Review of "Future Design Thinking (Beijing)”: Exploring Interdisciplinary Design Education and Innovative Thinking
On August 7, Beijing Normal University School of Future Design held an event themed on "Future Design Thinking" in Beijing 798 Bauhaus style factory with LI-NING Group and Spain Hispano Suiza Automobile Design.
At the event, GAO Peng shared ideas about future technological aesthetics of art and introduced the interdisciplinary and innovative education model of the School of Future Design. He said that in the post-pandemic era, the world is moving towards a new way of living featuring diversity, electronics, new languages, new communicative modes, and experiential sense. Based in the Greater Bay Area, the School of Future Design cultivates innovative and well-rounded talents who can face the future with professional literacy, cutting-edge vision, comprehensive analytical skills, and scientific and humanistic concepts, helping the development of the Greater Bay Area.
Xu Ping, Distinguished Professor of BNU School of Future Design, analyzed the current situation and future development trend of design education from the perspective of talent cultivation. Qian Qian, Director of Brand Design of LI-NING Company, introduced how LI-NING created the concept of "China LI-NING" through the combination of art and technology, emphasizing the importance of interdisciplinary education and innovative thinking for design. Guo Yushi, Executive Director of Spain Hispano Suiza Automobile Design, talked about the vitality of industrial design in the new era and discussed what kind of talents are required in Chinese design education.
To enrich teaching and promote the integration of industry-education-research, the School of Future Design has appointed Ao Ciyue, CEO of Spain Hispano Suiza Automobile Design (Beijing) and Qian Qian, Brand Design Director of Li-NING as the PBL teaching enterprise tutors, who will tutor students in real-life projects, complementing the campus teaching.
At the event, the School of Future Design and LI-NING built up a strategic partnership and jointly establish a "Footwear and Clothing Design Teaching Laboratory", to provide students with the exchange, internship and employment opportunities. Ms. Ao Ciyue, CEO of Spain Hispano Suiza Automobile Design (Beijing), decided to donate an international exchange scholarship to support overseas study and exchange of the students and teachers of the School.
Gao Peng: "Rooted in cross-disciplinary fields, laying out Hong Kong, Macau, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Zhuhai"
Starting from three questions, "What kind of world are we facing", "What kind of talents are needed" and "How to build a disciplinary framework for talent cultivation", GAO Peng proposes that in the 21st century, the rapid development of science, technology and economy has led to a need for students with more professional and developmental abilities in education. The School of Future Design at Beijing Normal University was established based on BNU’s strengths, rooted in the intersection of art, science and technology, and education, carrying out research and extensive cross-border cooperation in the fields of humanities, art, design, science and technology, and social sciences, as well as integrating research, education and practice, and forming a problem-driven and project-oriented teaching model that is complementary to the disciplines. The three research directions, namely Future Design Production and Lifestyle, Art and Technology, and Design and Education are set to actively address major, forward-looking design needs and to serve the innovative development of the Greater Bay Area.
The School of Future Design at Beijing Normal University has invited seven professional leaders, namely Tan Ping, Wang Min, Xu Ping, Tony Brown, Li Qi, Miriam Mirolla and Tim Yip, to provide all-round guidance and planning for the discipline construction and development of the School of Future Design and its students.
Gao Peng pointed out that the School of Future Design advocates a problem-oriented learning approach and adopts a PBL teaching model, adopting "academic advisor + enterprise tutor" model to guide students to seek solutions to problems based on their areas of expertise. At present, the School has established university-enterprise collaborative innovation partnerships with Lenovo Group and Haier Group, signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Domus China, and signed PBL teaching partnership agreements with enterprises including international brand K三, China Academy of Building Research and Shenzhen C Future Lab. It plans to establish diversified cooperation with leading innovation enterprises in the Greater Bay Area in the future, build a PBL teaching enterprise pool with innovative teaching forms, and create an integrated teaching, research and industry talent cultivation system.
Xu Ping: "Reform and Innovation of Design Education in the Era"
Xu Ping shared his views on the theme of the changing times and innovative directions of design education. He said that in general design education was developing at its best stage in China with several new changes emerging.
First, the scale of nationwide higher education in design changed significantly in 2021, with a 40-year development inflection point likely to arrive. By July 30, there are 2,025 higher education institutions with design discipline nationwide, with 8,284 majors and more than 690,000 students. The number of higher education institutions with design discipline declined compared to that in 2020. However, the enrollment of these institutions has been rising consistently from 2006 to 2020. The year 2021 has already seen the number of students in professional education exceeding that in undergraduate education. In this context, undergraduate education institutions need to think about how to demonstrate their strengths in professional study and teaching. Xu Ping believes that undergraduate education institutions should emphasize their humanistic connotation and leadership for future discipline development with their strengths.
