President's Column

Tradition meets modernity, design crosses nation

Have you ever wondered where did your car get manufactured?  Where did your sofa get designed?  Where is the maker of your computer, cell phone, or TV? To find the answers, you must understand that every product in your home is connected to the whole world. Even locally produced goods can be used by friends or business partners abroad. From a designer’s point of view, this phenomenon of global connectivity is self-confirming, because more enterprises are aiming to reach a global level instead of just one country, culture and region. Therefore, to establish a global design language is crucial.

This global design strategy is a successful fusion of tradition and modernity. I will take the excellent design works from Taiwan(China) as an example: I personally believe that Taiwan(China) is an open and free society, which is the cornerstone for the advanced designs and the reason why it can take a place in the global design field.

Taipei of Taiwan(China) has reinvented and improved its social, economic and cultural dimensions through design, and became the "design capital of the world" in 2016, which is a testament to the achievements of Taiwan(China) in design.

2016 Red Dot: Best of the Best winner "Saviore fire extinguisher"

Another Red Dot winner was the Drip, made almost entirely of aluminum, which has a neat shape that facilitates the process of coffee-making .Smooth lines and high-quality materials constitute its elegant shape, giving it a sculptural character.


The winner of Red Dot: Product Design 2017: "hand-made coffee-maker Drip"

"Micro Kitchen", the winner of the Red Dot award, reflects the coexistence of tradition and modernity, combining traditional ceramic pots with modern technology and simple appearance, and is tailored for the Asian market.

The winner of Red Dot: Product Design 2017:  "Micro Kitchen composite cuisine water-free pot"

Comparatively, the Zenbo is a new home design category. As a little housework helper, the most important feature is to provide positive experience for the users. The spherical body and lovely face design of the Zenbo successfully meet this requirement and are favored by users of all ages around the world. Zenbo's face is designed to display emotions such as happiness and sadness, breaking national boundaries with a global facial expression.


Winner of the Red Dot: Product Design awards in 2017: "domestic robot Zenbo"

High quality design can connect the world and be readily accepted regardless of social and cultural background of consumers. This is especially true for me when designers and manufacturers from all over the world come together at the annual Red Dot event in Essen, Germany. I'm looking forward to July, and I salute designers of the winning entries in 2017 who come from around the world.

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