Haier

The 4th Casarte Creative Competition was launched on the 30th anniversary celebration of Department of Industrial Design, Academy of Art & Design, Tsinghua University on November 1st. World top industrial designers such as Soon In Lee, Chairman of ICSID (International Council of Societies of Industrial Design), and Klaus Lehmann, Chairman of the jury of the European Design Awards were invited to the launching ceremony.

Kong Zhi, Senior Design Manager of Casarte shared the content of Intelligent Household Appliance Design in the Age of Internet with users on spot. “As an interactive platform oriented to young designers, especially college students, this activity encourages them to participate in the R&D, design and production of Casarte in the form of competition”, he observed.

14 sub competition areas were opened in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Qingdao, embracing students majoring in domestic and foreign industrial design, specialized designers and design amateurs. Comprising preliminary competitions and semi-finals, the competition covered 14 product categories including refrigerators and washing machines. The 4th Casarte Creative Competition will conduct a deep cooperation with Department of Industrial Design, Academy of Art & Design, Tsinghua University, set up a project with Casarte Creative Competition as the target, and creatively design Casarte household appliances on a targeted manner. More excellent works can be expected on the basis of university-enterprise collaboration.

So far, three Casarte Creative Competitions have been successfully held. The 3rd competition received 2076 works from 103 universities including Academy of Art & Design, Tsinghua University, Hunan University, Jiangnan University, Zhejiang University, Nanjing University of the Arts and Wuhan University of Technology, etc, which attracted tremendous attention. Up till now, of the 72 creative ideas concerning refrigerators which have entered semi-finals, 35 have begun the patent application process. Of the 20 concerning washing machines, 10 are under the patent application. Besides, materials for patent application have also been in preparation for other product categories.

Liu Guanzhong, “father of China industrial design”, doctoral supervisor at Department of Industrial Design, Academy of Art & Design, Tsinghua University, acted as the chief of the specialist panel for the 2nd consecutive year. “Casarte Creative Competition is a power from the society, which supports young people’s ideas like sunshine, water and air. Through this activity, the spirit of creation is passed on. I hope there will be more open interactive platforms like this in the future, injecting vitality into China’s industrial design,” he observed.