In 2020, when the world is shrouded in the COVID-19, the economy is stagnant, international flights are suspended, people are self-enclosed at home, masks when coming in and going out, alcohol, disinfectant fluid are all available, and entertainment activities have been postponed for a long time. Hebei International Industrial Design Week was successfully held under the strict implementation of epidemic prevention measures, and an excellent result was delivered. It was undoubtedly a miracle at the time, and in Xiong’an, the city of the future, such a miracle has been held for three times.

Hebei International Industrial Design Week (hereinafter referred to as “HIDW”) has been endowed with a miracle gene since its birth. Permanently settled in the city of the future, it has been entrusted with the dream of promoting the high-quality construction and development of Xiong’an New Area and building a warm and farseeing city. Since it was successfully held in November 2018, the international influence of HIDW has grown rapidly. Developing from nothing, every step of the way has been remarkable. As an international activity settled in Xiong’an New Area for the development of high-end design industry, creating a global design innovation highland, and energizing the construction of the future city——HIDW was born in 2018 under the leadership of the People’s Government of Hebei Province, after held for three times, it has grown into a grand design meeting with international influence. In the past three years, HIDW continued to break boundaries and refresh records, and continued to deliver the latest design resources for the construction of Xiong’an New Area. When Xiongan encounters industrial design, a miracle of future city construction and transformation and upgrading energized by industrial design are unfolded!

Three years to launch the design “enlightenment movement”

Behind the holding of HIDW, there are always two supporting forces, one is striving and the other is dream, striving to promote the transformation and upgrading of Hebei’s industry and dreaming to build Xiongan New Area into the next “City of Design”.

HIDW is to rely on these two forces to strive forward, in three years, more than 700 exhibitors and design agencies from Finland, Italy, Germany, Britain, Turkey, Hong Kong (China), Taiwan (China), Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Jiangxi, Qingdao and other countries and regions, more than 200 experts and scholars from design, technology, Internet, industry, academic, culture, ecology, architecture, automobile and other fields were gathered in the Xiong’an New Area. HIDW presents the highest level of industrial design in the world with its brand-new, forward-looking, experiential and challenging nature, energizes the construction of Hebei province and even Xiongan New Area, and also provides a good opportunity for Hebei province to expand exchanges and cooperation with domestic and foreign countries.

It started the “enlightenment movement” of Hebei industrial design. As a major industrial province, Hebei has a good manufacturing foundation and complete industrial categories. However, under the influence of the Beijing-Tianjin talents magnet effect all year round, a large number of industrial design talents outflow, and manufacturing industry in Hebei is mostly based on OEM mode, and the low independent innovation has become a huge rock on the road of industrial development in Hebei. In order to break the balance between traditional industrial development concepts and the lack of talents, HIDW was born. In virtue of world’s top industry masters and international advanced design forces, taking the vigorous development of industrial design as an important breakthrough in the Hebei industrial transformation and upgrading, it caused violent shake in the design industry and Hebei also started a vigorous design “enlightenment movement”. This “enlightenment movement” helped Hebei see the world on the shoulders of giants, and enabled Hebei’s manufacturing industry in the era of great changes to quickly understand future trend and insight into the diverse world, thereby promoting industrial transformation and upgrading and reshaping a new pattern of industrial development.

It staged a “Competition on Huashan Mountain” in the design world. David Kusuma, Chairman-designate of World Design Organization (WDO), Patrick Lucien, National Industrial Innovation and Development Expert of French Aquitaine, Charles Hayes, Partner of American IDEO Design Company and Asia Executive President, Jukka Savolainen, Curator of Finland Design Museum, Peter Kuziniki, Chairman of the American Spark Design Award Organizing Committee, Michael Young, British industrial design master and many other industry masters have come to this great stage and staged a multinational, cross-border and cross-cultural design feast. This is the real meaning of “Competition on Huashan Mountain” in the design industry, is one of the most complete integration of international design forces in recent years, and is also one of the biggest highlights of HIDW every year.

