European experts look at Chinese packaging design

In today's highly developed human civilization, design has become an indispensable part of people's lives. It has become a culture of human society and will become an accelerator to promote economic and social development. In recent years, the rapid development of Shanghai's economy and the huge business opportunities contained in the 2010 World Expo have led some large foreign companies to move their design centers and R&D centers to Shanghai. Some excellent design companies and excellent designers at home and abroad have also settled in Shanghai. .

It is against this unique background that on September 16-18, 2004, the Shanghai Foreign Science and Technology Exchange Center held the Shanghai Design Biennale at the Shanghai Exhibition Center. The theme of this year's event is "Design, Make Life Better", including the "Second Shanghai International Design Innovation Forum" and the exhibition. The forum invited a total of 69 Chinese and foreign design experts to give special reports, including Anne Marie Boutin, President of the French Department of Industrial Design, Picaud, Design Director of Decathlon, Lee D. Green, Global Design Director of IBM, USA, and Hartmut Esslinger, CEO of Frog Design, German frog design. , Toshiba Design Center general manager on the film, etc.; the exhibition area of ​​5,000 square meters, more than 100 booths, including foreign institutions and companies accounted for more than half.

Surprisingly, in such an integrated design and exchange conference in which mechanical design, environmental design, and art design were integrated into one, more than a dozen domestic packaging design companies and associations organized large-scale exhibitions. The packaging design that has been highly valued by the printing and packaging industry in developed countries and is in the high value-added part of the industry chain has also attracted widespread attention from domestic counterparts, indicating that China's printing and packaging companies have begun to play a role from manufacturing processors to advanced suppliers of manufacturing products. Transition and take advantage of opportunities to actively participate in various international events and international exchanges.

During the exhibition, we visited Mr. Stephane Bertoux, CEO of Nice Design, a well-known design company in France, hoping to understand China's packaging design market and its vision from a brand-new point of view, a European designer. The consumer groups find a clear path for the design of Chinese ethnic products and find a way out.

Mr. Stephane, who was interviewed, has four years of working experience in China and has unique insights into the Chinese design market and Chinese culture. In the interview, his humorous language, wise insights, and insightful analysis left us a deep impression. It also enabled us to realize that packaging design is not only the beautification and protection of the product itself, but also the national culture, economy, and legal system. Concentrated reflection of ideas.

European designers see China's packaging design

In China, due to the coexistence of various systems, various economic forms, and various consumer groups, the Chinese market has become a hodgepodge of packaging culture and packaging products in countries around the world. In large-scale supermarkets, packaging products of various styles are dazzling and varied, and products representing Chinese ethnic design styles are rare and generally lack individuality and humanized design. In a word, the Chinese packaging design market is in an overall irregular situation. status.

I. Characteristics of Chinese Consumer Groups
The characteristics of the Chinese people: Chinese consumers are very curious, easy to accept new things, and their ability to learn is also very strong. However, due to China’s full speed of opening up, the development of thinking cannot keep up with the speed of economic development, and it has received various foreign cultures. Strong intrusion led to the entire nation in a state of unconsciousness of the group. In the conflict between nationality and internationality, there was nowhere to make it, and the national brand and national culture were in a state of inhibition in the short term.

Second, the gap between the design of China and Europe

1. Differences in living environment: Economic and cultural advantages enable Europe to be in the high-end market in the global economic and industrial chain, and can continuously export high-value-added design and R&D products to enter third-world countries for profit. China, on the other hand, is located in the low-end market of the world's economic and industrial chain, and is positioned in the process of product processing and reproduction. This has caused ethnic enterprises to be in a doldrums, unable to achieve the spread of national culture, and even less able to talk about the nationality of design. Here, we must mention that China’s private economy, which is currently developing at a high speed, is a private enterprise in Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu. Although the starting point is low, it is developing at a very fast pace, and it is developing to a global economy by leaps and bounds. Look on. The rise of these ethnic enterprises has found a direction for China’s national industry, allowing the entire Chinese community to establish confidence and build loyalty to the national brands.

