“00:00” – an ice cream packaging design – carries the meaning of “both the beginning and the end.” The ice creams, which form an iceberg, a flame and a pill, correspond to climate warning, rapid deforestation and health, respectively.
The design, made by inDare Design Strategy Ltd., won the German iF Design Gold Award in 2021. The company has received the “Red Dot: Best of the Best” award thrice and one iF Design Gold Award since 2016.
“These top industrial design awards have brought us both glory and growth,” said Levo Chen, founder of the company.
Chen was a designer for a Hong Kong company for five years before relocating to Shenzhen, to start his own company in 2015.
“If I have an idea, I can go to the electronics market, visit some factories and get samples done before I make a prototype, probably by the next day,” Chen said. He adds that Shenzhen’s location in the Pearl River Delta region and its developed manufacturing capacity provide fertile soil for industrial design.
Chen said that Hong Kong’s financial, tourism and retail industries are very advanced, but that there are relatively few opportunities in the fields of digital and electrical appliances. Shenzhen has given him a suitable stage to display his talents.
Shenzhen, a city known for its “copycat products” about a decade ago, now has won the largest number of German top industrial design awards in China for 11 consecutive years.
This year’s Red Dot Product Design and iF Design Award lists show that Shenzhen has won over 600 awards, accounting for about a quarter of the total in China.
The award-winning designs included Skyworth G90, a gaming monitor equipped with a large 48-inch 4K OLED screen, and Innozen’s physical aids for disabled children, which have helped about 230 children in China.
By entering and participating in top industrial design awards competitions and events, China’s companies can learn from others and keep moving forward, said Feng Changhong, president of the Shenzhen Industrial Design Profession Association.
Liu Liang, founder and CEO of Shenzhen-based Califor Design Co., believed that good industrial design can double the benefits of products and make people’s lives better and more convenient.
In his company’s exhibition hall, Red Dot award-winning products such as a foot mouse specially designed for disabled users, a splash-proof nail clipper and a hot water bottle suitable for the blind all convey such a design concept.
In 2008, Shenzhen became the first city in China that UNESCO awarded the title “City of Design.”
Up to now, there are over 150,000 industrial designers and over 1,400 professional industrial design companies in Shenzhen, more than half of which are high-tech companies.