It pioneered the “week + competition” mode. Design Week gave birth to a design award with a millennium ideal——the Goldreed Industrial Design Award. It has cooperated with HIDW, through the “week + competition” mode, to spread the design value with Oriental wisdom, to inherit Hebei culture with design power, to build a bridge for the deep integration of Hebei industry with the world, and to accelerate the transformation from “Made in Hebei” to “Intelligent Manufacturing in Hebei”. The launch of the Goldreed Award is the confidence of Chinese design and a way to establish the authority of Oriental design. Its supreme prize of 1 million yuan will continue to attract and explore designers and outstanding design works with forward-looking, creative, driving force and influence. It is believed that after several years of cultivation and accumulation, the positive effect of HIDW and Goldreed Industrial Design Award will be more powerful, which will penetrate into the design gene of the city and constantly highlight the charm and value of Chinese design.

It takes design as the golden finger to open the transformation road of the whole province. In the selection of exhibitors, HIDW pays more attention to the combination of construction of Xiongan future city and the development of Hebei industry. Every year, it gathers industrial chain resources such as industry, Internet, science and technology, intelligent manufacturing, green travel, consumer electronics and other industrial chain resources to Hebei to stimulate the innovation vitality of the manufacturing industry and energize the adjustment and optimization of the industrial structure of whole province, by using the world’s top industrial design forces to help Hebei industrial transformation and upgrading, resulting in a “1+1>2” effect. Qinghe cashmere, Baigou bag, Gaoyang towel, Nanhe pet food, Hejian glass, Dingzhou sports product, and other new products from Hebei characteristic industries also appeared on the stage of Design Week, competing with the global scientific innovation products on the same stage and conveying to the world the “Voice of China”, they demonstrate the value orientation and spiritual pursuit of Chinese design, and enhance cultural self-confidence and the international influence of Chinese design concepts.

The three themes of "Design Force Brightens the City of the Future", "Design Force Empowers the City of the Future", "Design’s Consruct of Pluriversality" are international, forward-looking and professional, which pointed out the direction for Hebei industrial design “enlightenment movement”. Under the linkage of various supporting activities of HIDW, industrial design consciousness has been widely awakened in the land of Hebei, performing miracles one after another. The whole province is shrouded in the atmosphere of design innovation, giving the takeoff “wings” for the rise of Hebei industrial design.

▲HIDW Main activity poster of“Design’s Consruct of Pluriversality”

Create a closed loop of the design industry with three main activities. Industrial Design Innovation Achievement Exhibition, Xiong’an Design Forum, and International Design New Product Release Meeting are the three main activities that HIDW mainly constructs, setting up a top design dialogue stage and a gathering place for global design fine products in Xiong’an. Focusing on enterprises, design talents, and market construction, and gradually improving the design industry chain in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Xiong’an will be built into a design innovation highland, promoting the smooth connection of research and development of design, marketing display, and sales transactions, and gradually forming a sustainable industry driving force. As a service platform for the design industry, Design Week opens the door for people to think, communicate, practice and innovate.

1+N mode staged a wonderful creative journey. HIDW adopted the 1+N mode to set up the main meeting place in Xiong’an, and set up branch meeting places in various counties and cities in Hebei. The branch meeting places carried out various themed innovation activities based on the characteristics of various industries, from “1” to “N”, delivering the design nutrients to every corner of Hebei land.

Design to create a never-ending network meeting place. Since the second session, HIDW has tried various display methods such as WeChat applet. Affected by the COVID-19 in 2020, HIDW will build 3D immersive virtual exhibition hall through official applet to realize cloud business negotiation, intelligent customer service, online transactions and other functions, giving HIDW more entrance flow rate. The addition of Tik Tok commercial live broadcast room contributed 3.8 million online interactions for the Design Week, bringing the audience a design-filled exhibition experience. At the same time, HIDW has also grown into a network meeting place that will never end in 365 days beyond time and space. Its accumulated and triggered resources can exist for a long time in the form of information, therefore more possibilities can be acquired for value development.

