The name of Lee Chi-wing’s industrial design firm, Milk Design, tells you everything you need to know about his primary concern. “I want our designs to be closely connected to our living condition – just as milk is,” says the established product designer, who started the company in 1998. “We aim to address the basic needs of people, making natural and functional objects which facilitate daily living.” Having watched his father carving ivory since a very young age (both his father and grandfather were professional sculptors), Lee developed a strong interest in – as well as an acute sensitivity to – three-dimensional objects that would prove an integral part of his own career in lifestyle product design. An award-winning set of in-flight tableware for Cathay Pacific Airways, which transposes the semi-transparent rice patterns on traditional porcelain bowls on to the new plastic items, reveals Lee’s cultural origin through his simple design. “Sometimes I just thought it’d be great if I could actually use the products I designed,” says the designer, laughing.