Eastern culture favored by the West – The explosion of licensed Disney merchandise.

In a chance encounter, Disney executives saw the TuTu Stool, which exhibits a fantastic, interesting, and imaginative design. The rich eastern elements of the woven bamboo features attracted these Disney executives. Hoping to incorporate this product with Disney elements, the team cleverly combined both east and west, and launched the exhibits for Disney’s 90th anniversary.

І. How to turn an opportunity into a winning ticket

“After getting an opportunity, use luck and hard work to achieve greater things”

Originally, Disney hoped to award Lo Yu-Fen with the title of “special designer” so that Director Lo’s collection of eastern-themed works could work in synergy with Disney as they launched a product series with an Asian vibe for Disney’s 90th anniversary celebration.

Lo Yu-Fen has accumulated many international awards, international media exposure and reputational affirmations in the cultural and creative industry. However, rather than the Disney title, which is akin to an award, Director Lo seems much more to prefer product licensing and cooperative development. She hopes to create new Disney products with an eastern vibe and intertwine with the leader of the western entertainment industry to create new sparks!

Recently, Disney has evolved from dominating the western entertainment industry to developing its reach into the east. It has established Disneyland in Shanghai, Hong Kong and other places, and the attire Mickey and Minnie wear have been altered to reflect traditional Chinese costumes according to the locality of the park. It has also designed, manufactured and marketed many toys with eastern elements. As can be seen, the power of consumption and culture in Asia should not be underestimated, and Disney is actively investing in it. As such, Lo Yu-Fen realized during the testing and design process that in order to have brand value, the three elements of the factory process, eastern cultural conceptualizations, and marketing all had to be properly balanced, and the efficiency of the design quantification and exposure had to be maximized.

Based on this viewpoint, Director Lo took the initiative to express her appreciation to Disney for its willingness to award her the title. Nevertheless, she was even more determined to demonstrate her skills in this interesting and rare opportunity.

To convince Disney to give the product research team an opportunity to demonstrate its talents, Director Lo proposed a series of plans. She took the lead to combine the production resources of the local areas in and around Tainan City. They produced the Mickey TuTu Stool, which is embroidered with the Disney mascot in eastern design; the Mickey Vase, which has sci-fi and interactive vibes; and the collapsible Filter Cone, made with professional quality. Through these products, she first persuaded Disney of the design strengths of combining East and West. After one year of negotiations, Disney finally authorized the product research team with the special honor of becoming its first IP-licensed company in Asia.

Having obtained the IP licensing for merchandise production, the team seeks to realize new ideas on Asian custom furniture and the cross-border presentation of Mickey, concepts that first convinced the Disney executives. To this end, the team designed and produced the Mickey Lamp Set, which is a bamboo-weave and leather construction based on the Pin Collection. The team also collaborated with Wonder Nest brand to launch Mickey Home Ceramics, a designer selection series. Using the advantages of the Wonder Nest brand, which first began as a ceramics factory, the team launched many fun and practical daily products with Asian aesthetics and added Mickey values.

【Design Examples】

1. Mickey Tutu Stool｜Constructed in the form of three bamboo bolsters (in a hexagonal weave), the Mickey Tutu Stool resembles round and chubby short little legs dressed in a billowy tutu. The color of the stool is coordinated with the Disney embroidery on the seat cushion. The stool displays the unique exchange and sense of humor between oriental elements and the western IP image

2. Mickey Vase ｜The hollow vase is cut from a single piece of sheet metal. The spiral pattern of the structure can be flexed into a vase of varying depths. It can be used for plants that don’t require soil, such as air plants or dried flowers. The adorable Mickey expression amid the flowers and plants in this simple and interesting design adds a touch of joy.

3. Mickey Filter Cone｜With the cooperation of a local metal processing manufacturer in Tainan, an ordinary metal sheet is precision-cut into a spiral pattern. An accompanying balsa wood card with parts that can be detached and assembled is included to serve as a stand for the metal filter. The user can stretch the cone into a desired shape. The fun way of using the cone coupled with the Mickey element makes the cone an interactive product suitable for personal use or as a gift.

4. Mickey Lamp Set｜Lamps with both Asian elements and the colorful fun elements of both Mickey and Minnie Mouse are created the integration of woven bamboo, leather, wood and light fixtures.“Be ready to let go: Don’t let yourself do anything in vain; and even when it is, it must become your next opportunity.”

