Top of the Great Era

Chapter 3104 The Aesthetics of Design

With the successful listing of Ziweixing and Ziweixing International, Zhou Buqi’s next major move is to promote the listing of Aisda Group.

To this end, he personally took part in the design and development of AsterPods, a Bluetooth wireless headset product under Aster, as a product manager. The Chinese name is "AsterPods".

Aster has two major brands, Aster and Motorola, with the Chinese names of Aster and Motorola. One focuses on high-end, and the other focuses on mid-to-low-end. As you can tell from the name of this headset, it focuses on the high-end market, and the price is at least several hundred yuan.

This time when he returned to China, Zhou Buqi mainly held a meeting with the team to determine the final version of the headphone form.

After more than 40 adjustments, he finally got a solution that satisfied him.

Next, you can proceed with engineering debugging.

"The mainstream aesthetic of hardware in the world now is based on the Nordic style of minimalism, with white being the main color. Our designers must study the Nordic aesthetic trends, which have formed a global consensus on high-end aesthetic trends."

Zhou Buqi finally finalized the design of the final version of the headphones. He also had to come up with some conceptual arguments to position the long-term product iterations.

"We are not masters of aesthetics, but it doesn't matter. We just need to do a good job of copying and extending the product. Our product designs, not only for headphones, but also for mobile phones, speakers, electronic watches, tablets, chargers, and even packaging products, must have a similar design style. To put it bluntly, we just need to do a good job of copying!"

"There is no imitation of similar products. We can look at the windows, floors, clothes, shoes, hats, school bags, furniture, refrigerators, color TVs, sofas designed by Nordic designers. We can draw inspiration from all aspects. This is the main trend of global modern products."

"Don't be embarrassed, the market determines product design. We are not artists, what we need to do is to display art in the application end. Just like the concept of science and technology, technology companies do not need to do too much academic scientific research. What they need to do is to realize scientific results in the technology end and apply them in the market. The best product designer is definitely not an artist, but an intermediary between art and the market, and a 'product manager' of art."

Zhou Buqi set the tone for everyone.

This is a general trend in product design style and a modern international trend. It is impossible for Mr. Zhou to continue to be the chief designer of the headphone business at Aster. After designing the style of the first AsterPods, the general framework was determined.

Unless something major happens in the future, I won’t change anything and will continue along this path.

A designer named Li Jiaming asked: "Should we follow Apple's direction?"

This is not just his problem.

In fact, this is also the feeling of every designer present.

They are all experts.

When Boss Zhou said this, the first impression that came to everyone’s mind was the design concept of Apple products.

Is Asda going to completely copy Apple?

Zhou Buqi was frank and said, "I believe there is no need to hide this. We can all see that Apple's products are indeed unique in the field of design. Ten or twenty years ago, it was the world of Japanese companies such as Sony and Panasonic. Now it is different. The hardware products that best represent the global aesthetic trend are Apple's series."

This will make some people somewhat dissatisfied.

One designer asked: "So, are we doing Astar or Apple? If we imitate Apple, how can we build our own Astar brand? How can we promote our own design concepts?"

Also present were many company executives.

Hearing this, a vice president of product named Chen Dong said, "Why are we imitating Apple? This is not true! The reality is that Apple has been imitating us, and this is obvious to all around the world. From fingerprint unlocking to smart voice, as well as large screen design, ceramic shell, glass shell design, and multi-color style, which one is not Apple imitating us?"

Zhou Buqi nodded, looked at Chen Dong, and instructed: "Regarding this, we need to hold a meeting at the company level to reach a consensus among all employees. Many colleagues seem to have some misunderstandings just like the outside world."

Chen Dong accepted it immediately: "I'll arrange it later." Zhou Buqi returned to the previous topic, "Apple is not just a design concept, let's take the iPhone for example. Is the current iPhone the same as the iPhone in the past? Can anyone tell me, from the perspective of product design, what is the difference between the iPhone in the Steve Jobs era and the iPhone 6 that sold well around the world this year?"

