On Monday the 26th of April, the Chinese program of L’Ecole de design Nantes Atlantique launched a new design workshop. Dedicated to the brand « Haier », it gathers 35 design students from 5 different schools:

-   Tsinghua University 清华
-   Tongji University 同济
-   Shandong Art and Design University 山东工业美术学院
-   Qingdao University 青岛大学
-   L’Ecole de design Nantes Atlantique / China Campus 法国南特大西洋设计学院

For one week, students will work on the “kitchen” and will have to use their cross-cultural skills to answer the brief.

Ma Han, Design Project Manager at Haier

Based in Qingdao, Haier is a global manufacturer group in many product and service fields (electronic goods, small electric appliances, white goods, real estate, cleaning services…).

Haier’s particularity is to be able to manufacture and manage many ranges of products to launch global solutions. For example its « kitchen » business, includes kitchen furniture, white goods (refrigerator, oven, hood…), kitchen accessories (sink, hot water boiling tank, storage…), small domestic appliances (blender, coffee machine, toaster…) and services (cleaning, security guards, maintenance…).

This variety allows Haier designers to work on complete user experiences and not only on products. This way of doing design is well represented by its U-Home concept that symbolizes a connected system (using Internet and telecommunication technologies).

Mo Jiao, design teacher at Tongji University, Wang Yan, design teacher at Shandong University of Art and Design and Liu Jikun, design teacher at Tsinghua University

Zhou Lei, design teacher at Qingdao University

On this first day, students had to determine a target (independent Chinese women, rural inhabitants, experts…), one society trend (health, hygiene, wealth…) and one kitchen trend (minimalist, high-tech…).

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On Wednesday the 17^th of December 2009, Frederic Degouzon, Head of Strategy, Research and International Development of L’Ecole de design Nantes Atlantique and Jocelyne Le Boeuf, Head of Studies came and visit the 5^th year students in Qingdao. They participated in the jury of the phase 2 of student’s final year projects.

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In the middle of November, Nicolas Hubert, a 5th year student at the Chinese campus of L’Ecole de design Nantes Atlantique has organised a workshop with 8 design students from Qingdao University.

The goal of this project was to observe the Chinese way of doing design while asking the students to create a new Mandarin writing machine.

On Friday the 30th of October, Lynnette Chan came and taught Project Management to the 5th-year students.

After studying industrial design at Nanyang Polytechnic in Singapore, Lynnette worked for the best design companies such has IDEO in Shanghai. She then worked for Asentio, a Shanghai based multidisciplinary design studio.

She’s now a Human Centred Design Consultant in Shanghai.

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On  Monday the 19th of October, Seb-Supor R&D Center offered a design brief to 20 students of L’Ecole de design Nantes Atlantique and the School of Industrial Design of Shandong University of Art and Design.

For 5 days, each of the 5 teams will work on a range of 3 different blenders that will be meant for the Chinese market.

Seb-Supor 苏泊尔 is a joint venture that was created in 2006. Founded in 1994, Supor is the leader of the cookware market in China and the third largest cookware company in the world. It is number 5 in China on the cookware small domestic appliances market. Working on these blenders might then be an opportunity for it to go up the national scale in the small domestic appliances market.

Pascal Novis, Marketing director at Seb-Supor and his assistant

Amy Liu (Chinese), Product Supervisor and Lijing Zeng (French), Junior Product Manager at Supor in Hangzhou

Frédéric Bonin, Designer and head of studies at the Chinese Campus of L’Ecole de design Nantes Atlantique. He leads the workshop with 2 other teachers of the School of Industrial Design of Shandong University of Art and Design

The School of Industrial Design of Shandong University of Art and Design offers a Bachelor degree and a Master degree in Industrial Design. Located in the surroundings of Jinan, it appears to be a wonderful place to study.

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From the 19th to the 23rd of October 2009, L’Ecole de design Nantes Atlantique’s 5th year students will work with Shandong University of Art and Design 山东工艺美术学院 students on a project lead by the R&D Center of Seb-Supor.

Seb-Supor 苏泊尔 is a joint venture that was created in 2006. Founded in 1994, Supor is the leader of the cookware market in China and the third largest cookware company in the world. Its headquarters are in Hangzhou 杭州, in Zhejiang province 浙江省 near Shanghai. It owns six production sites and more than 7,000 employees worldwide.

For one week, students will have to work together on a new blender for Supor. They will have to come up with new and fresh ideas in line with Supor’s marketing directives.

The winners will get a mock up of their product financed by Supor Group.

In April, Wang Difei, the design director of Hisense R&D Center asked the thirteen 4th year students to find design solutions for Hisense domestic electrical appliances, television and electronic devices to expand its markets.

Hisense (海信) is a Chinese electronics manufacturer. Products manufactured under the Hisense brand include televisions, air conditioners, LCDs, refrigerators and mobile phones. It is one of the biggest leading companies in mainland China.

The 13 students spread into 3 groups and presented their design solutions on the 23rd of June in Hisense R&D Center. They came up with a total of 16 different concepts that obviously appealed to Hisense Design Director.

CONCEPT EXAMPLE : LOA – VISIO CONFERENCE SYSTEM (Lise Picard, Quentin Tableau, Rémi Decoene, Anne-Claire Mahéo)

CONCEPT EXAMPLE : GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM (Lise Picard, Quentin Tableau, Rémi Decoene, Anne-Claire Mahéo)

Some of these concepts will be developed next year. To be continued.

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On April 18, 2009 the 13 students enrolled in the curriculum offered by L’École de design Nantes Atlantique’s Chinese subsidiary seized the opportunity to showcase their projects during the international Ecodesign Fair 2009 held in Shanghai.

As part of an assignment revolving around the theme “Light my Bamboo” the 13 young designers-to-be centered their efforts on this good-value-for-money raw material.

After researching the topic for quite a while they eventually came up with a new concept : a new type of drugstore dedicated to homeopathic treatments meant to cure modern-day diseases such as asthma, the flu, obesity, diabetes.

The specificity of the drugstore thought up by our students lies in its all-bamboo range of products. Not only do the items sold in the store help customers heal their ailments but through their shape and use those items also have a deep impact upon the customers’ body and mind.

This outstanding exhibition – infused with a poetic hue and a sense of committment in the meantime – has aroused the interest of many a journalist and local visitor.

Maud-Andréa Bidet
Coordinator for L’École de design Nantes Atlantique’s
Chinese subsidiary

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After 4 months of internships, the students had to present the different projects they worked on during their training session.

10 students over 11 had done their internship in Shanghai and one in Guangzhou.

10 students worked on product design projects and 3 of them on interior design.

3 of them worked for Chinese design agencies and 8 for foreign companies (German, Italian, French and Australian).

Companies:

• ATELIER FOREVER
• BLACK AND GOLD
• CREATIVOO
• DEDO DESIGN
• KOMODO DESIGN
• MOOMA DESIGN
• RETAIL D’SIGN FACTORY
• VEP DESIGN

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