China and Industrial Design

My design professors in college were terrified of China's industrial design community. China apparently creates more industrial designers from college graduations every year, than exists in total in the US. Danish designers seem arrogantly aloof on the topic until recently as per this discussion on Design + Innovation. Now they are terrified.

This discussion about China needs to stop; or maybe rather change it's tone. Yes there exists a trend of growing Chinese design prevalence. But there will be a tomorrow. To quote Ron Pompeii: "If you are worried about China, you are looking in the rear-view mirror." The great thing about trends, is that they change. Industrial design as we know it right this second is in our rear view mirror. Good designers, who are smart will turn around and look forward, watch the road ahead, learn skills that are needed for this new world of product design & creation, and continue up the road.

This article sheds some interesting light on the topic. It's written by Chinese Designers, and does not pacify any worries, but gives an interesting new perspective to this issue - an inside look from China.

I don't know how it will happen but China will taper off in growth once they fairly values their currency, or maybe when cheap abundant labor is organized in Africa. My point is, dooms days discussions about China are just ignorant. China is simply an additional competitor to the scene. As long as business demands quality total company innovation to drive product sales, even China with their non-sustainable advantages of cheap labor cannot compete with this standard. Businesses must adapt to work with, or side step China in order to generate wealth. China will only force out bad businesses and bad designers who do not adapt to a changing world, and that's fine by me.