2. Different design concepts: Due to the economic integration of the EU, you can see European countries' products in large-scale supermarkets in European countries. They generally comply with some international standards while maintaining their own national style. We can The unique style of each country clearly distinguishes British products, German products and French products. Chinese counterparts are too much to abandon their nationality, proud of the conceptual imitation of overseas products, and misinterpreted the concept of modern commodity packaging.

3. Intellectual Property System: Developed countries in the world, such as Europe, have relatively mature intellectual property protection systems. They can use legal means to protect the designer's design work from infringement and guarantee the implementation of the design from the policy. The related systems and systems in China have not yet been fully established. In order to reduce costs, model and plagiarism have become mainstream.

4. Talent Structure Composition: Professional design institutes, professional design groups, and professional design organizations are very active in foreign countries. In China, in recent years, there have been some loose organizations and universities, such as design professionals, design associations, and design salons. These resources are It takes a certain amount of time for effective integration and utilization to give full play to its role.

5. Design cycle: The consumption cycle of the Chinese market and overseas markets is different. The period of replacement of general European design is 5-6 months, while that of China is 1-2 years. The design itself must be improved in the negation, overthrow, and change. , so the length of the cycle also played a major role in promoting the development of packaging design.

6. Market segmentation: In Europe, personalized design has become the mainstream, not only that different brands need to be differentiated by design, even if the different types of the same brand product must also be designed to distinguish their different characteristics, and the design becomes an interpretive product that is subtle and unique. One of the features of the means. The situation in China is just the opposite. The boundaries between Chinese product brands and the product segmentation are not clear, and even the design of different brand products tends to be similar.

Third, China's packaging design opportunities and challenges

China’s huge consumer market and its cooperating with all countries in the economy, culture, and trade will bring about the rapid maturation of Chinese consumer groups, bring about the development of supporting packaging industry, and bring about the improvement of corresponding laws and regulations such as intellectual property rights. This brings valuable experience that countries around the world can use for reference. China's packaging design market will also develop rapidly in this change. But it will also face challenges. The challenge comes from the competitive pressures of excellent foreign packaging design companies such as Europe, Japan, and the United States, because both Chinese local design companies and foreign companies have the same target groups, which are China's consumption. Group services, while foreign-funded enterprises are very mature in design history, design experience and design concept, and are also very willing to integrate Chinese culture into their domestic design experience to better serve the Chinese consumer groups. So what will China's national design industry do before this challenge? This is something that all industries and people concerned about this industry must seriously consider.

Editor's Note: This interview gave us a deeper understanding of the design industry. Design industry as a product of ideology is an industry closely related to a country’s policy, economy, culture, and system. Its development and promotion must be Relying on the improvement of the country’s overall national strength and the improvement of the overall quality of the nation requires the joint efforts of all of us to work together toward the rejuvenation of the nation with our goals and conscious efforts.

"Nest Design" Introduction: A design company based in Paris, with 15 years of design experience. Since 2000, cooperation with Chinese companies has been the only French design company to integrate the Chinese market into the company's international market development plan and to fully promote cooperation with Chinese companies. The target customer group is for Chinese companies who want to be an international market, and for French companies that want to develop the Chinese market, providing various forms of design solutions such as brands, products, packaging, business environment, and network interaction. The current project cooperation with the Shanghai World Expo and the Beijing Olympic Committee is also in progress.

Mr. Stephane Bertoux, Chief Executive Officer, introduced: 1984-1989 is the director of new product development for a French news media company. In 1989, he also founded this design company with Laurent FERRAGU at the age of 26. The development is now the only French design company that develops business in the Chinese market. His own specialty is to do market research analysis and do design development reviews. It is the identity of the manager of the design bank. He regularly publishes articles in professional magazines in France (the magazine "Marketing Marketing" in France, "La Tribune in the pulpit" and other magazines) also received an interview with Radio France inter. He wrote "Neste". His own publication - "Nest Star": A publication that reflects the current market development and design trends in France. Since cooperating with Chinese companies four years ago, he has been committed to developing communication with Chinese companies in design and market. Trying to improve the image of Chinese brands in China and the international market from the perspective of market development strategy and design.