Shenzhen's design industry has the lead nationwide with a comparatively high marketing level and close connection with other industries. Shenzhen has become a major design hub and one of the leading cities in China with a strong modern design industry.
Shenzhen's design strength is divided into four categories － design departments within enterprises, professional design companies (design institutes), design centers of research institutions or institutions of higher learning, and independent designers' studios. The first three categories involve the main strength of Shenzhen's design industry.
Many elite designers who have substantial influence in the domestic design industry are from Shenzhen. The history of Shenzhen's construction is also the history of development of Shenzhen's design industry. Over the years, Shenzhen has created many records in domestic design circles and has been at the forefront in the field of domestic design.
The “China Design Now” exhibition was held at the Victoria & Albert Museum of the United Kingdom in March 2008. The exhibition focused on three Chinese cities in three sections － Shenzhen section, Shanghai section and Beijing section. Shenzhen is put at the premier part of the first section, an indication that modern design was initiated in South China and gradually extended from south to north. The industrialization and market economy of Shenzhen placed the city on the front line of China's designer circles. Graphic design, as the base for modern design, originated in Shenzhen where the graphic design level has become a national barometer. The Exhibition of Chinese Graphic Design was held in 1992 and seen as a milestone in the development of graphic design. Its influence spread to the southern part of China and then the whole country. A nationwide wave of graphic design was thus formed, triggering achievements in areas such as design, advertising, fashion, publishing, printing and packaging. Apart from that, Shenzhen's architectural design industry has long been acclaimed as the frontrunner in domestic design circles. Nearly half the landmark buildings in China were designed by Shenzhen designers. Shenzhen enterprises have garnered the most awards in national architectural design appraisals. The buildings designed by Shenzhen designers have become landmarks of Shenzhen and other Chinese cities.
Shenzhen adjoins Hong Kong, a world-renowned design metropolis. It is the southern gate of the Pan Pearl River Delta and has many Pan Pear River Delta cities as backup. The obviously favorable geographic location, rapidly developing economy and high-tech industry together with the transformation of the Shenzhen-made stereotype to the Shenzhen-designed stereotype have offered larger development space for Shenzhen's design industry. Shenzhen's industrial design products account for more than 49 percent of the national market share and are superior to their nationwide counterparts. Shenzhen has a particular advantage in the design of light industrial products, including watches and clocks, medical instruments, telecommunication products, electronic products, toys and furniture.
A large number of famous design exhibitions have begun to favor Shenzhen. Apart from the Graphic Design Exhibition in China, an original Shenzhen-based exhibition which has become a leading event in Chinese graphic design circles with a reputation abroad, Shenzhen has witnessed an enhanced national influence in other design circles and has hosted many important domestic design conferences and exhibitions. The Architectural Design Summit, the highest-ranking conference in the domestic architectural design sector under the sponsorship of the China Architecture Design & Research Group, has been held in Shenzhen since 2003 after being staged for years in Beijing. Shenzhen Fiyta (Group) Co. Ltd. has signed a five-year co-operative deal with the Fine Arts Institute of Qinghua University, a prominent Chinese institute in design education, to hold a watch design competition in Shenzhen on an annual basis. In addition, Design Competition of Innovative Products, China International Industrial Design Competition, China Elite Competition of Industrial Design, China International Brand-Design Exhibition and many other design competitions and exhibitions enjoying high nationwide influence have chosen Shenzhen as their host city, and the trend is continuing.
Shenzhen is home to more than 10 creative design bases, with a large number of professional designers and design enterprises. Ten world-famous designers have been stationed in the Tianmian Creative Industrial Estate, including Philip Stark, one of the world's top designers; Luigi Colani, famous German industrial designer; and Hiroaki Tanaka, famous Japanese industrial designer. John Hawkins, "British father of the creative industry," has also signed a deal to set up his studio in the Tianmian Creative Industrial Estate.
