Pinzaan Founder Aims to Bridge Gap Between Designers and Buyers

After only two years in the market, the Pinzaan Co. has impressed consumers with its stunningly creative and eco-friendly paper furniture. The company was founded by Vito Lin, who graduated from the College of Design of National Taiwan University of Science and Technology in 2004 and is anxious to market unique products developed by Taiwan's designers throughout the world.

"Industrial design was my major in the university," Lin recalls, "and during my school life I had a chance to see many wonderful designs and masterworks by campus talents. But those masterpieces, like the night-blooming cereus, appeared suddenly and then disappeared. That was really a pity, so I decided to set up a company to those creative items become known and marketable."

"Most designers know nothing about marketing because they are wrapped up in the world of design and cannot switch their minds to do other things, not to mention the fact that most of them are not familiar with marketing. Quite often, designers work day and night when they are trying to create something. This time-consuming design work exhausts most of their energy; so they need to find somebody suitable to help them commercialize their work."

To provide that "somebody," Lin decided to serve as a bridge between designers and buyers. "I saw the market for design-oriented products," he explains, "and felt that I had to do something to help local designers. Now I cooperate with several designers and help them market their products both at home and abroad."

"At the beginning I did have a problem of getting orders and finding the right manufacturer to turn out the products we needed. However, after having suffered some frustrations and learned some lessons, I finally found a plant that can generate the products we need and offer us acceptable conditions for cooperation."

Currently, Pinzaan promotes mainly paper-made seating furniture. "We have various kinds of creative chairs and sofas that are made of recycled paper or kraft paper," Lin comments. "These chairs are 100% eco-friendly and can be made in different sizes to meet the needs of consumers; for example, one of our chairs can be extended 7.2 meters-long enough to seat some 16 adults."

Chairs for Sitting and for Decoration

Under the "FlexibleLove" brand, the company's paper chairs have become a favorite with online shoppers. "We not only develop chairs that you can sit in, but also palm-sized miniature ones that can be used as decorations, toys, or objects for storing business cards, message slips, etc.," Lin reports. "The miniature chairs are quite popular among young consumers despite being priced at NT$600 (US$18.75 at NT$32:US$1) each. The uniqueness of our chairs enables us to set better prices, and to earn better profits as well. In the first year, we sold more than 5,000 of the miniature chairs."

Lin goes on to say, "It's not easy for a small company to survive, particularly in today's increasingly competitive world, and I deeply thank my parents for their full support of my venture in business. Being short of capital, we have to tightly control our budget-but we still spent nearly NT$1 million (US$31,250) to apply for patents for our products in the United States and Europe."

Today Pinzaan markets its products through a variety of channels, including the Internet, on-site exhibition, and advertisements in the print media. "We often participate in business-promotion activities to demonstrate our products," Lin notes. "Our products can also be found on the popular Youtube, and we've experienced pretty good sales. And they've been written up in several local newspapers and magazines."

In addition to selling on the domestic market, the company also exports its products, mainly to France and Spain. "Due to their relatively high prices, the volume of orders for our chairs is mostly small," Lin explains. "We usually ship two to three containers per month, but recently orders seem to be slowing down because of the global economic recession. Nevertheless, we are confident that we can weather today's gloomy business climate."

Lin hopes to help promote more of Taiwan's creative products in the world market in the future, and is planning to cooperate with more local designers and artists. "Taiwan has many good designers," he stresses, "and they are valuable resources to use in exploring the world's cultural and creative market. But I believe that artistic or uniquely designed products have to meet the market demand that they become practical; otherwise, they will remain objects for esthetic appreciation only." (Dec. 2008)