How can design break all the walls and pursue freedom and why should it get rid of style and personality?
In the afternoon of November 16th, the “Design is not about style” sharing session given by Mr. Kun Dai, and sponsored by AXENT Switzerland was grandly held at Hilton Hotel in Haikou. The session of “breaks and creations” has presented unparalleled spiritual wealth to more than 600 designers present.
At the beginning, Mrs. Shu Wang, Executive Vice President and Secretary General of Hainan Decoration Association, and Mrs. Guanying Li, General Manager of AXENT dealer company in Haikou, addressed short speeches respectively and expressed their expectations and good wishes for the forum. “AXENT has made great efforts to realize one bathroom dream after another from establishment, development and the breakthrough to a new star in the bathroom industry.” Ms. Yuan Yuan, Marketing Manager of AXENT Group, introduced the Swiss sanitary brand to the designers present.
Breaks — Boundary of Freedom
For a brand, freedom means to be different
“Everyone yearns for freedom. To be free is one of the happiest state of life.” Mr. Frank Li, AXENT’s Chief Product Strategic Officer, resonated with the designers on the topic of freedom. “For a brand, freedom means to be different. Differentiation is rather a thinking mode and spiritual belief than a strategy. It comes from our dedication to listening, observing and understanding consumers. More importantly, it also represents a commitment of a good brand: we are really different, we know you, even more than you do!” Freedom is one of the beliefs and genes of AXENT. AXENT has been practicing its yearning for freedom with wisdom for ten years, such as “tankless technology breaking the rules”, “ONE.DIAL technology getting away from complex”, “bathtub getting rid of tap” and “XT-CABINET – smart bathroom cabinet integrating human wisdom”.
“Creations” – Design is not about Style
Design is to solve problems
Mr. Kun Dai shared his unique opinions on design based on his “sophisticated study of interior design” -Design is not about style. With the rapid development of China’s economy and real estate, modern buildings sprang up overnight. However, mass production of the high-rise buildings makes our houses, companies and cities no difference on the exterior shape and dazzling the interior design. Trend comes and goes in the design circle. Sometimes American style is in vogue, and sometimes French style or new Chinese style prevails. Faced with the follow-up design, we can’t help thinking: Do we finally solve the design problems learning these styles? Or are these styles just formats, and has design completely lost its ability to solve problems? Designing is just like assembling a car. It still has its own special and original orders even being broken up into several parts. When making designs, how should we orderly arrange all kinds of goods in our house? This is what we should care about, but most of the time, designers choose to ignore it.
Designing process is also the process of solving problems. The rest becomes extremely simple after the solution is made clear. The key is how to find and solve it. Only problem-solving design can be regarded as good design. How shall we make design when facing different requirements from different clients? Shall we insist on ourselves’ opinion or keep compromising? Shall we try to solve the problems or just ignore it? In fact, designing is a quite short process, thus we should take implementation as the foothold. In addition, we can present good design by setting up scenarios and constructing plots to achieve customers’ expectations. Only by creating unique experiences can designs surprise and attract customers. Mr. Kun Dai also stressed that designers were supposed to achieve the dreams on drawings rather than just create them. “We should make design that can be constructed. It is meaningless if we only create drawings with unlimited imagination.”
Future is Here – Design Forum
At the end, several distinguished guests gathered on the stage, shared their expectations and ideas about the future combining with their own experiences. Mr Kun Dai said that good design requires you to constantly understand new ideas and new lifestyles, continually realize others’ preferences instead of your owns. Mr. Frank Li held that AXENT Switzerland would develop toward internationalization, freedom, as well as wisdom and elites gathering. It aims at producing the best intelligent products, so that people can live a pleasant, comfortable and environmental friendly life. The senior designers from Hainan Interior Decoration Association talked about the future in the light of Hainan’s local conditions. They believed that Hainan is facing great opportunities and challenges. In the future, Hainan is deemed to be an open city with strong strength in science and technology, high degree of liberalization and comprehensive service.
