THE COMPARISON BETWEEN EUROPE (POLAND) VS CHINA (CHENGDU) IN THE FIELD OF DESIGN AND THE POTENTIAL COLLABORATION ANALYSIS

Mavis, Chang HE
Chengdu International Art and Culture Centre, China hechang89@163.com

May 10th , 2019 Poznan, Poland

CONTENTS

Foreword: Long-lasting Friendship between Poland and China – “Rongou” railway.

PART 1 Design

  1. Design comes from? To satisfy the needs.
  2. Design conditions.
  3. The process of Design. Change-Creativity-Innovation-InternationalCollaborate Innovation-Idea-Copyright

PART 2 Classification of Design

  1. Architecture, Interior, Spatial & Environmental Design (European cities vsChengdu; Re-construction vs Park city)
  2. Grapgics, Visual Communication and Advertising Design (Example: MascotHangwan Culture)
  3. Products & Industrial Design (Industrial design, Intelligent design, ArtopGroup, Apply – Nathalie’s lantern)

PART 3 Forcasting the future vs the potential opportunities

I. II. III.

i.

ii. iii.

Industrial 4.0 – Globalization & Collaboration
EU- China’s biggest import partner
Opportunities shift to China – What kind of opportunities?

Education – foster young designers.
International Joint Design School;
Industrial design cooperation – recruiting the designers. Brand collaboration – “win-win” situation.

Foreword:

Long-lasting Friendship between Poland and China – “Rongou” railway.

„If you want to be rich, you must first build roads, ” says a Chinese proverb.

Six years ago, something phenomenal occurred in railway transport with the first cargo of goods leaving Chengdu, Sichuan province, on route to Lodz, Poland. The 10,000 km journey, which commenced in Chengdu, spanned Kazakhstan, Russia, and Belarus and ended in Lodz, Poland, was able to transport Chinese products into the hands of European consumers in under fourteen days. In return, European commercial products delivery back to Chengdu. In todays competitive business climate where ‘consumers want it now’, it was a milestone linking these two regions and broadening their trade opportunities.

Therefore, in order to strengthen the tie in between Poland and Chengdu, here we could make some efforts as in the field of Design.

PART 1 Design
I. Dedign comes from?

What design is?

Design can be a verb and a noun.

Design is a verb as well as a noun: it is a way of thinking and working that leads to the swift resolution of a challenge. Designers embedded within multidisciplinary teams can help lead a process and solutions, that is fundamentally different from the ways in which social scientists, MBAs, or government policy makers are encouraged to work.

As a verb, “Design” is the intentional creation of a plan or specification for the 3

construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process.

As a noun, “Design” can refer to such a plan or specification or to the created object and features of it such as aesthetic, functional, economic or socio-political.

II. Design conditions:

The environment affects the designer’s subjective vision.

Designer’s angle playing a core role in the whole proceesing, their subjective views foster contrast results. Besides, the historical background, living enviornment, political policies will influencing designers so much. Usually they are objective fact-based, and not able to change smoothly. For example, the produce of the history instructing what we can obtain from a certain area. Such as the paintings’ theme: religion (宗教) vs Shanshui (山水画); In most of the Western paintings especailly in the middle century, the painters more concern about the Saint family, the Christian stories, by contrast, Chinese artists more favor the mountains and river.

III. The process of Design.

Figure 1. The process of design

Change-Creativity-Innovation-International Collaboration-Idea-Copyright

page4image60496592

The oldest Chinese divination text I Ching as well known as Book of Changes states, “change makes path leads to longevity”. When you realize that you need to make a change that the source of design comes out.

Design is always evolving but no longer limited to the aesthetics and functionality. It is how innovation is delivered to users, how it maximizes the competitive edge of resources within the society, and overcomes challenges such as ageing population and global warming as the world develops. Design will be one of the most important and effective means to generate value to the economy, to reflect and discover culture, to promote equality and independence, to achieve sustainability, to enhance the wellbeing of the society, and to create a better world.

Further more, we will conquer by promoting “re-industrialization”, solid collaboration among the industrial and business communities, creative industries and higher education, to create added values for results to be applied in the further development of industrial and business filed.

When creative people come together with the demand from the market, the brainstroming leading the ideascopyright resulted.

PART 2 Classification of Design

I. Architecture, Interior, Spatial & Environmental Design (Re-construction, European cities vs Chengdu; Park city)

Design has been increasingly adopted by governments of developed countries and cities of the national level to enhance the efficiency in policy-making and implementation, although Chengdu is only a capital city in west China, she is catching up this instruction to strengthen the circumstance itself.

In regards of environmental design, post-industrial problem, leisure space 5

shortage, balances the needs of both residential and commercial development, and also application of sustainable and ecological design principles.

