The hottest icon to create Chinese modern products

In the past century, mankind has experienced an unprecedented peak of creation. The rapid development of science and technology and the promotion of modern design ideas have provided extremely rich material products for today's commodity society and laid a solid foundation for the world's material civilization at the time of entering the new era

in this 100 year human history, the Chinese nation was always entangled by natural and man-made disasters in the first half of the 20th century. It failed to gather the wisdom of the whole nation and devote itself to the construction of a modern commodity society without interference, but it began the take-off of industrial economy in the last three decades. In a relatively short period of time, the overall manufacturing capacity of the Chinese economic circle has greatly shortened the gap with the western developed countries, and even reached the world's largest in a number of commodity production fields.

when we shift our perspective from industrial scale to technological innovation, and explore the creation history of these products with distinctive brand of the 20th century, we can hardly find products with "China" cultural symbol

this is not only caused by the backwardness of science and technology and manufacturing industry of the Chinese nation in the past century, but also a rupture and loss of civilization history

icon product shaping history

icon is a technical vocabulary that appeared with the IT industry in the 1990s. It originally refers to the graphic signs designed to identify specific functions in computer software programming to make the human-machine interface easier to operate and humanized

in the late 1990s, when reviewing the development of design history in the 20th century, the western design theory circle borrowed the word icon to express the design works that have had a great impact on social life in various times and have been proved to be "classics" by practice, and called them icon of a certain era, a certain style, a certain kind of goods, a certain country. For example, the "t-car" of Ford Motor Company of the United States (Figure 1) is the icon of the automotive industry in the early 20th century, while the "beetle" of Volkswagen of Germany (Figure 2) is the icon of the post-war automotive industry

from the perspective of countries and nations, it can be found that many developed countries have left their own icons in the history of commodity manufacturing in the 20th century:

the United States - Ford "t-car", GM "Cadillac" car, Chrysler "Cherokee" jeep, Kodak camera, bell machine, Xerox copier, apple computer, IBM computer, Motorola mobile

Germany - Mercedes Benz (Figure 3), BMW, Porsche sports car, Audi TT sports car, Volkswagen "beetle" car, Braun coffee machine, metal furniture in the Bauhaus period, and Rothschild utensils

Italy - Ferrari sports car, Artemide lamps (Figure 4), allias utensils, zanusi refrigerator, furniture designed by sotesas, Versace clothing

UK - Jaguar cars, daison vacuum cleaners (Figure 5)

France - Citroen cars, logo cars, furniture designed by philipstark (Figure 6), pilcardin clothes

Netherlands - Philips electric shaver (Figure 7)

Japan - Sony semiconductor radio, Walkman, "palm treasure" camera, Playstation Game Console, Nikon camera (Figure 8), Honda motorcycle, clothing designed by Miyake life

Finland - "LEGO" plastic building blocks (Figure 9), Nokia mobile

Sweden - Volvo cars, Saab cars, Ericsson mobile (Figure 10)

these icons have established a monument as a symbol of the times in the eyes of the world because of their excellent use performance, excellent design and manufacturing, best-selling market influence all over the world and leading aesthetic style and taste

from a material point of view, these icon products only seem to meet the needs of some use functions in human life, and bring huge profits to investors due to the creation of a new market in business. However, when we consider them from the perspective of the historical development of human civilization, their intangible cultural value is far greater than their visible commercial value. Because these icons often represent key breakthroughs in technological development, reflect the highest level of manufacturing capacity of an era, or reflect the aesthetic concepts and cultural orientation of a region and a nation in a specific period by their style and style, they are regarded by later generations as representatives that condense the essence of technology and art and mark the peak of an era. Just as we get a strong impression today when we ponder the "Barcelona chair" (Figure 11) designed by Mies van der Rohe and the "hot bending plywood chair" (Figure 12) designed by AVA ATU in the 1920s: these two classic designs represent the highest level of manufacturing technology of metal furniture in the German Bauhaus period and hot bending plywood furniture in Finland, which not only ushered in a new era of furniture manufacturing technology in the world, It also reflects the similarities and differences in the concept and aesthetic understanding of "modernist" design in different countries at the same time. Moreover, the artistic attainments of these two works designed 60 or 70 years ago have not been surpassed by later generations

these icons often represent key breakthroughs in technological development, reflecting the highest level of manufacturing capacity of an era, or the aesthetic flexible packaging requirements of a region and a nation in a specific period based on their modeling style and style. Therefore, they are regarded by later generations as a symbol of the essence of technology and art and the peak of the era

however, when we study the origin of these icons, we will find that none of them came from China, which once had a 5000 year history of civilization! Although the world has recognized that when there were too many green oxide skins, bronze ware was the icon of the Shang Dynasty of the Chinese nation,

lacquer ware was the icon of the Han Dynasty,

tricolor pottery was the icon of the Tang Dynasty,

celadon was the icon of the Song Dynasty,

rosewood furniture was the icon of the Ming Dynasty,

Manchu clothing was the icon of the Qing Dynasty...

