the policy of cultural and creative industries for the corporate requirements of the NPM? 請問故宮如何擬定文創產業的合作策略並符合故宮的需求？

6. What are the NPM strengths (advantages) in promoting cultural and creative industries? 故宮在推廣文化創意產業的優勢為何？

7. What are the NPM weaknesses (disadvantages) in promoting cultural and creative industries? 故宮在推廣文化創意產業的不利條件為何？

8. Provide an example of the most challenging event that NPM experienced in promoting cultural and creative industries? 能否請您提供一個故宮在推廣文化創意產業時所經歷最具挑戰性的活動？

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9. The NPM “Cultural and Creative Development Workshops” are unusual in its model/process for engaging with designers for developing the museum’s products. What is the history and rationale for this model? How do you realize/implement the model/process from idea to finished product? 故宮文創發展研習營這個活動不管是模式或是請設計師參與的過程都很獨特，請問這個模式的歷史或基本原理是從何而來？如何理解並且讓這個模式從理念變成真實的產物？

10. How does the NPM choose compatible companies to collaborate with? 請問故宮如何選擇合適的公司合作？

11. How does the NPM collaborate and/or negotiate with designers and clients in the design, manufacturing and marketing of NPM products? 在設計，製作與行銷的過程中，請問故宮如何與設計師及客戶溝通協商？

12. What are the NPM strategies for cultivating cultural and creative designers? 故宮在培育文化創意設計師方面的政策為何？

13. What is the influence on other museums in Taiwan when the NPM chooses to cooperate with design industries? 故宮選擇與設計產業結合，這對台灣其他的博物館有哪些影響？請問對故宮有哪些收穫？

14. What is the percentage breakdown of the NPM target audience/groups/market? What is the significance of the youth market to NPM strategies? 請問故宮所設定的重點客群的百分比各是多少？請問年輕族群對於故宮的政策有何重要性？

15. How does the museum promote and market its branded icons? 請問故宮如何推廣及行銷具代表性的特色展品？

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Appendix 3: Interview Questions for design participants in the National Palace Museum “Workshop for Cultural & Creative Development”

1. Before you begin to design the product, how does the NPM explain the design brief for the exhibition and product? 在您設計產品之前，故宮如何解釋有關展覽及商品的設計概念?

2. How do you negotiate the design brief with the museum? 請問您如何與故宮討論設計概念？

3. Could you explain the structure of the design process following the NPM workshop? 請您解說故宮文創研習營的設計過程架構？

4. How do you approach the process of designing products for the museum? 請問您如何開始著手設計？

5. What informs your design concepts and ideas for the NPM products? 故宮商品的設計概念與構想如何形成？

6. What original style(s) form the basis for the NPM products? 通常在設計故宮商品的造型時，其原始創意之根據為何? 如何轉化？

7. How do the NPM workshops help you in the design process? 故宮的研習營課程對你在設計過程中有什麼樣的幫助？

8. How do you negotiate an approval from the NPM before starting to produce products? 在產品設計前，您如何向故宮呈現您的設計概念而獲得故宮的認可?

9. What type of compromises influence the design of the product? 請問您在產品設計時是否有時必須有所妥協?

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10. What business and personal outcomes do you get from the NPM workshop? 請問您參與故宮研習營有何商業或個人的收穫？

11.What are your views on the curriculum of the workshop organized by the NPM? 請問您對故宮安排的研習營課程看法如何? 譬如有何優點或需改進的地方?

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Appendix 4: Participant Information Statement and Consent Form for National Palace Museum workshop staff

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Appendix 5: Participant Information Statement and Consent Form for participants of the National Palace Museum workshop

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Appendix 6: List of National Palace Museum staff for interviews

Ms. Chou Kung-Shin (Curator, May 2008 - July 2012) Interviewed 29/05/2012, 7 pages (transcript)

Ms. Sun Hung-Ling (Current Section Chief, Department of Cultural Creativity and Marketing) Interviewed 23/04/2013, 6 pages (transcript)

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Appendix 7: List of selected NPM workshop participants for interviews

Billy King Jewellery, jewellery design, Taipei Interviewed 30/05/2012, 3 pages (transcript)

Bright Ideas Design (BID), multimedia, Taipei Interviewed 07/06/2012, 5 pages (transcript)

Chullery, jewellery design, Taipei Interviewed 09/06/2012, 3 pages (transcript)

JIA, homeware design company, Taipei Interviewed 08/06/2012, 3 pages (transcript)

Taiwan Textile Research Institute (TTRI), Taipei Interviewed 01/06/2012, 3 pages (transcript)

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Appendix 8: Chronology of Chinese dynasties

Dynasties of China Years 夏朝 Xia Dynasty B.C. 2183 – 1752

商朝 Shang Dynasty B.C. 1751 – 1111

周朝 Zhou Dynasty B.C. 1111 – 221

秦朝 Qin Dynasty B.C. 221 – 207

漢朝 Han Dynasty B.C. 202 – A.D. 220

三國 Three Kingdoms A.D. 220 – 265

晉朝 Jin Dynasty A.D. 265 – 420

南北朝 Southern & Northern A.D. 420 – 581

隋朝 Sui Dynasty A.D. 581 – 618

唐朝 Tang Dynasty A.D. 618 – 907

五代 Five Dynasties A.D. 907 – 960

宋朝 Song Dynasty A.D. 960 – 1279

元朝 Yuan Dynasty A.D. 1271 – 1368

明朝 Ming Dynasty A.D. 1368 – 1644

清朝 Qing Dynasty A.D. 1644 – 1911

中華民國 Republic of China, Taiwan A.D. 1911 – the present 中華人民共和國 People’s Republic of China A.D. 1949 – the present

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INTERVIEWS National Palace Museum staff Interview with Ms. Chou Kung-Shin (Curator, NPM, May 2008 - July 2012), Appendix 6 Interview with Ms. Sun Hung-Ling (Current Section Chief, Department of Cultural Creativity and Marketing), Appendix 6

Design participants Interview with Billy King Jewellery, Appendix 7 Interview with Bright Ideas Design (BID), Appendix 7 Interview with Chullery, Appendix 7 Interview with JIA, Appendix 7 Interview with Taiwan Textile Research Institute (TTRI), Appendix 7

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