{"id":68422,"date":"2025-01-13T09:11:24","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T08:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/?p=68422"},"modified":"2025-01-13T09:11:24","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T08:11:24","slug":"interview-to-chen-zheng-geely-design-forum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/2025\/01\/interview-to-chen-zheng-geely-design-forum\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW TO CHEN ZHENG \u2013 GEELY DESIGN FORUM"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/div><\/div>

The International Automotive Design Forum organized by Geely Design at the end of the year has become a reference event for Chinese car design and for the entire sector worldwide. After the 2023 edition (entitled “Good Design is Powerful”, with which Geely also celebrated the 10th anniversary of the creation of its design division), the 2024 forum on the theme “Chinese Design – Global Aesthetics” was held at the Shanghai Powerlong Museum last December, dedicated to the impact that aesthetics has on automotive design. The aim was to explore new strategies for integrating different cultural influences to create new designs in line with global trends, while maintaining their own uniqueness.<\/p>\n

Many industry experts, together with the Vice President of Geely Auto Group Chen Zheng, addressed the themes of the Forum: internationally renowned designers (in particular, Giorgetto Giugiaro, Andreas Zapatinas, Atsuhiko Yamada), professors from major Chinese universities, representatives from the world of culture and the specialized press (including Auto&Design). After the event, we asked Chen Zheng what conclusions he gathered from the day.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Which is your feedback about this year\u2019s Design Forum?<\/b><\/p>\n

In the era of intelligent electric vehicles, the Chinese automotive industry is capturing global attention. This year’s forum, themed “Chinese Design \u00b7 Global Aesthetics,” has echoed this trend in a profound way. Design serves as a powerful force for brand elevation and acts as a bridge connecting culture, emotion, and value. By exploring ways to integrate the Chinese culture heritage with shared elements of global aesthetics, we aim to infuse new vitality into industry innovation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Did any remarks emerge, in particular, that have impressed you and that you and your designers will keep in mind in your future creative activities?<\/b><\/p>\n

I found Giorgetto Giugiaro\u2019s insights particularly inspiring during the forum. Despite his advanced age, he emphasized the crucial role of courage in breaking conventions and embracing innovation. Additionally, Andreas Zapatinas highlighted how innovation often emerges from challenges and constraints. I fully resonate with this viewpoint: innovation frequently arises from what we may initially perceive as \u201cmistakes.\u201d It necessitates stepping outside our comfort zones, confronting obstacles, and identifying breakthroughs within existing rules and limitations, thereby transforming the \u201cimpossible\u201d into viable solutions.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

We have listened with great interest to the extensive research work on the roots of Chinese culture you have conducted together with academic institutions. How will this aspect be combined in the future with the increasing presence of advanced technology on board?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our research findings have already been well integrated into our designs. For instance, we have applied the philosophy of “Design must be intentional,” derived from the Chinese classic work “Zhou Li – Kaogong Ji,” to the Geely Galaxy Starship 7 EM-i. This approach allows us to blend Chinese culture and aesthetics seamlessly into modern design. By putting theoretical concepts into practice, we are able to gather valuable market feedback, which helps us iteratively refine and enhance our approach. This continuous cycle of cognition in practice not only validates our theories but also enables more profound and extensive application.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":68416,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[949,545],"class_list":["post-68422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-extra-en","tag-geely-en","tag-geely-design-en"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-25 19:22:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68422"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68424,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68422\/revisions\/68424"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}