On June 17, 2021, under the guidance of the Industry and Information Technology Department of Hebei Province, hosted by the Industry and Information Technology Bureau of Tangshan, organized by Hebei Industrial Design Innovation Center, Tangshan Lingxin Industrial Design Innovation Center, and Tangshan Industrial Design Association, the 60th "Design Lecture Hall" and the event of industrial design entering the enterprise park were held in Tangshan.

On the morning of the 17th, the design lecture event with the theme of "Design Upgrading-Creative Tangshan" was held in Tangshan Lingxin Industrial Design Innovation Center. Wang Jie, chief engineer of Industry and Information Technology Bureau of Tangshan, Yan Shi, deputy director of Hebei Industrial Design Innovation Center, Xiang Junjie, director of Tangshan Lingxin Industrial Design Innovation Center, and nearly 50 people attended the event. The lecture hall was hosted by Xiang Junjie, director of Tangshan Lingxin Industrial Design Innovation Center. The event takes the form of offline presentations and sharing, online simultaneous live broadcast, and discusses current hot topics of design innovation and transformation with companies, introduces core issues faced by corporate development with design thinking, helps companies adjust development strategies, and accelerates the  integration of industrial design with local characteristic industries.

Wang Jie, chief engineer of Industry and Information Technology Bureau of Tangshan, gave a speech first. He said that since 2017, the Tangshan Municipal Party Committee and Government has attached great importance to the development of industrial design, and has successively issued a series of documents to create a good policy, investment and development environment for the development of the industrial design. The design lecture hall is of great significance to help Tangshan enterprises adjust their development strategies, promote the development of industrial design, and transform and upgrade Tangshan's characteristic industries. It is hoped that through this activity, enterprises can strengthen their understanding of industrial design concepts, comprehensively improve their industrial design capabilities and levels, and empower the transformation and development of the industry.

Sharing experience   Promoting transformation through design

In order to better promote the development of industrial design in Tangshan, Yan Shi, deputy director of Hebei Industrial Design Innovation Center, shared a topic themed "Design Promotes Transformation", introducing in detail the center's space construction, space operation, design sharing, external exchanges, and major events/events and work experience in contractor experience, design services, school-enterprise cooperation, award declaration, etc. Mr. Yan expressed his wish to work with Director Xiang Junjie in the future to link the design resources of Hebei Industrial Design Innovation Center and Tangshan Lingxin Industrial Design Innovation Center to contribute to the development of Tangshan industrial design and jointly promote the transformation and upgrading of Tangshan enterprises. At the same time, it is also hoped that the provincial and municipal industrial design innovation centers in 14 prefectures and cities in Hebei Province can learn from and promote each other, optimize the working mechanism together, provide high-quality and efficient services for the innovative development of industrial design, and promote the comprehensive and high-quality development of the industry in our province.

Design Lecture Hall  Design Upgrading·A Creative Tangshan

Du Tianyi, general manager of Hebei Yunbo Industrial Design Co., Ltd., Luan Heng, general manager of Hebei Beishang Innovation Industrial Product Design Co., Ltd., and Luan Heng, general manager of Hebei Beam On Industrial Design Co., Ltd. were invited to share the topics named as Design Empowerment: to Produce Products Catering to the Market", "Application and Value of Industrial Design", "A Brief Talk on the Brand Upgrade of Hebei Industry". They explained the basic design knowledge and the popular trend of world industrial design, and introduced some successful cases. Digging deeply Hebei’s resources, they suggested to adopt the detailed upgrading means such as the application of new materials for products, brand marketing and product exhibition in physical stores to comprehensively improve the management and design concepts of local enterprises.

Design Empowerment: to Produce Products Catering to the Market

Under the background of the new consumption upgrade era, where will the development of the enterprise go? How should companies make innovations and breakthroughs? How will industrial design help enterprises transform and upgrade?

Du Tianyi believes that industrial design is a process in which innovation was driven by industrial designers to solve problems strategically to achieve business success. Designers create a better quality of life through innovative products, system services and experiences. In the early stages of design, designers usually use three "points" to locate consumer groups and product design directions. The first is to locate product price ranges through market analysis; the second is to locate product advantages and disadvantages through competitive product analysis; the third is to locate product focus through consumer trends.

Du Tianyi took the Jiuyang rice cooker as an example. With the continuous improvement of the quality of life and the restriction of kitchen space, embedded appliances are taking over traditional Chinese appliances. The use of kitchen space and the storage of electrical products have also become the primary considerations for every family to purchase electrical appliances. Therefore, when Yunbo designed the Joyoung rice cooker, it firstly started from the practical value, reducing the area of the product, while weakening the product presence, making the product and space more coordinated, on this basis, increasing the interactive experience of the product, and upgrading the function. And rely on differentiation to win the love of young consumer groups.

The Application Value of Industrial Design

Luan Heng starts from the application value of industrial design, and analyzes that the enterprises and products that have successfully transformed and upgraded have aesthetics, technology, industry differences, functions, and costs.

He said that when the homogeneity of products on the market is severe, differentiated industrial design can become the most important product competitiveness, especially the new generation of consumer groups, which pay more attention to product experience.

