On leaving Hong Kong Design Institute after 19 years of educational service, Vivian Cheng founded “Vivian Design” in 2014 to provide consultancy services in design networking, event management, design research and promote her own art in Jewellery and Glass.
She started her design career by completing a BA in industrial design at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 1987. In the same year, she was awarded a special prize in the Young Designers of the Year Award hosted by the Federation of Hong Kong Industries. She began her career as a watch designer and later engaged in design of fashion accessories. She joined Lambda Industrial Limited as the head of the Product Design team and won the “Governor’s Award for Industry: Consumer Product Design” and the "Product Design Award in the Gift and House-wear Fair" in 1989.
She finished her Master’s degree in 1995 and joined the Vocational Training Council teaching product design. She developed the jewellery design course with this Design Institute, and later responsible for exploring and developing international link with design related organizations and design schools, arranging exchanges, special events, exhibitions, as well as managing industrial networking while she was the International Liaison Manager in Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI).
Vivian Cheng has been an active figure in the design hubs in Hong Kong. She was council member of the Chartered Society of Designers Hong Kong from 1990 till 2003 and member of the Hong Kong Designers Association. She was member of the Board of Directors of the Hong Kong Design Centre (HKDC), an organization supported by the Hong Kong SAR Government, from 2002 to 2004. She actively participated in organizing design conferences, workshops, exhibitions, hosted by the HKDC and HKDI.
She has also been a jury member for the following design awards:
2006 to 2017 -- Red-dot Design Award in Germany
2014 to 2017 -- Red-dot Concept Design Award in Singapore
2016 to 2017 -- China Good Design Award’ in Xiamen
2017 -- Canton Fair Award in Guangzhou
2015 -- Braun Prize in Germany
2015 – ‘Design for Taste’ for the Belgium Pavilion in Milan World Expo 2015
2015 -- Gold Pin Award’ in Taipei
2013 to 2014 -- Taipei International Design Award
2014 -- ADI Compasso D’Oro International Award in Milan
2014 -- Lotus Prize in Changsha
2013 -- La Cambre Design School adjudication in Brussels
2008 to 2010 -- The BIO 21 & BIO 22 in Slovenia
Vivian was invited as one of the speakers for the Wallonia Creative Week in Belgium in 2013. She has been panel member for various assessment panels for the government and NGOs, such as the Design-Business Collaboration Scheme (DBCS) under the Hong Kong SAR Government, Design Incubation Program for Design Centre, event committee for PMQ, etc.
Vivian was the board member of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid) (renamed as World Design Organization (WDO)) from 2013-15 and was re-elected again as a board member for the current 2015-2017 term.