At 2 pm on 31st July, Global Habitat System(GHS)’s sharing session exclusively sponsored by AXENT Switzerland was held as scheduled.
Three distinguished guests gathered in Beijing to discuss the mystery of design and the wisdom of life with over 500 designers present.
Part 1
Cooperating Design and Sharing Wisdom
As the rising star of bathroom industry in recent years, AXENT has been favored by many designers with its unique and perfect design. What makes AXENT special? And what design idea AXENT is adhering to? In the opening session, as the representative of AXENT Group, Dr. Yimin Fang explained the wisdom of AXENT.
Dr. Yimin Fang, the vice president and technical director of AXENT Group pointed out that: “In the pursuit of the dream bathroom, AXENT not only focuses on the technology, but also adheres to a unique philosophy: Every resource can be transformed into a perfect experience as smart as possible. Our slogan “wisdom for life” highly summarizes this concept.
What we value most is not the product you touch, but the inspiration in every drop of water, every gram of material and every inch of space in the bathroom.
In order to maximize the energy of every drop of water in toilets, we invented the world’s most water-saving A.S.T technology, saving over 2L water per flush.
In addition, instead of using electric pump like other sanitary brands we creatively combined the principle of hydrodynamics and toilet flushing, and invented the globally unique non-electric-driven and tankless flushing technology to save ceramic and space wasted by the ugly toilet tank.
Part 2
DO WE NEED ANOTHER CHAIR？
Hans Maier-Aichen – designer and professor for products design held that “Designing chairs is an important challenge for every designer. But don’t we have enough chairs yet? If so, what a proper and innovative chair would be like?”
Proceeding from the chair – the most common furniture in our daily life, Mr. Hans showed us many possibilities during designing products, sharing his opinion from the perspectives of material, craftsmanship, innovation, imitation, overproduction and environmental protection.
“Less but better” is the basic principle for product design. If we adhere to this principle when designing products, we will be able to create highly recognizable works and take care of many dimensions, such as material, ecology, sustainability and innovation.
As responsible designers, we need to use scientific research results to better convey our design ideas. We should have a designer’s attitude and respect the unique culture of this industry.”
Part3
DO WE NEED ANOTHER TOILET?
Nicole Roesler – internationally well-known brand expert pointed out that “90% of all new products flop, 84 % of all promotions cost more than they generate, and 64% of all advertising goes totally unnoticed.”
How can we build a successful brand in the era of overadvertising, overproduction and overbranding? How to create brand value? Nicole Roesler shared the core elements of brand construction to the audience.
First, escaping the sea of sameness.
Second, creating a cutting edge, authentic brand positioning.
Third, giving soul to the brand.
Fourth, creating emotional value. What’s more, we should also create a unique and desirable lifestyle, customers not only buy products, but also a kind of life experience… Every employee should be turned into a brand ambassador, and everyone should understand and identify with company’s philosophy and be willing to make efforts for it.
Finally, don‘t only respond to new trends, set them. In fact, whether a young company or a long-standing one can revolutionize the whole industry. And even a young company that has just been established for ten years can make great accomplishments and revolutionize the whole industry.
Part 4
Drinking Water
Mr. Jianguo Liang – internationally renowned interior designer and the executive director of the Art Display & Decoration Committee of China(ADCC), took “drinking water” as a metaphor of common heart to tell us not to be afraid of failure, but to treat it as normal as drinking water.
“We fail because we have ambition, too much ambition leads us to lose easily. I’m talking about it because I want to share with you all that: Be a diligent and hard-working person, to do things better.”
Mr. Liang introduced some of his interior design works in recent years. His design was not only aesthetically striking featuring Chinese characteristics, but also considered deeply the emotional needs of contemporary people, showing a combination of tradition and modern, as well as a balance of aesthetics and practicability.
“Actually, the key of design is combination. I once designed an ice house, and the essence of this project is combination. To turn the ice house into a coffee shop, I want to meet the needs of contemporary people instead of just making simple change. The steel plate at the entrance is 5cm thick, and we have spent a year for it. The whole space will be completely changed and has no sense of modernity without it.
Sometimes we can get different results from simple things if we can insist on doing things from different aspects.
It is a great joy to be a designer, we can learn a lot. I benefited enormously today, Hans mentioned many outstanding designers, who contributed a lot to the design. There are many connotations in seemingly simple works. We must keep pace with the times, constantly renew our knowledge, only in this way can we be good designers.”
Part5
Ideas Exchanging and Q&A
From the thinking of product design, the mystery of brand construction to the wonderful interior design works, the sharing of three guests from different angles enlightened the designers. In the final Q&A session, they put forward their views and doubts in succession.
1. Hans Maier-Aichen, what do you think these well-designed chairs can bring to our lives?
Hans Maier-Aichen: I tried not to show you the practical chairs that can be used directly in life, but to show some chairs that have a sense of impact and can inspire people to design. All the chairs I showed you can inspire you to design chairs in a variety of ways. Some chairs were quite romantic, such design will give you some challenges, and enlighten you to have different design ideas.
2. There aremany wonderful projects in Mr. Liang’s presentation. However, in some fourth and fifth class cities like Chifeng, designers often encounter some communication problems affecting the projects’ result and design thought. In this respect, can Mr. Liang give some advice to the young designers present in this room?
Jianguo Liang: In fact, I think the biggest change in these years is that the gap between the first-tier cities and the second and third class cities narrowed. Don’t belittle your customers and don’t think that the design is not valued in those cities. The reason why your customers do not agree with your plans is that you are not confident enough and you do not make good design.
On the other hand, you won’t change until you meet with setback. This three-hour sharing may be helpless for you because you didn’t have similar experience. What I want to say is that don’t be afraid of getting refused. You will change yourself after meeting difficulties, because no one is born to be a designer.
3. As abrand ambassador for many brands, what do you think is more important for designers, personal branding or personal ability? How do you solve the problem if the two contradict to each other?
Nicole Roesler: I think both of them are important, your personality represents the tone of the brand, and it is also a way of brand demonstration. In a word, you need to achieve a balance between them.
4. In the future, will the home decoration design be further subdivided? For example, designers are designing everythingnow, will they be subdivided into products’ designers, kitchens’ designers, bathrooms’ designers and so on?
Jianguo Liang: Yes, in fact, the subdivision has always existed. But it is also depended on industrial chain, it is realizable if some good enterprises can set a new precedent. And the finer the division is, the greater benefit we can get.
Hans Maier-Aichen: I want to add that I have always been concentrating on design in my country and in Europe, and I think we should have some specialities. But for young people, they should focus on learning more knowledge instead of making more money.
However, good time is always short-lived, the rare design seminar soon came to an end. The passion for design, the pursuit of innovation and the yearning for wisdom prompted AXENT Switzerland to gather together with international design elites, and to bring a design feast for more design lovers.
We look forward to the emergence of brighter stars in the design community and the emergence of outstanding design works to better improve the quality of people’s life, and to give users more spiritual enlightenment through innovation besides practicality and comfort.