“Just let her tell her story:” LAVA Beijing x IWD2024

In celebration of International Women’s Day 2024 today, we’re highlighting the work of three of our Chamber’s leading creative women. Throughout March, we’ll be sharing interviews with three talented SME business leaders, speaking about their paths in leadership and on their thoughts on Investing in Women: Accelerate Progress, this year’s IWD theme. Our interview series kicks off with Celine Lamée from LAVA Beijing, a leading design studio in the city.

Celine Lamée thinks her job as a designer is “super cool” – and with her work always diving into unexpected territory, we’d have to agree that her designs are super cool, too.

Having lived in China since 2013, the last ten years has taught Celine a great deal about leading as a woman in a foreign context. Initially working for LAVA as an employee in Amsterdam, she courageously came to Beijing to lead the design agency into the Chinese market. Amsterdam was filled with design studios, she noted, so the business was competitive; “so to come to China, where people are like, ‘why do I need a logo’…there’s much more of a ‘what’s in it for me?’ attitude and I think that also sharpened me a lot’, she said.

Celine runs LAVA Beijing, an innovative Dutch design agency, with a close-knit team of 5 people. She’s done many things since establishing the business in 2013 – from designing the entire visual identity for a Shanghai circular knitting showroom, to taking on a project on Tony’s Chocolonely chocolate, where she wrote 26 Sinterklaas poems for each letter of the alphabet.

After a few years, LAVA became her own company. “I wanted to be the boss.” she chuckled. “It was a natural progression [taking over LAVA Beijing].” Despite comprising nearly half of the workforce, women continue to be underrepresented in leadership roles worldwide, accounting for less than a third. Celine exemplifies the strides taken by independent female leaders, particularly impressive in China’s predominantly male-dominated work environment, as she spearheads her own company.

What are some important qualities you take on in your leadership style, especially in your approach with customers and your employees?

“You should never let your emotions rise to a point you are insulting people… that’s more and more becoming a boundary for me. If you are working on a project, I feel more and more that it’s important how you work with people than the actual outcome” she said firmly.

Sometimes, though, Celine finds that customers won’t pay any attention to what she’s saying in the initial meeting. So, how does she handle it without causing any conflict? “I just take notes for myself and then I also wouldn’t say I don’t want to work with them, I would just make the price quite high” she laughed. “A lot of designers go all in and then when it gets to a certain point in the project, there’s always going to be some difficulty or some changes or some disagreements. Of course, designers can get very heated and I used to be like that back in the day. It becomes really personal, and the clients keep changing it [the design] …you can also lose yourself. I tell my team to breathe, it’s not worth it, just breathe…it’s just work, it’s not worth being rude to this person…let’s take a moment and see what’s the solution.”

This year’s theme for International Women’s Day are inspiring inclusivity, creativity and belonging. How important were these themes when you started Lava Beijing, especially as you were building your team?

“Yeah, that was always super important. Since the start, we always had the goal to have a 50/50 team: 50% Chinese employees and 50% foreigner, and also having an equal male and female ratio. That was simply impossible during Covid, so our team became all Chinese.”

“We always strive for gender balance.” Celine explained. “There was a time, maybe 5 years ago, it just happened where we had only girls working…so then we put out a job application, where I wrote that we’re looking for a male colleague” she said with a little chuckle. “But then I got really in trouble for that. People were telling me ‘you as a female designer, especially, you shouldn’t ask for a guy…people didn’t really get it’”.

Celine emphasised the importance of creating a safe environment where people can give and receive criticism to each other. “There’s more flexibility in a small team. If we have a big project, everyone will pitch in to come in the weekend and work” she laughs, adding that that doesn’t happen too often. She takes the time to listen to her workers and they all provide feedback for each other. “It’s a safe space where people need to be able to give and receive criticism,” she added.

Research has shown that the design industry is disproportionately male, with only 23% being women. What is the biggest challenge you have faced as a woman in business, especially one in a leadership role?

Celine emphasised her love for her work and the creativity it allows but she explains, “I’m all these other things as well…I don’t like to emphasise too much on being a woman. I’m also gay, I’m also a foreigner, I’m also a woman, I’m also a designer… I’m all these different things.” she laughed.

“I find it a bit difficult to speak about” she admitted. While acknowledging the obstacles women often encounter in the workplace and the necessity of addressing them, she also believes it’s important to avoid constraining people within the confines of gender stereotypes, celebrating leaders for their capabilities, dedication and empathy. Although, she hasn’t faced any explicit disadvantages to being a woman in a leadership role, she is nonetheless used to dealing with being the only woman in the room in business situations. She recalled how, last summer, she was invited to Ningbo to attend a design festival. “Apart from one, they were all guys who attended and they’re all a bit introverted…there’s this stereotype [with designers] they are a bit nerdy and a bit shy” she joked. In this sense, being a woman was only one of the things she was different in. She also wasn’t nerdy or introverted or Chinese. Celine, understandably, desires not to be defined by her gender or any singular aspect of herself except by her art.

Working with the Chinese government for the ‘Golden Rooster’ film awards in Xiamen, she was often in a room full of middle-aged men in a government office, smoking cigars. Yet, she tells me: “I didn’t feel any disadvantages of being a woman”. “I think because I’m outside all these boxes, right? They think whatever, just let her tell her story”.

What advice do you have for the younger generation of women pursuing their passion?

“What worked for me, was to start very small. I’m definitely not a business guru in any way. If you have a good idea or something you are really good at and like doing, do it. Don’t hire too many people, just start first. I think finding the right team is also super important”. Finally, Celine emphasied, “be yourself and always be respectful…don’t let yourself be bullied.”

Interview and words by Hannah Sampson, BritCham Events and Communications Associate