Figure 2. Chengdu – Park city. (Photo curtsey UPDIS)

According to the China Daily, Chengdu was selected to be one of the cities for case studies, because of its experience and achievements of building itself to be a park city, to create a better outdoor environment for the local citizens. Building park cities can solve two major challenges facing cities in developing countries. That is, how to balance industrial development and environmental protection, and how to balance rapid urbanization and improvement of urban residents’ living standards. Chengdu’s experience is good for other cities along the Belt and Road to learn and refer to.

II. Grapgics, Visual Communication and Advertising Design (Mascot Hangwan Culture)

The electronic products and computer peripherals have become a big hit and an inevitable trend since the rise of modern gadget culture. The graphic stories/products embody the mix of local history, culture and aesthetics, which is our Chengdu very origin.

page6image60425856
page7image60425232

Figure 3. Chengdu graphical design collaborated with European artists (Curtsey Hangwan)

Art and philosophy noble, she brings „Naive art” to „Land of abundance (Chengdu)”.

The CEO of Hangwan Culture named Fang, she obtained two master degrees in France, Museology and Arts Management. When she was field visiting museums in Europe, she saw a lot of kids, adolescent staring at the famous paintings, she was so touched, meanwhile, she felt deeply regret that our kids do not have such chances to appreciating these master pieces in person, thus, after graduated, she launched her company in Chengdu with the registered copyright “Art naïf”, the ambition of Hangwan culture is spreading the Western prestigious artworks to Eastern, to be a bridge in between East and West.

In order to grasp the fatal point of the local culture, she discovered the local museums with her team, they visited the local museums and galleries one by one. Therefore, she understood the Tianfu culture, it is not just the hometown of panda but also the prehistoric townsite of Baodun culture, the heritage site of Sanxingdui culture. Therefore, to combine with the European study and the local “Shu” (Chengdu) culture, she launched the Comics – “Dali Telling the Arts”.

When culture and creativity merged, a diversely forward-looking and impressive scene would be created, where humans are guided towards reflection on and

anticipation of civilized development. III. Products & Industrial Design Example: Artop Group

Artop Group Providing clients with high-end comprehensive design solutions with integrative planning including product planning, creative design, R& D, manufacturing, purchasing& logistics, cost control, quality control and brand marketing etc.

Artop is a service-type group provides customers the high-end comprehensive design solution with integrated planning in product planning, creative design, research development, manufacturing, purchasing and logistics, cost control, quality control, brand marketing etc., and innovates in service systems in products, interaction and environmental industry etc., creating a new generation development project that serves social production and local ecology through constructing valuable interactive service/knowledge and network.

Artop owns more than 1000 employees working in design, scientific research, engineering, manufacturing, marketing, branding based on the whole industry design innovation service, with 31 subsidiaries and branches distributed in 12 cities of China, providing service for more than 2000 top brands both at home and abroad in different industries.

The world of design is changing rapidly and in a very promising direction. Designers are no longer the cherries on the cake, but they take the lead in innovation the develop visions and the strategic directions, interventions that increasingly have the aim to have impact on people’s everyday lives and society at large. This new, strategic role is something designers and entrepreneurs need to get used to. They both need to discover the tremendous opportunities that may arise from design-driven innovation. If they both find the patience and

courage to act upon this new role, it may change the world profoundly – and yes, for the better.

It is difficult for design trends and consumer sentiment to compromise. Yet, it is the strength of Europe to create local cultural trends and support them with stories. Brand philosophy and story are important; Design is executed purely according to their clients’ ideas and repackaged by local buyers. Marketing is still client-oriented, whereas design is determined by the client’s marketing trends. We have not been able to revert this relationship of marketing trends. To create a genuine market trend and have its support for design is never easy.

What we have already done?

Redesign with local intangible heritages.
Redesign –> Belgium Lighting Expert + Chengdu Intangible Heritage

Nathalie Dewez, the Belgium Lighting Expert. Following her graduation in 2001 from the Interior Architecture department of the Ecole nationale des Arts Visuels de la Cambre in Brussels, Nathalie Dewez quickly found her way in Lighting Design. The main medium of Nathalie’s works is light and whose materials vary between metal, glass and other long-lasting medium. Whether designing light fixtures, objects, furnishings or large-scale sculptures. Her designs reveal her passion for sculptural shapes and superior craftsmanship.

Base on the co-exist understanding with Nathalie, our Center introduced her to visit the Daoming Town which is an Intangible Heritage Site located at the west of Chengdu, this small town producing Bamboo lanterns.

Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) encompasses oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, and knowledge and skills surrounding traditional crafts. It is culture rooted in community, passed down from generation to generation and adapted to remain relevant in today’s society.

After visited the site, Nathalie’s studio worked out with the completely new design of the bamboo lanterns. She got the inspiration from the Ozeki paper lanterns found the lamps is retractable and become flat pack, cheap and easy to carry in a flat box, so she made this below work.

