Expert says Chinese manufacturers must focus on demand

Chinese manufacturers need to focus more on the demand side when designing products and be more innovative, an industry expert said at a recent forum.

"If China wants to establish its own industrial design system, it needs to start from the perspective of industry and service, and blaze an innovative road of China's industrial design," said Liu Guanzhong, a renowned professor of Tsinghua University, at the Youth Power Forum jointly held by the Organizing Committee of MEI in China and Nanjing University of Science and Technology (NUST).

Liu said designers should see the real needs of the world and define products in terms of these needs, rather than to stimulate desires. Designers need to change from imitating and following trends to cultural consciousness and self-confidence in design, so as to build a more harmonious, healthy and sustainable lifestyle for human society, and improve the quality of human life.

Speaking of the purpose of industrial design, Liu said that industrial design should serve China's development and create a more reasonable and healthy way of living. Any product must address the concerns of manufacturers, distributors and users, namely, business, society and people.

In July of this year, MEI in China teamed up with Transsion Holdings' "African music king" Boomplay to launch the "Youth Power 2022 Online Design Star Summer Camp". Students from NUST's School of Design, Art and Media collaborated with top artists and design teams to bring their creativity to the world's best-selling products. The products are now on sale at BoomMall.

Zhang Ying contributed to this story.