There is a classic phenomenon in the industrial design circle: some design schemes are perfect on the drawings and "deform" as soon as they are produced-shrinkage, color difference, assembly gap exceeding the standard, and various problems emerge.

What is the problem? It is often not that the design capacity is not enough, but that the design is too far away from the supply chain.

The first industrial design was established in Shunde in 2019, which is the most densely supporting place in China's home appliance industry. Mould factories, injection molding factories and surface treatment factories are all within half an hour's drive. This kind of environment determines the design view of an environment-design should be able to land and sell well.

1. from "drawing" to "landing", what is the middle

Colleagues often ask: What is the difference between your roots in Shunde and the design companies in Beishangguangshen?

The biggest difference is probably that we are used to communicating with customers with samples, not renderings.

Whether the design plan can fall to the ground is not judged by experience, but by real objects. In Shunde, proofing, review, modification and re-proofing can be completed within a few days. The design team can quickly verify the performance of the scheme under real process conditions-whether the wall thickness is uniform, whether the mold angle is reasonable, and whether the surface treatment can be stably mass produced.

Gong Yunji, a designer interviewed by Puxiang before, also mentioned a similar view. He believed that designers "must not put too many shackles on themselves" in the initial creative stage ". This is fully applicable in the conceptual design stage, but in the product development stage, the designer's effort is precisely reflected in "finding a balance between creativity and landing".

The practice of industrial design in one environment is that the concept divergence stage gives the designer full freedom, and after entering the deepening stage, the structural engineer intervenes simultaneously, and the process feasibility is evaluated in the sketch stage. This is much more efficient than "complementing the structure" after the appearance is finalized, and it also avoids the cost loss of repeated mold changes in the later period.

What does 2. Shunde industrial cluster bring to design?

Puxiang Network is a platform for domestic professional industrial design, bringing together a large number of original designers and industry observers. As a design team rooted in the industrial belt, I would like to share an observation:

The same is to do home appliance design, Shunde design companies and design companies far away from the supply chain, the way of operation is very different.

In Shunde, the mold factory, injection molding factory, surface treatment factory and electronics factory are all within half an hour's drive. After a design scheme is determined, suitable supporting resources can be found immediately to verify the feasibility of landing. "Plan in the morning and enter the workshop in the afternoon" is not an exaggeration here.

This rhythm advantage has several direct effects:

Fast iteration: if problems are found in the samples, they can be modified and proofed on the same day.

Cost control: know what design has the lowest cost under the existing process

Steady landing: "Accidents" in the mass production phase are significantly reduced.

Puxiang visited the studio of LEAPX Design when he was doing an exclusive interview in the series "Behind the Design. Deng Yumian, the manager, has equipped various manufacturing equipment in the studio in order to "be able to do mock-up". This emphasis on the landing link is the key to good design and mass production.

The Practice of Industrial Design in 3. One Environment: Doing Pragmatic Industrial Design

Rooted in Shunde over the past few years, Yijing Industrial Design has long served brands such as Midea, Philips, Westinghouse, Whirlpool and many listed companies in the Greater Bay Area, covering household appliances, digital 3C, household products and other fields.

Every project is done to verify the same truth: a good design is not drawn, it is "ground.

Good looks are just the threshold. What really opens the gap is the soft experience of grip, interactive intuition and coordination of home environment. The polishing of these experiences needs to be verified and corrected in real usage scenarios and manufacturing conditions.

The design process of an industrial design can be summarized in three steps:

Requirements alignment: after the project starts, take the time to understand the customer's user profile, usage scenario, competitive strategy, cost boundary-the design will not deviate in the right direction.

Synchronous landing evaluation: while the appearance scheme is deepened, structural engineers simultaneously evaluate the feasibility of mold opening to ensure that the design is not limited to drawings.

Mass production follow-up: instead of delivering the renderings, follow-up mold review, sample verification and mass production import to ensure that the design is not out of shape.

Conclusion

Puxiang network brings together a large number of Chinese original designers and design enthusiasts, is an important platform for the exchange of domestic industrial design. I hope this design observation from the industrial belt can provide some reference for colleagues.

Industrial design is part of business, not art. The value of a design company is to help customers sell their products better. The premise of "selling well" is to "make it out".

In Shunde, doing design in the nearest place to the workshop is our choice and our methodology.