In his spacious and sunlight-infused office, I for the first time met Yan Xiao-xia, the founder and chief designer of the Taurus Volantes Cultural Promotion Co., Ltd. A grand and glistening trophy upon a shelf reminded me of its owner’s outstanding achievement in the field of design. More remarkable, considering his vast accomplishments, is the fact that the boyish-looking Yan is only 28 years old.
I was already familiar with his works before this meeting, from my shopping at an i-MART named Fengguo Box Shop in Xidan, a well-known commercial area in downtown Beijing. The fair concentrates a myriad of boutiques selling a diverse range of creative products. Yan’s store occupies a high-profile place in the i-MART. Sold here are a variety of environment-friendly tableware, such as chopsticks and tablespoons.
“I’m an environmentalist,” Yan says. “As environmental degradation becomes more and more a global issue, more people are devoted to the undertaking of environmental protection. As a designer, I should assume responsibility of creating ‘green’ works. The reason why I started my company was because I wanted to do what I desired and what was meaningful, such as environmental protection and public welfare.”
In October 2007, Yan founded his own company, while already a famous designer, subsequent his graduation from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. He once worked with several design companies, and has garnered many awards for his work. The prize that Yan most coveted was given to him for his poster advocating the awareness of environmental protection. Before he started his business, Yan worked as a chief designer at a tableware company. The experience inspired him to take up business of environment-friendly tableware.
“It is difficult to make the conception of environmental protection into a part of daily life for ordinary people. Take myself as an example: Over the past decade I was accustomed to using disposable chopsticks. I found it difficult to change this habit when I tried to use environment-friendly chopsticks. I often recognized I took my own chopsticks after finishing dinner at restaurants. But I believe environmental protection could become a habit of daily life only if one persists in doing so.”
To implement the concept of environmental protection, at first Yan’s company focused on the development of environment-friendly chopsticks and pens. The environment-friendly chopsticks refer to portable chopsticks that are cleanable and can be used time after time. The environment-friendly pens are ball-point pen refills wrapped with outdated newspapers and packed with a layer of craft paper. Yan has designed many public welfare posters and published cartoon strips advocating environmental protection on the magazine Friends of Nature. He has also established cooperative relations with many domestic and foreign social organizations, including Friends of Nature, China Youth Climate Action Network and Morning Tears. His employees are very young, with an average age of 25. Ren Airong, a young designer at his company, is in agreement with Yan in the promotion of environmental awareness. Even when the company was at its lowest point, Ren did not think to quit.
Being a designer is absolutely different from running a company. Yan had a clear awareness of the challenges ahead when he decided to run a business. “I did not expect to make a lot of money doing something with social responsibility,” he said.
It wasn’t always easy. “We committed ourselves to the combination of ecological endeavors with commercial benefits,” he said. “However, how to survive in the market is the primary task of our company. In the first six months, our sales of environment-friendly products were so poor that we could not recover the costs. We even doubted whether we should stick to our ideals. Fortunately, we found a way out: To make up the loss of our environmental business with the money earned from commercial design assignments. How to make a rational financial plan is another challenge for me. I used to need not worry about the shortage of money. Before I started the company, I hadn’t thought it was so costly. Besides the high expenditure on office equipment, I had to pay a variety of taxes and fees. One day I found my bank account had only 400 yuan.”
“However, the hardest part for me was changing the way of thinking,” he added. “Over the seven years after my graduation, I habitually worked by myself. After I started my company, however, I found I couldn’t complete many jobs alone. I had to learn teamwork and how to lead a company.”
His company gradually realized a balance between expenditure and earning after a year’s struggle. And Yan is confident about the future. “I believe environmental protection will become trendy,” he said. “On June 1, 2008, China enacted an act to restrict the use of plastic bags. In the future more bans will be enacted to prevent environment-polluting behaviors. I hope our company will be competent for encouraging people to do something good through developing more environment-friendly products or organizing influential design competitions in respect of environmental protection.”
