Let Design Convert into Market Value

2012 “China International Design Busi- ness Week—Red Dot in Xiamen” will be held in Xiamen International Convention and Exhibition Center during September 8-12. According to Huang Haiming， deputy secretary-general of Xiamen Municipal Government， this is the first-of-its-kind exhibition organized by Germany Red Dot Design organization in China， and also the first international design exhibition held in the Economic Zone on the West Coast of the Taiwan Straits.

After the financial crisis broke out， the foreign trade， which had been the driving engine of China’s economic growth， has been faced with an increasing amount of difficulties， such as sluggish demands of the developed countries for madein-China commodities and the unsustainable low-price commercial mold. The industrial transformation and upgrading will be the inevitable choice for the survival and sustainable development of small and medium-sized companies of China. Huang thought that a broad overview of the development history of the companies around the world shows that to raise the product competitiveness through the upgrading design will be the shared success story for all those companies on a fast track of development. “China International Design Business Week” will serve as a platform for communications and transactions among the design and commercial industries. He stated that this event creats a cooperative， and win-win situation featuring “design work + market demand”and “design talent + business management”.

Yao Muzhong， deputy head of the Bureau of Commerce of Xiamen， shared with China’s Foreign Trade that this cooperation stemmed from a visit organized by the Bureau of Commercial of Xiamen with a dozen of Chinese companies to the World Cultural Heritage“Museum of Red Dot” in Essen， Germany. At the museum， the Chinese entrepreneurs were amazed at the design on exhibition and have hoped to establish the long-term cooperation mechanism with the Red Dot. From another perspective， the Red Dot has seen the flourishing of the Chinese economy， and it wishes to expand their business in China. Yao introduced that the participation of Red Dot into the design week has attracted a dozen international design institutions. It will be a great achievement that Chinese companies are finally able to connect with the world’s top designers.

Zhang Jie， deputy director of China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Light Industrial Products and Arts-Crafts， told China’ Foreign Trade that since the opening-up policy was implemented in 1978， China’s foreign trade of light industrial products and arts-crafts have been growing quite rapidly. However， in the field of light art crafts and daily consumer goods， China still has low creativity， with low added value of the export brands， and low RD level. It will be a big issue that how to promote the upgrading of China’s light industrial products and foreign trade companies.

It will also take tremendous and sustained efforts to change from “made-in-China” to“create-in-China” or “intelligence-in-China”. Zhang further said that it is necessary to grasp three aspects when transforming the industry from “quantity-oriented” to qualityoriented”， namely RD， brand marketing and technological service. China International Design Business Week will focus primarily on design， which will be a good platform for the upgrading of foreign trade companies. The involvement of Red Dot will build connection between Chinese companies with international designers， to broaden their horizons and create products tailored to foreign market demands. However， Zhang also said that the design should be converted into commercial value.

The Germany Red Dot Award， known as Oscar of the global industrial designing， will display 132 classic works that win awards in recent two years. Also， the Taiwan Creativity Design Center， China Bathroom Design Center， Taiwan Shu-Te University， the Academy of Art Design and other schools or institutions will bring to the exhibition more than 1，000 design articles. The exhibition will include many varieties such as bathroom design， lamps， bags and suitcases， furniture and gifts with an area of 2，200 sq. m.

Besides， China International Design Business Week will also feature a Red Dot Design Forum on September 10th， with the theme of “the best practice of design—sharing success experiences of red dot award winner”. It is estimated that more than 300 social entrepreneurs and designers will attend the forum and they will share their success stories in combining design and industry perfectly. They will also discuss how to make breakthroughs in the design and raise product competitiveness through investing the design industry. Till now， more than 30 design institutions from Germany， Holland， Switzerland， Japan， Singapore and China have decided to bring their design works to the event.