Hong Kong Design Centre

Prof. Frankie Ng was admitted to the former Swire School of Design, the Hong Kong Polytechnic (currently the School of Design, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, PolyU) with only an F.5 qualification, which is the lowest acceptable academic qualification to be eligible for application. The dresses he designed for Mr. Eddie Lau while he was still a student at PolyU were already widely sold at Harrods department store in London and Galeries Lafayette department store in Paris. He graduated with a distinction, receiving a Higher Diploma in Design (Fashion), and his work was featured in the Design magazine of London. With only a higher diploma, he was admitted into the world-renowned Royal College of Art (RCA) in London - the world’s only wholly postgraduate university in art and design - directly for a 2-year master of design programme (MDesRCA) as the only foreign student in a class of 15 elite fashion students. He was the first fashion student to be admitted by the RCA directly from Hong Kong. In 2000, he completed practice-led doctoral research on fashion design at the RCA, London, with a straight pass with no revision required in a short period of 2 years and 6 months (full-time equivalent). One of the examiners commented that Prof. Ng’s thesis was “one of the best theses I have ever read.” He was the first person in the world to have earned a practice-led PhD in fashion design, the first in the history of the RCA (since 1837) and one of the first two Chinese to have earned a PhD from RCA. Such an unprecedented achievement was widely reported by the media. He was also the first design staff member of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University to complete a doctoral degree in fashion and textile design. In addition, Prof. Ng holds an executive master of business administration (EMBA) degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), whose programme had been ranked by Financial Times as the top EMBA programme in Asia for years and as one of the top 10 EMBA programmes in the world.

Prof. Ng had held various positions in the design industry, from designer to design director, before joining the former Hong Kong Polytechnic as a full-time staff member with aspirations to cultivate future design talent. His previous job in the industry, in which he was earning more than he was offered by PolyU, was as the chief designer for Mr. Dickson Poon (who opened the first Harvey Nichols store in Hong Kong), designing for French labels Pierre Balmain, Guy Laroche, and Charles Jordan. His academic duties at PolyU involved design tuition for BA, MA, MSc, and MBA students, as well as supervision of doctoral and postdoctoral students in fashion and textile design. As a design consultant, Prof. Ng’s practices encompass graphic, fashion, interior, product, and textile design, and he has won design awards in all of these areas. He led the fashion and textile design specialism at PolyU and was a member of its Advisory Committee and Management Committee. He represented the fashion and textile design area in the Research Committee, and was the first fashion and textile design staff member to be granted the most competitive external research fund in Hong Kong - the General Research Fund. In 2013, Prof. Ng was successful in bidding for yet another competitive external research scheme, the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme, and he was the only fashion design staff member to have received such an honour. In addition, he was the chairman of the Design Subject Committee and the Deputy Scheme Leader of the flagship full-time University Grants Council-funded BA (Hon) Scheme in Fashion and Textiles, under which there were six specialisms: 1) Fashion and Textile Design; 2) Fashion Retailing; 3) Fashion Marketing and Merchandising; 4) Fashion and Textile Technology; 5) Intimate Apparel Design and Technology; and 6) Knitwear Design with Technology. Prof. Ng constantly reshaped the curricula and spearheaded the scheme to have become the most preferred BA (Hon) programme among all BA (Hon) programmes offered at PolyU in both 2005/2006 and 2006/2007, which had been the only 2 years in the long history of the PolyU in which the BA (Hon) scheme in fashion and textiles achieved such popularity. Prof. Ng was the chairman of the Fashion and Textiles Resource Centre and head of management of PolyU's Fashion Design Studio (which he designed and received design awards for). He had been invited as adjunct professor and visiting professor of fashion and textile design at numerous universities in mainland China. Many stakeholders and leaders in academia and the fashion industry in mainland China were his postgraduate students, including scholars at Tsinghua University, the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, Donghua University, and Zhejiang Sci-Tech University. He is the design subject specialist for the Hong Kong Council of Academic Accreditation and Vocational Qualifications, founder of the fashion programme at HKU, and design advisor/guest curator at the Hong Kong Museum of Art and Hong Kong Heritage Museum. He has been involved in validating various academic programmes, including the 14 MFA/MA and BFA/BA programmes launched by the Savannah College of Art and Design in the United States, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong Design Institute, Vocational Training Council, Caritas Bianchi College of Careers, and Clothing Industry Training Authority. He is the only design staff member invited to sit on both the 3-3-4 Committee of Lifestyle and Technology and the Art and Design of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and his role shaped and mapped design education in Hong Kong.

