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聆听瓷器的语言--专访瓷器生产商客来公司销售总监Andreas Kroll
(2008-01-05 22:56:02)
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聆听瓷器的语言
——专访欧洲最现代、最具创新的瓷器生产商之一客来公司
销售总监Andreas
Kroll
KAHLA, Porcelain for the
Senses
Dialogue with Andreas Kroll,
KAHLA Managing Director Sales
Interview:
Cherry Chinese Version: Clara
English Version: Sandy Photos: Looki
Venue: Renaissance Yangtze
Shanghai Hotel
Few Chinese don’t love
porcelain. We Chinese take it as a vital part of our everyday life.
However, has it ever occurred to you that you can grace your table
with a diversity range of porcelain works a cut above in design?
How will this ancient art-form evolve in the hands of German
artists? Germany-based KAHLA Porcelain is “one of Europe’s most
modern and innovative porcelain producers,” according to the
company’s major partner Günther Raithel. Combining diversified
modern designs and individual distinction, KAHLA porcelain products
will make your dream come true.
Andreas Kroll, KAHLA
Porcelain’s Managing Director Sales, can speak fluent German,
Italian, French and Spanish. He joined KAHLA ten years ago (in
1997) to meet the company’s urgent need for a sales administrator.
It was not long before he had adapted himself well to the post. In
addition to being a sales expert, Mr. Kroll also has an
appreciating eye for art. A designer of porcelain or desktop decor,
he suggests, should be thoughtful, aesthetics conscious and
susceptible to balance and beauty. Most importantly, a designer
should never miss any art fair from which he/she can draw
inspiration for developing products.
The interview began with Mr.
Kroll’s detailed description of KAHLA Porcelain. “One important
factor we’re deeply concerned about is that our products must be
‘new’. We also place heavy emphasis on ‘innovation’ and
‘functionality’. Only with impeccable combination of the three
can our products develop a bigger market, and we’ve been investing
big effort in this respect over the past decades. Previously I was
based in Germany. Now that I am appointed to overseeing our
business in Shanghai, I hope KAHLA’s inventive porcelain products
can add to the glamour and personality of Shanghai hotels, even if
we’re not able to supply them all. We plan to launch more
collections, including Diamond and Pearl, in the year to come. Our
technical team should master a complete set of techniques before
they can bring out these carefully designed and minutely crafted
porcelain pieces, be it mug or plate. Innovation is introduced so
that our products can take on a distinctive look which appeals to
customers.”
KAHLA Porcelain products fall
into three lines. First, hotel porcelain. The company supplies
cutting-edge porcelain ware to a long list of luxury hotels.
Second, retail porcelain. KAHLA retail counter in Qingdao of
China’s Shandong province attracted so many buyers that the
counter was out of stock in the first week. KAHLA porcelain is now
available in four other Chinese cities including Chengdu and Wuhan
as well as in Shanghai outlet, which is located on Changshou Road.
The third line, much to our delight, is called promotional
porcelain. This line comprises custom made products—a mug carved
with words or sentences, for instance—from KAHLA’s porcelain
range for promotional drives, usually per request of corporate or
individual clients. Promotional porcelain enjoys big flexibility.
For example, if a hotel wants to send out gift to its VIP guests
on, say, Chinese Lunar New Year, it will do nothing more than
giving the name list of the recipients to KAHLA, who will
accordingly engrave the names, using artistic fonts, on the
respective porcelain products. With fine quality and distinctive
design, KAHLA promotional porcelain exceeds the meaning of
“promotional” and is suitable for everyday use. An extensive
product range allows KAHLA to meet various demands. Thanks to
premium service like this, KAHLA Porcelain is able to stand out in
the market and remain there. Porcelain products are shaped, fired
and engraved in the same factory in Germany to ensure quality and
authenticity. Mr. Kroll shares, we Germans take porcelain as
something “reinvented”; to the Chinese people, however, porcelain
has a strong historic connotation. China’s porcelain culture is
rich and profound, and that is exactly why we call fine porcelain
ware “china”. It’s great fun to study Chinese porcelain culture,
I think.
KAHLA porcelain awakens in you
a joyful and refreshing feeling rather than nostalgia, even when
put in a business context. Its stylish design delivers a message of
boundless freedom which is beyond words. “The entire trade,
including KAHLA, is seeking to produce cutting-edge and
closer-to-life products. We develop what best suits you and best
conveys the spirit of our age,” Mr. Kroll says. This is the
so-called “KAHLA philosophy”, a philosophy of harmony and
balance. Combination of lines, shape and pattern is so harmonious
that they seem as if born to be there rather than being scrambled
in a hurry. You can always fit a piece of KAHLA porcelain into a
situation, wherever it is. KAHLA’s strength stems from the
company’s wealth of practical experience. “I get my best ideas in
the kitchen,” shares Barbara Schmidt, one of KAHLA’s leading
designers who has garnered several prizes. Her collaboration with
another designer, Cornelia Müller, has won the creative team two
international design awards. The fact that the concept of harmony
and balance is in their every design deserves praise. “Conveying
the same design feel, our products are interrelated with one
another as well as individual, offering a good opportunity for
hotels to grace different occasions with matching porcelain pieces.
It is the flexibility of our product range that enables hotels to
take on various looks,” adds Mr. Kroll.
Germans are best known for
their preciseness. On finding how precise and serious they can be
during the production of KAHLA porcelain, according to Mr. Kroll’s
description, the writer couldn’t help but feeling great respect
for them. “Customers ask for different colors, since color stands
for personality. Our products are closely related with food. As
soon as the designers complete 70% of the design work, they usually
bring the unfinished designs into the kitchen to see if the
porcelain and the food can make a good match. They often talk with
the cooks, consulting them for advice and suggestions before going
back to the factory for revision. Cooks will be consulted again
once 95% is completed and there is still room for further
improvement. A series of tests will be conducted, usually assisted
by the cooks. The first 95% is a piece of cake; however, the
quality, design, appearance and functionality of the product are
determined by nothing but the last 5 percent. It is in this key
part that we put in most of our design and production
efforts.”
KAHLA has breathed new life
into the ancient art-form that is porcelain, delighting our daily
life with countless fine works. Before embarking on a new design,
KAHLA artists will try to figure out what the product can bring to
the customers rather than design for design’s sake. KAHLA
porcelain does boast a few distinctive elements, but the company’s
real intention is to make products best for daily use, Mr. Kroll
points out. KAHLA has adopted a pragmatic attitude so that its
porcelain products can embrace both form and function, suitable for
everyday use rather than for decoration only.
In the face of the fierce
market competitions, Mr. Kroll says, one should know one’s own
strength, and be clear in mind what one is doing. We’re doing
multiple choices. We need to hear dissenting voices, voices which
can push us forward. Only on the basis of unfavorable comments can
we improve and perfect our products. KAHLA is not only a trend
follower, but a trendsetter. New collections expected in 2010 are
already in planning, foretelling the direction in which the company
is going to head. Till then, KAHLA porcelain will far exceeds food
ware and become the symbol of personality and
uniqueness.
It is passion that KAHLA
strives to deliver to consumers, a passion for life and for
porcelain. The delicate ware ornaments our kitchen and dinner
table, adding spice to our everyday life. “Fire porcelain from
clay is as incredible as smelting gold from straws,” as founder of
KAHLA Christian Eckardt puts it.
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