After nearly a long year of hard work, even when I didn’t know if I would get a special surety-exempt IP authorization opportunity like Director Lo, but I was determined to work hard. In the end, I did not labor in vain. I not only gained the opportunity to showcase my work, but also the chance to develop a business that integrates Asian cultural conceptualizations, factory processes, and marketing.

II. Wonder Nest Design x Shanghai Museum -- Mickey fun series

After Director Lo led the product design team to create the Wonder Nest series of Mickey products, Wonder Nest received an opportunity to collaborate with the Shanghai Museum and co-brand with Disney. With the Da Ke ding cauldron as the leading artifact and other artifacts in the representative collections of the Shanghai Museum and the Mickey IP authorization, the ancient casting patterns and modern cartoons are presented in a story segment format. Frames of Mickey span across the different eras of castings to create three ceramic products: insulated mugs, tea infuser mugs, and shaped plates.

With its strong and uncompromising combination of the museum’s features, Disney’s picture-perfect cultural heritage and illustrations, and the strong recommendation of Shanghai Disney, Wonder Nest’s drawing designs are extended to the Shanghai Museum’s other product series.

【Design Examples】

The Shanghai Museum is committed to promoting traditional Chinese culture and has a rich collection of ancient Chinese artifacts. The museum itself is designed around the theme of bronze wares - a representative artifact of Chinese culture.

Through the ancient patterns of the bronze castings, the story segments in modern cartoons, and the luxurious blend of black and gold colors, a fantasy of Mickey traveling through ancient times is depicted.

In addition to the ceramic products such as the insulated mugs, tea infuser mugs, and shaped plates that Wonder Nest collaborated on with the Shanghai Museum, we are fortunate to be able to use our original full-scale drawings as elements to further create backpacks, dolls, clothing, silk scarves, and other products for daily living.

Ⅲ. Product Design × Family Mart - Happy Mickey × Taiwan Food Trends

Even if co-branded with corporate gift designs, the product design industry in Taiwan has never caught up with the upsurge of points redemption promotional events. In the year that the product design team received the honor of Disney’s IP authorization, this seemingly “common” design commission gave us a ticket to success. For the first time, the product design team was invited to lend its talents to design gift products for convenience stores. In Taiwan, convenience stores are everywhere, and they are a unique Taiwanese wonder within the global consumer market. Hence for local convenience stores in Taiwan, there is no reason not to incorporate the features of Taiwan into the Mickey collection.

Integrating the color combination of the Ka-tsì-á, a traditional and eco-friendly Taiwanese tote bag that has recently become trendy, and its distinctive weave with the image of Mickey, the team designed shopping bags, cutlery sets, and thermoses. This time, the fork and chopsticks set - CUCKOO’s most representative product - also joined the ranks, and the adorable Mickey pouch completes this tableware set series. The Taiwan food trend design doesn’t just encompass the brightly-colored elements of the Ka-tsì-á. Since night market culture is also quite representative of Taiwan, the insulated ceramic mug also has images of night market food depicted in neon outlines. Against the dark color of the mug, the images look dazzling, and the design also incorporates a beautiful etched portrayal of night market culture.

【Design example】

In addition to the integration of Ka-tsì-á, a Taiwanese trend based on environmental protection as the design inspiration, and Disney, all the products  complement one another. 

Using a color and splicing method with the Ka-tsì-á, the Mickey character is reproduced and printed onto the eco bag. It is a Taiwanese fashion trend available to everyone. The bag is easy to tote around and can hold eco-friendly items such as reusable tableware such as the Mickey Ka-tsì-á and the Mickey design wooden fork and chopsticks set.

Besides the tote bag and cutlery, the depiction of Taiwan’s food culture can be better expressed through the rich and comprehensive form of night markets. Through design transformation, the exciting neon elements depicting the diversity of Taiwan’s snacks and the colorful liveliness of the night market are illustrated on the to-go cup. 

TIPS: Become the new favorite of international brands – the trilogy of embracing the local and looking out towards the world.

1. Accumulate local resources. The levels of resources include the design team, cultural resource integration, craftsmanship heritage, processing and manufacturing production lines, topic formulation and exposure, and experience with marketing promotion. The strategies cover a complete scope from design to operation.

2. Deeply rooted in Taiwan, striding into the world. The uniqueness and irreplaceability of Taiwanese design multiplied by local resources make it possible to expand into international exhibitions and project management.