Prof. Ng led a few design colleagues in designing the award-winning multimillion-dollar Fashion Design Studio for the PolyU's fashion design students and staff. Since its opening, the studio has received constant praise from staff, students, alumni, and industry leaders, and has won major interior design awards. Invited by the PolyU, Prof. Ng went on to design multimillion-dollar offices for PolyU's fashion and textiles faculty members.

Creative work by Prof. Ng were selected to showcase twice in the Hong Kong Creative Force display zone at the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) Inno Design Tech Expos in 2009 and 2010, which were held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The display zone featured approximately 50 highly selected award-winning projects from Hong Kong each year to represent the creativity of Hong Kong to international trades, and the general public.

Prof. Ng is a member of various professional associations. He was a fellow and the youngest past Hong Kong region chairman and adviser of the Chartered Society of Designers in the United Kingdom. He is fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in the United Kingdom (the youngest member at the time of election); fellow of the Textile Institute in the United Kingdom (thereby a chartered textile technologist); member of the International Textile and Apparel Association in the United States; founding director and life fellow of the Hong Kong Research Institution of Textile and Apparel; founding member of the Hong Kong Society in Arts; honourary secretary and executive committee member of the Hong Kong Designers Association, and founding vice president of the EMBA Alumni Association of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In 1999, he founded the Chinese RCAlumni Association, which has gathered ethnic Chinese graduates from the RCA since the early 1970s. In addition, Prof. Ng has received invitations for numerous honours and design awards encompassing fashion, textile, graphic, interior, and product design. He has been invited as adjudicator and guest of honour for various international design competitions and events, and has been the assessor of such design professional memberships as the Chartered Society of Designers and Hong Kong Designers Association (HKDA). He also drafted the Code of Professional Conduct for HKDA. He served as the honourary secretary and executive council member of HKDA for many years, during which he assisted in founding the present Hong Kong Design Centre. He is particularly active in consultancy projects in the fields of fashion, textile, graphic, and image design. Examples include textile print design for the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, nursing uniform design for the Hospital Authority of Hong Kong, and image training for the HKTDC and the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants. In 1993, he was appointed a United Nations Fashion Consultant through a worldwide recruitment programme. In 2008, Prof. Ng was invited to design the uniforms of the equestrian events of the Beijing Olympics 2008 held in Hong Kong.

Prof. Ng has published over 200 papers in peer-reviewed academic journals, trade journals, and international conference proceedings, held some 40 design exhibitions and shows, and has won many design and research awards. His works have been featured in various exhibitions, publications, and on television. He has served as a member of the Editorial Board of many international academic refereed journals, and he has been invited to peer-review highly rated SCI-indexed international journals and conference papers. Over the years, Prof. Ng has been invited for application for the head of programme: fashion of the Royal College of Art, London, director of the EMBA programme of London College of Fashion, Professor of Practice of the Aalto University, Finland, president and CEO of College of Fashion and Design, Dubai, and had been offered a full professorship in fashion cum directorship of research in fashion and textiles at Huddersfield University – 2012 University of the Year, UK.

Prof. Ng is listed in numerous professional directories, including the International Who’s Who of Professionals, Contemporary Who’s Who, the Who’s Who of Chinese Experts, the International Association of Business Leaders, and China’s Qualified Personnel Congratulatory Message for the Century. He was nominated as one of the eight most influential persons in fashion in Hong Kong. Other honors include the Man of the Millennium award.

Since 2008, Prof. Ng has been the warden of Lisheng Hall of the PolyU Student Halls of Residence. He is the chairman of the Hall Education Subcommittee and chairman of Interhall Sports Competitions. Under his leadership, his hall has won the Overall Champions of Interhall Sports Competitions consecutively since the Student Halls of Residence opened. His hall also won the Overall Champions of Interhall Cultural Competition, and his hall was the only one among nine halls to be overall champions in both sports and culture, which his hall achieved twice. In 2007, Lisheng Hall also produced the Most Outstanding Student of PolyU - an award that focuses on all-round education and achievement.

Prof. Ng’s interests include architecture and interior design, cars, contemporary art, movies, music, and sports. In soccer in particular, Prof. Ng has won the Golden Boot Award twice, the Golden Glove Award once, and his team has been the champion in the interuniversity soccer tournament three times and in the 2018 5-a-side President’s Cup Futsal Soccer Competition.

Currently, Prof. Ng is design consultant and chief executive officer of Broad Art Consultants.

Email: ProfFN8@gmail.com
Tel.: (+852) 68 293 293