Second, as the country's technological progress and social development continue to accelerate, people are paying more attention to design. Many domestic universities with design discipline have participated in high-precision industrial design, with increasing impact. Xu Ping pointed out that China has the opportunity to realize design ideal under the current conditions, and more people will join the design industry with design ideal in the future.
Third, together with society, we are concerned about the new future of design and the new direction of this discipline. For one thing, as an educational discipline, design education has its patterns of development; for another, the design discipline is associated with today's demand and social development, focusing on real-life issues. At present, there is a certain distance between design education and today's society, and the reform is complicated. Xu Ping pointed out that a possible perspective is to approach the problem from the perspective of "service design" because design exists in all aspects of life and should serve people better.
Qian Qian: "Experimenting with the fusion of technology and art in a cross-border context"
As a renowned sports brand with a history of over thirty years, LI-NING has stepped on the international stage with the integration of art and design. This is based on the design team's innovation and constant creativity for the future. Qian Qian believes that designers should experiment with the fusion of technology and art to develop a unique understanding of art and better serve future branding.
During the lecture, Qian Qian talked about the combination of the LI-NING brand with art, traditional culture and fashion trends. She stated that living in the digital internet age, designers should combine traditional culture with current elements via their products and present traditional Chinese art to the public in a modern way. LI-NING did well in this. According to Qian Qian, the design team has set up a special library to collect a series of traditional handicraft fabrics and books to conduct research and collaborate with teachers and students from design and art universities for inspiration which can be translated into fashion products.
In terms of incorporating fashion trends, LI-NING has collaborated with artists and designers with different backgrounds and made breakthroughs in the public perception of LI-NING as a "sports brand". At the same time, LI-NING is also committed to developing new technologies to build a more scientific and professional sports brand.
Guo Yushi: "The vitality of industrial design in a new era"
We are now in the "Industry 4.0 era", an era with developed information technology. In this era, we need to think about what role design can play in the future. According to Guo Yushi, great design must make the future better and improve people's lives at the same time.
Guo stated, good design comes from people, serves people, is appreciated by people and can create value for the moment.
In the lecture, Guo mentioned that the life of design comes from two dimensions: fusion and evolution. Fusion is a horizontal concept meaning different regions, languages and cultures in different spaces blend, resulting in different design elements that are reflected in the products. Evolution, on the other hand, is the fusion of the present, the past and the future. A good design concept inevitably reflects the results of past ideas and a vision of the future. Cultivating design talents means equipping individuals with the abilities to design products that are recognized by the industry, market and consumers. This is the criteria of how a designer is judged to be good today.
Guo stressed that today is the era of Industry 4.0 and also an era of the pandemic. The pandemic has hindered offline communication and activities, but will not impact the vitality of design. With the support of technologies, people no longer rely on physical connections for the exchange of ideas. Driven by technologies, more great ideas can be realized.
Roundtable
Q: From the perspective of the design industry and enterprises, what kind of design talents are currently needed in China?
Qian Qian: For the time being, designers with a crossdisciplinary background are more popular. As brand companies, we want products that are not only functional, but also convey the brand spirit and can tell a good story with brand culture and values. In addition, brand companies also need future designers with an international perspective and a broad knowledge foundation.
Ao Ciyue: We expect future designers to have artistic cells and systematic design thinking, and to have a full understanding of different product attributes.
Q: Considering the current design industry in China, what kind of design education should be provided for our students? What kind of design talents should design education cultivate? From the perspective of the School of Future Design, how should China take the path of design education in the future?
Gao Peng: The development of the design industry is largely influenced by technological evolvement, and so it is a discipline with frequent renewals. As for education, it is a promising industry, and the market that students come in to face is the market of the future. "School of Future Design” means thinking about the present from the perspective of the future, and we have always been sincere in our commitment to cultivating more designers for the future. The reason I chose Beijing Normal University, and collaborated with different colleges such as the School of Education for the Future and the School of Arts and Science, as well as a series of enterprise partners, is to expose our students to more knowledge and brands and to give them an earlier understanding of the industry. I think our society needs more people who are willing to dedicate themselves to the culture industry with social responsibility.
