Front
I am not writing this article for anyone or company. It is purely to put forward one's own views on some of what one has seen and heard recently. Please forgive me for any offense. Welcome to discuss rationally, leave a message, and prohibit quarrels and abuse.

Recently, I read an article in my circle of friends. The content is probably that industrial design is not artistic design. Please treat industrial design as a pure rational science. There are tens of thousands of words in the text, citing many examples. For example, how the material, production process and mold of the product in turn determine the design concept and direction of the product itself. The core idea of the article is to tell people that art is irrelevant in industrial design, and structure, function, and materials are the top priority.

After reading the full text, I took a deep breath and filled my mind with the cheers of the masses when everyone sat around the black-and-white TV set in the 80 s and the TV picture lit up. First of all, I agree with the important position of materials, technology and mold in the field of industrial design. The deviation and uncertainty of any of these items will ultimately affect the product's quality control, expressiveness and functionality. However, in my opinion, these cannot be the decisive role of art and innovation in industrial design.

The survival philosophy of a product is essentially the same as that of a person. If the technological materials of the product are compared to IQ, and the artistic beauty and functional innovation of appearance are compared to EQ, a person with high IQ and EQ will be far less competitive in society than a person with mediocre IQ but high EQ. This must be recognized by everyone.

In fact, it would be more reasonable if the original text changed the "industrial design" in the title to "mechanical design. In the field of mechanical design, almost all designs should give top priority to the functional efficiency of the product itself. For example, jets, rotors, stars, etc. were produced during the evolution of the engine. These different types of engines are completely determined by their functions and data indicators to ultimately determine the appearance. They are not directly exposed to the user's field of vision when they are used, so in most cases the appearance is just a skin for this type of product, which is insignificant.

However, mechanical design only accounts for a small part of industrial design. It can even be said that industrial design and mechanical design in the traditional sense are basically two branches. I understand that industrial design refers more to designing daily necessities that people can directly contact through their senses in daily life.

Industry issues
Looking at the rise and fall of Shenzhen, the cradle of China's industrial design, and Yiwu, the international small commodity market, in the past 20 years. From the beginning of a large number of imitation of foreign products, relying on low-cost labor to quickly spread goods to occupy the market can easily earn a pot full. In the past few years, it encountered the problems of overcapacity, rising labor costs, and too many homogeneous products, which led to the rapid decline of the market, and a large amount of capital management difficulties. Recently, more and more aspiring capital has begun to flee these cities with high concentration and move closer to Beijing, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Shanghai and other cities.

On the shallow level, this reflects the development of a city. The over-intensive distribution of industrial agglomeration will inevitably lead to the rapid decline of the whole region. Since there is no geographical gap between each other, it is too simple for enterprises to obtain the desired resources. This will cause it to quickly lose its motivation to move forward and seek innovation. At a deeper level, this is actually because most companies invested their capital in the production and manufacturing departments that can be "simple and violent" instead of the "illusory" aesthetic and creative departments. If you look at what products abroad are successful, the whole production line and the whole production line will be moved back in this way. If you change it, you can sell it at home. Perhaps 10 years ago, this could work in an era of severe information asymmetry between consumers and producers. But nowadays, the vision of most consumers and producers is even higher than that of producers. A conservative, uncreative and old-fashioned product 10 years ago may not be of any interest to new Chinese consumers. They won't even take 1 second to understand the inside of this product, even if it has outstanding functions. People nowadays are more willing to stop at something that is extremely beautiful or never seen before. When they get closer, they will listen quietly and play with the secrets and secrets. After all, this is not a thing that goes against the human nature of loving beauty.

2/8 Theory of New Industrial Design
This is a new idea that may be immature recently, and proposing this theory may be questioned by many people in the industry. As mentioned above, with the continuous improvement of people's living standards and artistic appreciation ability, people's demand for a product is not only to meet the basic functions. In other words, it is good that a lamp can not be illuminated. "Illumination" itself has become the most basic value. However, it is more important whether it can dim and change light, whether the appearance symbol does not conform to the consumer's aesthetics, whether the style can be perfectly integrated into the use scene, and whether there are additional creative functions. Even in many cases, an everyday item will be given the function of an artwork or decoration. In my opinion, designers can sacrifice 20% functional indicators within the allowable range in exchange for 80% appearance and improvement of additional functions when designing products with strong malleability of functional boundaries. I have already experienced this kind of practice in many mature products at home and abroad. For example, Dyson's bladeless fan, Xiaomi's intelligent sweeping robot, etc. Today's users are keen on self-discovery and looking for additional functions and creative ideas embedded in products by designers. This process can give them a strong sense of substitution, while increasing the value of the product itself (even exceeding the preset value). But at the same time, it should also be noted that doing so may also have the opposite effect, leading to cumbersome functions and self-defeating. Therefore, how to skillfully and reasonably design products can well reflect the real level and differences of designers.

Talking about Individuals
As an independent designer, I often come into contact with Party A from all over the country. Nearly half of them come from Shenzhen and Guangzhou. During several visits and chats, I asked why they didn't find a designer nearby. After all, communication and visits are convenient, and there are many choices. They all gave me the answer that the local designer's design style was too strong. Of course, it is stated in advance that there are many very powerful, creative and thoughtful designers in Shenzhen and Guangzhou. Many of them are role models that I am learning now. But helpless to remove them, due to the centralized design education output, there are still a considerable number of industrial designers seem to be carved out of a mold. They lack artistic beauty, enthusiasm and attitude towards life. Think of designing products as a task, not enjoyment. For them, designing products should follow a similar logic and thinking mode, and pay great attention to what to do first and what to do later, as if everything must go according to an established script. In the end, the designed products are extremely similar and extremely lack of creativity.

This article is not intended to compare art and science. Any wise man should be able to understand that art is actually the window of science and science is the principle of art. The two complement each other and cannot be separated from each other. Just as creativity, aesthetics, materials, structure and function jointly support a product. Regardless of their proportion, it is certain that the absence of any of them is doomed to failure. As a designer or Party A. Keeping alertness at all times and maintaining a dynamic balance between conforming to the trend of the times and following the rational classics is the truth that will remain invincible for a long time.

Finally
It is suggested that you can look at some top foreign design websites such as Behance, LeManoosh, Yanko, Puxiang, etc. to wash your eyes and improve your aesthetics. And you can also send some works on it to see what global designers think of you. If your understanding is high enough, you should be able to experience the sobering feeling every time you look at it. Learn to expose yourself to the harshest competitive environment in the world instead of cowering and hiding at home. In this way, the design level and aesthetic level can naturally be improved after several more times.

To learn more about my thoughts and design works, please scan the code and pay attention to my WeChat public number "scratch your head". Thank you!