Zhang Yu

JeniZhang13@163.com

CHRISTOPHE BRANCHU is a French industrial designer who has been living in China for five years. He stayed in Shanghai for two years before quickly deciding to relocate to Shenzhen. He is the co-founder of JU&KE Creative Design Studio, which was founded in Shenzhen last year.

Although the studio is in an early stage, it has already made some accomplishments. At this year’s CES Asia 2017, two designs from the studio won the annual CES Asia Innovation Awards, which honors products that demonstrate amazing ingenuity, unique features and outstanding design in consumer technology. Recently, a 3-D VR camera designed by the studio won the 2018 German Design Award for Excellent Product Design, the highest distinction in the field of design in Germany.

In Branchu’s view, Shenzhen is a paradise for designers, especially industrial designers. “Today, Shenzhen can really be seen as a Silicon Valley of hardware. The Silicon Valley in the United States focuses on software, while Shenzhen is like his sister or brother, focusing on hardware. It is desperately in need of more designers, as I can see myself trying to hire more designers.”

What attracted him to Shenzhen is that it offers the best quality of life in China. It has a lot of green space and it is convenient to go to many different places. Also, it is an international city with a good blend of people from China and abroad. He thinks that the city’s government is going in the right direction, especially concerning industrial development. The process of setting up a company here has been simplified, which will help Shenzhen lure many young entrepreneurs.

He mentioned that there is a trend in China toward speed. Everything is moving so fast and it’s very motivating. But sometimes when you go fast, you don’t have the time to ensure quality, which can be very frustrating for designers who like to get down to the details.

Nevertheless, he thinks the way manufacturers do things in China is good. For instance, a project that takes one year in France only takes six months in China. The companies can get a lot of feedback from the first product so the second one will be much better and is always improving.

For Branchu, living and working in Shenzhen has helped him understand China in a different way. He is glad to see Chinese companies like Huawei and DJI rising up and Western people starting to see very cool products from China, because it pushes overseas companies to make the extra effort to compete with China.

“My little brother and his friends are huge fans of Chinese companies, because they are making a lot of good products. Every time I go back to France, my little brother gives me a list of products made in China,” he said.