Interior Motives China Conference Day 2

After a first day packed with fascinating discussions and opportunities for networking, delegates from around the world reconvened in anticipation of another day of presentations from some of the industry's biggest names.

Session 5: Deep Dive Luxury
The second day of the Interior Motives China conference began with a session on 'Deep dive luxury', chaired by Emma Booty of Conran.

Shu Bei of 3M kicked off the first session by identifying the Chinese obsession with brands. She gave the example of branded versus unbranded coffee and how the flavours of both are excellent, but one becomes more popular than the other; the branded coffee because "a brand brings dreams." Bei delved deeper by illustrating how 3M had used lighting technology on Audi vehicles to add a 'mental' texture to them, and ended his talk by declaring that in her opinion, "innovation is more important than knowledge."

JAC's Lou Tik was the next to enter the fray, explaining that JAC believes that luxury is divided into two parts – material and lifestyle – which transfer into luxury and style. There are tools for expressing luxury, Tik explained, and said that proportion can be used to convey a sense of elegance, demonstrating the proportional differences – and resulting levels of elegance – between a horse and a pig. He concluded his presentation by declaring that creativity is currently all about the application and not the innovation, and that "we have the technology, now we need to start applying it."

Following Tik was Gao Jie, Interior Design Director at BAIC Motor, who suggested that luxury does not merely mean 'fancy', but that it combines a number of elements. Luxury as it is currently perceived is easy for designers to explore, but she insists that the most important thing from a designer's viewpoint is trying to find a shortcut into this luxury. As consumers have an ever-increasing amount of spending power, they can use it not just to show off but to pursue their individual lifestyle, which is in turn supported by the brand. She went on to look at how lighting is used to create an atmosphere universally – many churches and Chinese temples make the most of light and color to do this – and showed how the Golden Hall palace to new lighting technology from the west has improved luxury.

William Franke, Color and Material Design Manager at Aunde Group, stated that "We assume we know what luxury is but we really can't define it," giving the example of how chocolate is only a luxury if you don't have it. He went on to explore how the iconography of a product could be interpreted into positive definitions of luxury, while also stating that it has become necessary to consider all the senses when designing a car. It is these little details, he said, that make you believe in a product.

Pat Oldenkamp of Eagle Ottawa followed Franke by exploring the heritage of leather and how it has always been used to communicate a feeling of luxury to people. Leather, Oldenkamp said, provides an aroma and feel that instantly tells you that it is a luxury product, and was another speaker to highlight the importance of fine detailing when convincing the customer that a product is luxurious.

Henning Knoepfle of Technicon wanted to explore new ways of communicating the feeling of luxury to the consumer. "Europeans are always defaulting to leather and wood," he said, and wanted to find a way to avoid that. Using the example of the company's Roding Roadster, he suggested that despite the design is simple, the application of material and detailing a sense of luxury.

When looking at what luxury means in a Chinese context, the speakers had many interesting views. Shu Bei said that "from the Chinese consumer's perspective we are gradually increasing our brand perception. This happened in 1990s in Japan. Brands need to understand what Chinese people want and need in their hearts - this is a very large and segmented market." Tik pointed out the legacy of Chinese materials and their timelessness in design terms while Gao stressed the importance of a luxury brand being durable.

Session 6: Inspiration Right Here (Part 1)
Senior Vice President of Design at Geely Group Peter Horbury opened the session with a fascinating look at how car designers have been influenced by their native countries, stating his belief that "using your own culture to define brand can be hugely useful. "With a look at the French car manufacturers to those making cars in Japan, Horbury gave an honest and in-depth summary at how their cars over time had reflected the changing culture and lifestyle of its citizens and extropolated how China could follow.

Conran's Emma Booty's talk was from her viewpoint as a designer from outside the automotive sphere. Booty made 'coffee' her subject, exploring how the trade within the UK has boomed with the encroachment of different cultures and methods. In examining how countries like Australia changed the UK, Booty posed the question of what the catalyst would be to inspire design in China.

Junko Yamada, Senior Application Manager of Dassault Systemes, gave an interesting run-through of the CATIA software that DS has advised the development of, which helps designers to realize their products,. Referring back to one of yesterday's sessions, she said, "Mr Toyota said 'creativity cannot be taught, but we can help. We can help to stimulate and fuel your imagination.'"

When asked about what is needed to create interesting new cars for the Chinese market, Horbury said, "it's a matter of being confident and bringing something new into the auto world. Pride in your own heritage and history is needed as well as having that confidence that others will like it." He also pointed out that "people who grow up here can't notice the uniqueness of the environment in which they live so it often takes a foreign pair of eyes to pick out the uniqueness, and try to figure out what makes it so."

In a very suitable conclusion to the morning's sessions, one delegate commented, "I believe that in the near future we will have a unique Chinese design – we can already see it in product design, fashion and architecture. When foreign brands come to China we have to work on how we tune products to the local market so that is a second approach on how we start to find a Chinese style."

Continues →

By Rufus Thompson