“Take the pulse” of the enterprise with the power of design. In boosting Xiong’an New Area to develop high-end design industry and build a global design innovation highland and a future city, HIDW refreshes its own record every year. The three main activities, together with other supporting activities, open up the foreign cooperation channel of Hebei manufacturing industry, promote face-to-face dialogue between manufacturing enterprises and design experts from domestic and foreign countries, and “take the pulse” of Hebei manufacturing industry. The journey of design innovation is to lead the global design masters to various parts of Hebei, docking and analyzing the transformation experience of the manufacturing industry in various parts of Hebei on the spot, discussing the new path and direction of transformation and upgrading, so as to make the industrial design more down to earth.

Throughout the development of human civilization, from the agricultural era to the industry era and then to Internet era, the promotion of design innovation is inseparable behind the progress of human civilization. In 2020, the outbreak of COVID-19 has reshaped the global economy. The value of design creativity has penetrated into all fields in a more diversified way, and the way of production and life of human beings have also ushered in new changes under the interconnection of design. This great test of the global epidemic has given people new hope that design will lead the development of future cities and promote global collaboration, which has been given a more important mission.

It is a long-term vision and mission of HIDW to boost the planning of Xiong’an New Area and promote industrial transformation and upgrading with the power of design. This September, the mission will begin a new journey. That is, in 2021, the year of post-epidemic economic recovery, explore and co-create a more inclusive and sustainable economic development pattern with design, so that the social and economic system can continue to move forward in the crisis.

Keep pace with the times, without changing the original intention. Over the past three years, HIDW has been accompanied by three major guest countries including Finland, Germany, and Italy, as well as well-known design institutions and leading figures from Finland top international design companies, German Industrial Design Association, and Italian Industrial Design Association. It is connected with the Xiong’an New Area in industrial design, sustainable development, intelligent manufacturing, green ecology and other aspects. On the one hand, it introduces high-tech and high-end industries into the Xiong’an New Area. On the other hand, it also integrates humanized design into the planning and construction of the Xiong’an New Area, making the Xiong’an New Area become a warmer and more visionary city. In 2021, HIDW has not changed its original intention and chosen the United Kingdom as its major guest country, standing in the design dimension, it gathers the top design trends in the United Kingdom, integrates into the  development wave in the present era, breaks the design vision, and explores and touches the future world from a more diverse perspective.

In 2021, the forth HIDW will write a new legend again. Michael Young, the founder of Michael Young Studio (MYS), will continue to serve as the chief curator of HIDW, focusing on the forward-looking directions and future development trends of industrial design such as sustainable development, green ecology, industrial transformation and upgrading, with the exhibition full of design power and creativity to constantly impact the limited boundaries of human imagination, thus inspiring people to examine science and technology from a new perspective and redesign to apply, reshaping the interaction and connection of people, science and technology, and nature in the post-epidemic era.

▲Primary visual poster of three HIDWs

Three years for sharpening a sword, HIDW is born in Xiong’an New District for the future. From lighting up to energizing, from innovation to leading, HIDW introduces the global top design resources, breaks the inertia of traditional urban development, comprehensively opens a new pattern of design innovation, and energizes the construction of a green, intelligent, ecologically and livable “city of the future”.

In the future, Design Week will also think about the relationship between design and city, design and life, design and industry, and design and human beings from a higher dimensionality. Continuously challenge traditional cognition with design, and promote industrial upgrading, urban renewal, and social progress.

The future has come. Although the severe winter is encountered in 2021, we believe that where there is a light, there is a hope. In the new year, let us continue to work with HIDW to boost Hebei industrial design development with the power of design! Looking forward to the next three years will be better!

Finally, I wish you all

Happy new year and happy families

No fear of wind and rain, accompanied by warmth

See you in September, Xiong'an!