Swedes in China
THE ARTICLES in local newspaper’s surrounding the Shenzhen Industrial Design Conference go something like this:
“Sweden: Design for Better Business Sweden is the first country to become industrialized in Scandinavia and also the earliest country to develop the industrial design movement. IKEA and VOLVO have been icons in people’s minds, standing for Swedish design.
The Swedish designers coming this time are well prepared, not only for the signing ceremony, but also for holding presentations sharing their experience in furniture design, interior design, industry design and other types of design.”
“Swedish Design House is in cooperation with Shenzhen at this time. It is composed by a group of influential Swedish designers. They are going to take foothold in Shenzhen, bringing in Swedish design and people to seize the design market in China. In the forum, they said, ‘China has been the biggest production and product consumption country to us. Everyone is talking about switching Made-in China to Design-in-China. If we can be a part of that, we have much to contribute. Sweden is a small country, but we have the tradition in creativity and design. ‘ They seem aggressive. ‘We will make the world see Chinese Design.’
‘Swedish Design for Better Business: Designers from Swedish Design House said, most CEOs in Sweden see the connection between design investment and business success. In their research, they use a model called the ‘Design Ladder’ which divides company’s into 4 stages. The lowest step means no design at all, the highest step means using design as strategy and innovation. Companies staying on the top steps have more than 5 times profit than those on the lowest step. ‘Design is The Driving Force’, keeping in mind that the idea of ‘Design for Better Business’ and its long-term implementation have created world famous brands such as Volvo, Ericsson, Electrolux, Skype and Ikea.”