The designer named Li Jiaming replied: "There are indeed many differences. Jobs was a fan of Japanese aesthetics. So the iPhones in Jobs' era all had Japanese aesthetics, small and beautiful, emphasizing naturalism. The current iPhone 6... seems to continue the style of the previous generations, but in fact, from the perspective of design concept, it has completely changed and has become a more practical Nordic style."

Then, he briefly explained the difference between the two.

The Japanese style is very similar to the Nordic style, both have a minimalist style, but there are also subtle differences.

For example, windows.

Japan advocates small windows, which give a hazy feeling of gray and light when the sunlight shines in, which is a typical Japanese aesthetic; it is different in Northern Europe, which is close to the North Pole and has very little sunlight, so what they pursue is cleanliness and transparency, large windows, floor-to-ceiling windows, and as much light as possible.

In terms of mobile phone design, the difference is between small-screen mobile phones and large-screen mobile phones.

When Steve Jobs was alive, he sneered at the large-screen mobile phones in the Aster series produced by Asta, believing that they were simple and crude and lacked artistry. He believed that only small screens could give a warm and natural feeling and could be held in the hands in a very natural state.

It’s different now. This year’s iPhone 6 completely overturns the design style of the past Steve Jobs era.

Following the example of Estar, we are also moving towards the Nordic style.

Play with big screens, play with multiple color combinations, play with multiple materials, play with irregularities.

He spoke a lot and sounded very professional.

Zhou Buqi doesn't have much knowledge about design, but he has more contact with Apple people and understands them better. "It is true. Jobs is a fan of Japanese aesthetics. Jobs' iPhone imitates the design of Japanese hardware products, but it is better than the original. And Estar's mobile phone has been positioned as Nordic style from the beginning. Do you understand? The changes in iPhone 6 are not us imitating Apple. On the contrary, Apple is moving closer to us!"

Reasonable and well-founded.

This immediately cheered everyone up.

After all, for many highly educated people, especially those with a strong artistic sentiment, plagiarism is a torture. The collective backwardness of Japanese hardware products is not due to cost and product quality, but in fact, it is due to the persistence of design and the rejection of plagiarism.

When the Japanese style is no longer popular around the world, it will be difficult for them to cater to the market if they do not change. After being accustomed to the avant-garde design of domestic mobile phones, looking at Japanese mobile phones, you will feel like you have traveled back to several years ago.

Zhou Buqi went on to say: "Apple's changes are mainly two-fold. The first is that the iPhone 5s is less competitive in terms of sales. Asda's Aster series and Samsung's Galaxy series have a larger market share in the high-end phone field. The market requires Apple to make changes, and they must compromise on design."

"The second point, and the most crucial one, is that Jonathan, the chief designer during Jobs' time, left Apple. Cook appointed a new chief designer, which led to the revamped iPhone 6 that is now a global bestseller. This can be said to be Cook's biggest subversion of Jobs, and the market has proven that he has done a good job."

"From this we can also see what commercial companies care about most? It's the market! What the market likes is what we do. Today, the Nordic style is sweeping the world, so we will do the Nordic style. Tomorrow, if the Indian style leads the world, then we will change to the Indian style. There is nothing to be ashamed of. The pursuit of design is essentially the recognition of the market. This is not an artist's studio, this is a large company with tens of thousands of employees. Our products have the responsibility to feed tens of thousands of families."

"I know that many friends in the design industry don't have a good opinion of Cook. But I think he has done a better job than Jobs. If Jobs were alive today and insisted on his Japanese aesthetics, Apple's market value would not be so high. Cook's compromise has allowed Apple to gain market recognition again and again. When we design products, we must also balance concepts and the market. Designers must think like product managers."

"I believe this headphone product can lead an era. At least, if Apple launches a headphone product in the future, it must imitate us! We can wait patiently, we can open our arms, and we welcome every competitor to copy us!"

……

After the meeting, Zhou Shaoning went to see Zhou Buqi with a worried look on his face.

iPhone 6 is popular all over the world.

The sales of this year’s latest model Aster6 has dropped by 27% year-on-year, which is very troublesome!