China’s shift from manufacturing to design-driven innovation
Last update on Aug 13, 2007
This article was originally published on August 13, 2007 and revised in 2025.
This guide highlights China’s shift from ‘Made in China’ to ‘Designed in China.’ It shows how rising local talent, global influence, and specialized design firms like Design Innovation and Titoma are driving stylish, market-ready products while optimizing cost-efficient manufacturing.
Rising talent and global influence shape China’s design future
Until recently, most of what China's factories produced was designed elsewhere. Now, like the Japanese in the 1970s and the Koreans in the 1990s, Chinese companies aim to achieve higher margins and market share with stylish, well-designed products. China's goal is to transition from 'Made in China' to 'Designed in China.'
This represents a significant change from a decade ago, when industrial design was virtually unheard of in China. Today the country has 200 design schools producing up to 8,000 graduates per year.
Hundreds more top Chinese students are attending the best US and European graduate programs in design. Increasingly, companies such as LG Electronics, Siemens Mobile, Electrolux, and GM are using young local designers. These designers understand local tastes and create products tailored to China's domestic market. Local companies as well as multinationals are seeking to enhance their brands through better design. Chinese designs are even finding their way onto some North American and European shelves.
Design Innovation, established in 1985, is a Asian based product design consultancy, with a professional team of local and international designers. A subsidiary of the Hong Kong Productivity Council, DI believes in creating designs that help clients add value to their productivity, which in turn enhance earning potential and increase profits.
Design services offered by DI include product, graphic and packaging design. The company has provided design solutions for over 700 products, from concepts through working prototypes. Clients include Mass Transit Railway Corp., Olympia Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Opal Cosmetics Ltd. (Hong Kong), Polaroid Asia Pacific International Inc., SEB Asia Ltd., Tandy Radio Shack Ltd., and YKK Corp.
Titoma streamlines electronic design for cost-efficient manufacturing
Titoma offers product development of electronic products specifically for low cost manufacturing in China to brand owners and marketers, looking for a turnkey solution. The company is founded on the principle of 'Design For Asian Manufacturing' (DFAM). This principle states that any mass-produced electronic product can only reach its full profit potential when development fully considers cost-down factors.
These particularities of China manufacturing must be addressed right from the start. Titoma's electronic engineers have been managing electronic product design and manufacturing in Asia for 25 years. The firm is capable of developing a wide range of electronic products, with all disciplines required for turnkey development of electronic products available.
Titoma works closely with local manufacturers to avoid reinventing the wheel. Its Taiwan office coordinates component sourcing and stays in constant dialogue with local manufacturers. This allows them to know when new chipsets and technologies become available at a price level that makes mass commercialization feasible.