Figure 4. Lantern model by Nathalie Dewez PART 3 Forcasting the future vs the potential opportunities

I. Globalization 4.0 – The International Collaboration

We’ve all heard of industry 4.0 now, but what is globalization 4.0?

The World Economic Forum says we are moving into a new phase of globalization and that, „Globalization and technology are intimately intertwined. The movement of people, goods and ideas is accelerated and broadened by new forms of transport and communication. And technological development is, in turn, enhanced by the diversity of ideas and the increased scale that comes from global reach.”

The spread of the Internet and the relatively low cost of digital technology mean that people lucky enough to have access to digital networks are becoming more global and more local at the same time. New industrial technologies – including

page10image60503456

3D printing, new forms of factory automation and machine learning – are rapidly enabling the mass personalization of products and local optimization of supply and demand. As a result, the maker movement and the sharing economy are both expanding rapidly.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is set to reshape economic power, scientific leadership, and the architecture of value chains as well as future forms of political organization. This has big impacts for how states relate to one another in the next phase of globalization.

Both the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Globalization 4.0 are opportunities to fix what went wrong in previous eras. And that starts with building a shared commitment to a shared future, based on those values which are truly cross-cultural: striving for the common good, safeguarding human dignity, and acting as stewards for future generations.

II. EU- China’s biggest import partner

Figure 5. European Union is China’s main import partner. (Source: Statista)

As we can see in the graph, European Union is the largest import partner of China in 2018, the import value of China reached 1,806.7 billion yuan.

page11image43528112
page12image60426896

i.

Figure 6. China vs EU: Population and High-tech exports

Besides, to compare with Asia or mainland China, or more specifically, the west region of China, European Creativity and Art pioneering this field significantly. According to the World Bank, despite the approximately population of European Union has only 0.5 billion whereas China has the 1.3 billion, the high-technology exports of European Union and China was roughly 647 billion and 496 billion in year 2017, respectively. China’s population is 2.6 times than European Union, by contrast, the innovation exports of China was only 0.7 time of European Union.

III. Opportunities shift to China – What kind of opportinities?

This is the era of collaboration.

Education – foster young designers. International Joint Design School; Example: College of Chinese & ASEAN Arts.

Young designers would not possibly well following the market, some of the students they are not able to catch the diversified requriements in the market thus the organizations and companies could provide them the directions. A guide lead to the market and transfer the students’ works to a commercial product.

Young designers, are leaders to establish the future. While persisting to go after their dreams, at the same time they are also advancing the exploration

ii.

of new thinking. On the back of the strong market sensitivity of entrepreneurs, dreams will come true and human beings will enjoy a better future.

Design is an important stage of product development. Enterprises expect to launch beautiful products with low costs and unique functions. Therefore, the graduates must understand the economic benefits and social development, in addition to their design skills, in order to meet the demands on design talents in the market.

Industrial design cooperation – recruiting designers.

Rediscover and learn about local values and aesthetics of the craftsmen in each district, local intangible heritages, re-design.

It is a good try that Belgium designer Nathalie Dewez’s studio could make a collaboration with Chengdu’s bamboo lantern, the local intangible heritage. This is not just a new piece of product to be created but also the merge of the two different kinds of culture and we can expecting more.

Brand collaboration – “win-win stuation”.

Design can be apply into various walks of life, for example the Heartpanda Tea which is a new designed tea package Chengdu International Art and Culture Center worked with Sichuan Tea Group. For the tranditional industry they may have the large output of the materials, however, they may lack of sense of beauty teste, thus, here is the blue market for both parties who could make a collaboration.

An aesthetic design demands not only the appearance but also the ability to meet the users’ needs and express individuality. While the new generation is more daring in design, they do need the guidance of entrepreneurs who are more familiar with the end of the users, to lead them towards the right direction for

iii.

execution of their bold ideas. Therefore, the organization like Design Hub plays an important role in building a strong bond between young innovative designers and the industries.

It signifies a pioneering cross-generational business model enhancement that fosters exchange and achieves ambitions of design graduates, entrepreneurs and collaborators. Not only is the innovation burst of design talents witnessed and the effort of graduates recognised, the programme also encourages exchange of ideas and accelerates business matching, and most importantly, the crossover strengthens our design alliance and fuels the growth of the design industry.

Design will play a central role in resolving the major global challenges of the twenty-first century: rapid urbanisation; the effects of climate change; the quality of the experienced by ageing population. Design addresses these challenges by creating tangible outcomes – better products, services, cities and systems that enrich lives and minimise environmental damage.

Design is always evolving but no longer limited to the aesthetics and functionality. It is how innovation is delivered to users, how it maximises the competitive edge of resources within the society, and overcomes challenges such as ageing population and global warming as the world develops. Design will be one of the most important and effective means to generate value to the economy, to reflect and discover culture, to promote equality and independence, to achieve sustainability, to enhance the wellbeing of the society, and to create a better world!

-END-