but in the past 100 years, people have been unable to confirm what is the icon of the manufacturing industry of the 20th century of the Chinese nation

after several centuries, when future generations study the history of civilization in the 20th century, they will be surprised to find that in the historical process of more than 100 years, an ancient nation accounting for one quarter of the world's population has made little significant contributions to the world in the field of material creation, and the invention and designer of every icon that can represent the progress and development of commodities in this century are not recorded in Chinese characters

the wheel of time cannot be reversed. We cannot rewrite history, but we can stand at the beginning of a new century to think about how to fulfill the professional mission of Chinese designers, push our creativity to the peak, and reconnect the broken chain of material civilization innovation with high-level design achievements

second, surpassing market competition

this heavy history should not be borne by industrial designers alone. Engineers, manufacturers, social managers, consumers, and even the whole society should have a consensus on this

from a historical point of view, the products that can be used as the icon of an era are no more than the following three categories:

1 technological innovation category:

creatively give play to and interpret the breakthrough achievements of the latest science and technology with appropriate product forms and excellent manufacturing technology, significantly change and improve the lifestyle and quality of human beings in the world, so as to become cross-cultural, cross regional Products with high popularity

2 functional innovation:

observe life from a unique research perspective and wisdom, discover new product function concepts, and solve them with the technology and manufacturing process that have been popularized in society, so as to launch unprecedented new products to the market and benefit consumers all over the world

3 aesthetic innovation:

based on solid cultural traditions or aesthetic values, publicize unique modeling aesthetic language and concepts in product design, and condense into an aesthetic style that gives people a new visual experience in the achievements of an outstanding design master or team or brand. Because this style satisfies the desire of the society for the change of design aesthetics in a specific period, it influences the market with the help of media, and has become the mainstream trend leading the trend of design aesthetics

all three types have the same characteristics: cosmopolitan. Their originality comes from a certain country, region or individual, but ultimately they must be universally accepted and recognized on a global scale

with such a standard, we will consider the manufacturing brands, designers and products in the whole Chinese economic circle so far, and we will find that there is no awareness and obvious trend to grow into Chinese icon products. Although from the perspective of economies of scale, some Chinese brands have ranked in the global industry or have shown initiatives to go global, and have made significant progress and achievements in the field of industrial design innovation, they have failed to lead the world in the above three types of innovation

from the perspective of designer teams and individuals, there are no world-class design masters or design groups that can influence the world with distinctive personal style and cultural connotation. Although a group of excellent industrial designers have also appeared in Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas areas where there are more Chinese, there is no trend of "returning to Chinese culture" in the products they design

according to the phased law of design development, the development of industrial design in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the mainland has been based on more than 30 years and 20 years respectively. In the same long period of time, Japan has created Sony semiconductor radio "trss" (Figure 13) and "Walkman" as icon products, and formed a widely accepted "Japanese style" in the world market with exquisite manufacturing technology and "miniaturization" characteristics

passively following the market competition has hindered the improvement of China's industrial design to a high level

comparing the eastern and Western models of introducing industrial design into the industrial economy, we will find that there are great differences. In western developed countries, the emergence and change of industrial design is a natural evolutionary process that goes hand in hand with the development of science and technology. In the eyes of many manufacturers and designers, the pursuit and love of "good design" is a natural profession. In the business philosophy of famous brands that have produced icon products, in addition to pursuing the economic benefits brought by market success, another important goal is to "make the best" of their products

therefore, it is the common characteristic of every world-class master to carefully Carve every detail in the design process, sparing no cost, regardless of time, paying full attention to his own design works, and making every effort to make every design perfect. Firmly believe that they are "the best", and long-term adhere to their own aesthetic language, not drift, so that they can finally lead the trend with their own unique and distinctive design style

in contrast, today's Chinese enterprises are basically passive in the initial motivation of introducing industrial design, which is a measure they have to do in order to survive under the pressure of market competition. Therefore, it is completely based on the orientation of market trends, what the market needs to produce, what the market is popular to produce; It has become a common feature of the vast majority of Chinese manufacturers that everything can be made and nothing can be refined