A Brief Talk on the Brand Upgrading of Hebei

Combining with the design cases that BEAM ON has done in Hebei, Lu Cheng talks about the brand upgrading strategy of Hebei industry. He said that many enterprises in Hebei have been at the bottom of the industrial chain for a long time. It is almost impossible to change the fate of the company through a product design. It requires a long-term, comprehensive design and planning. And any product that wants to enter the high-end market needs to move closer to the direction of art or culture. Especially now that the Chinese fad is prevailing, injecting cultural foundation and cultural elements into the products will help the products penetrate into young consumer groups.

After the theme sharing, the three design agency leaders communicated with local business representatives in class, and made suggestions for the upgrading and transformation of local brands, helping companies to dig deeper into brand pain points and promote the transformation of design results.

Industrial design entering enterprises and industrial parks

On the afternoon of the 17th, Jiang Zhaozhu, Deputy Director of Industry and Information Technology Bureau of the Town of Luannan, Jiang Baoyong, Section Chief of Industry and Information Technology Bureau of the Town of Luannan, together with Yan Shi, Deputy Director of Hebei Industrial Design Innovation Center, Xiang Junjie, Director of Tangshan Lingxin Industrial Design Innovation Center, Du Tianyi, general manager of Hebei Yunbo Industrial Design Co., Ltd., Luan Heng, general manager of Hebei Beishang Innovation Industrial Product Design Co., Ltd., Lu Cheng, general manager of Hebei BEAM ON Industrial Design Co., Ltd., Liu Huachao, general manager of Hebei Jiuhuadao Industrial Design Co., Ltd., being the representatives of their institutions went to visit Tangshan enterprises for investigation and inspection.

The delegation first came to Luannan Fengtian Metal Product Co., Ltd., which was established in 1989. As the first domestic hoe factory, the Company has an annual output of 18 million pieces. Products are sold to various provinces and cities across the country, and exported to Africa, North and South America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and other regions.

The delegation then came to Tangshan Yannan Shovel Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Founded in 1995, the company is an enterprise that produces, develops, and sells shovels, outdoor shovels, and garden tools. The annual output reaches 12 million pieces. The products are sold domestically in over twenty provinces and regions, and exported to Germany, the United States, Spain, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Portugal, the Middle East, Africa and other countries and regions. According to the person in charge, the company's product production, research and development, and sales links have become mature, but the company also hopes to stimulate consumption growth through packaging design upgrades. Based on the status quo of the development of the company, the four design agency leaders analyzed in detail the chemical reactions that occurred after the product was implanted in the industrial design and after the product design and brand design.

On June 18th, Liu Aijun, Deputy Director of the Industry and Information Technology   Bureau of Zunhua, and Tang Baoyou, Section Chief of the Industry and Information Technology Bureau of Zunhua, brought an inspection team to Zunhua City for investigation and inspection.

The delegation first came to Hebei Kangyuan Xiangmeike Food Co., Ltd. Xiangmeike is a company specializing in the production of biscuits. At present, the product range has covered 5 major varieties of charcoal, soda, crispness, toughness, sandwich, and ultra-thin, a total of 100 multiple varieties. According to the person in charge, although the company's products are relatively mature, with the upgrading of consumption, consumers pay more attention to product packaging design in addition to the product itself. The company hopes to cater to the new consumer market through product packaging and brand upgrades. The four heads of design agencies expressed their opinions one after another, suggesting brand design upgrades and marketing planning for products to create product differentiation and attract more young consumers.

Then the team came to Hebei Meikeduo Food Group Co., Ltd. The company is engaged in the integrated operation of the entire industrial chain of chicken breeding, broiler breeding, slaughtering and segmentation, and cooked food products. After years of operation, Meikeduo has become a leading enterprise in agricultural industrialization. It successfully landed on the New Third Board in October 2017 and became one of the listed enterprises in Zunhua. According to the person in charge, the company's product chain is relatively mature and hopes to stimulate consumption growth through design upgrades. Four design agency leaders cite previous successful cases and combine the actual situation of the company to analyze the product market prospects and brand design direction in detail.

At the last stop, the team came to Tangshan Guangye Food Group Co., Ltd., which is an agricultural industrialization company operating in a "company + cooperative + farmer" model, with an annual processing capacity of 56,000 tons of fruits and vegetables. 70% are exported to more than a dozen countries including Japan, South Korea, the United States, Canada and Southeast Asia. The person in charge said that the export of products affected by the epidemic is facing a period of downturn, for this reason companies want to tap more domestic markets through brand building. The four design agency leaders suggested to enhance the brand's influence in the professional field through brand design, and at the same time use the "company + cooperative + farmer" model and the advantages of vegetable and fruit processing to try cross-field cooperation and expand consumer groups

At present, Tangshan enterprises are experiencing "growth troubles." In the face of transformation and upgrading changes and consumption upgrades, traditional manufacturing is being squeezed out of the market by manufacturers with strong original design capabilities and brand competitiveness. Through sharing classic cases, design theories, brand promotion, brand marketing methods and cross-border development of enterprises in the post-epidemic era, this lecture led the industry to develop towards high-end, international, and branding. It is hoped that this time the event of the design lecture hall entering Tangshan will bring more companies a change in consciousness and a breakthrough in action, empower local enterprises to transform and upgrade through design, enhance the economic added value of products and brands, realize the linkage of regional brand characteristics, and develop Industrial innovation road.