干货|专访英国皇家艺术学院院士Paul Priestman（二）

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文章来源：国创中心、 国家高速列车技术创新中心

源网址：https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/A1_7zNmAKFtDphuS3-aFcQ

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履历/简介

世界知名工业设计大师Paul Priestman 是国家高速列车技术创新中心首席创意专家，以指导面向未来及最前沿的大型复杂高端交通项目而知名，曾带领过包括伦敦地铁、真空轨道胶囊列车、空客飞机内饰、香港地铁车等诸多项目。

Priestman先生于1987年创立国际知名设计公司PriestmanGoode（简称PG），并一直担任公司董事长至2022年4月。在Priestman先生带领下，PG公司曾被授予女王大奖—最优质企业奖（英国官方颁发给企业的最高荣誉），屡获红点奖、Travel + Leisure奖，伦敦设计大奖等国际设计大奖。

Priestman先生在交通领域以创新型解决方案久负盛名 ，服务的客户有英国交通部、巴西航空工业、伦敦交通局、希思罗机场、皇家加勒比邮轮、维珍航空等。

小到智能手机托架和节水装置，大到航空用具和交通工具，Priestman先生的创新思维，以及他将概念设计转化为落地方案的设计能力为他赢得大量设计大奖，其中包括伦敦设计节最具创新设计金奖。

Priestman先生被《泰晤士报》评为世界最具影响力人物之一，被《晚间时报》评为最具影响力伦敦人之一。

Priestman先生常年受邀担任国际设计大赛评审和项目专家，3次作为英国设计创新领域行业代表随英国首相代表团访华，并受聘于多家政府和文化机构，担任高品质设计项目和创意类项目常任顾问。

Priestman先生也是国家高速列车技术创新中心首席创意专家。

近期，Priestman先生接受了国创中心的独家采访，主要观点提炼如下：

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Part.6

艺术和科学结合

工业设计师所拥有的技能是，将高度创新性的艺术性思维与复杂的工程知识及工艺结合考虑。这是一种奇怪的结合，因为这一技能不是在学校可以学会的，因为通常年轻人面临的是艺术和科学的割裂，这两类学科通往两个不同的事业方向。

让人欣慰的是，一些大学，如同济大学和皇家艺术学院为本科生开设了高品质的交通工具设计课程，交通工具的设计也被视为一条很有前景的就业之路，这一行业为越来越多的年轻人所了解和喜爱，愿意以此为职业。

Part.7

使用最新的设计工具

工业设计是一门不断提升和开发的专业技能，设计师的工具不断更新迭代，快速变革，曾经的铅笔和草图本已经演变成平板电脑，很多设计师更愿意直接在高性能电脑上用像Alias这样的软件工作。

在工业设计领域，快速成型也是一个进步迅速的领域。例如你不能只在电脑中设计一个椅子，因为椅子是人需要触碰到的东西，必须舒服，所以能够快速准确制作用于设计评审的模型的能力也是十分关键的。

当代工业设计师要利用现有的工具和成果，成长为有创造性思维和丰富经验的优秀设计师。

Part.8

设计是为别人设计

作为皇家艺术学院工业设计系毕业生以及皇艺的荣誉院士，我一直担任创意总监及设计团队带头人，参与了许多重大的复杂项目，如空客A380飞机的初始内装、Hyperloop旅客胶囊，伦敦新地铁车等。我相信设计才能和对于立体造型的理解是跨越国界的。

作为一个优秀的设计师，你需要明白他人的要求和需求，因为你不只是为自己设计，而是为别人设计，这个人可能比你比你老，比你年轻，可能在世界其他地方，有不同的文化。

在我的经验里，优秀的设计师很少，可能来自世界任何国家，任何地区。在世界不同地区，设计专业未来的发展道路不同，在不同国家设计的受重视程度也不同，这些都影响了年轻人的在设计领域的职业选择。

Part.9

设计是商业核心之一

设计的重要性以及公司品牌对其价值的认知是十分重要的。

在世界最成功的交通工具品牌中，随意挑出一个，他们都是非常重视设计的作用。而不太在乎设计的价值的公司，往往都是不那么成功的。

公司的设计文化是非常重要的，设计文化不是企业产品和服务肤浅的风格，而是商业核心。

很多成功的顶级品牌对设计非常重视，并聘用专门的设计总监，身居董事会高职。设计总监不仅有设计背景，还有管理能力。我认为中国的顶级公司需要考虑聘请高级设计经理和设计总监，可以代表公司在设计方面进行决策。

我还建议，像同济这样的大学应该设立设计管理专业的研究生课程，为设计总监的培养进行人才储备。

Part.10

人工智能帮助设计和工程最佳结合

人工智能是当下很火的词，已经对产品和服务的开发产生了巨大影响。设计师已经在设计过程中使用人工智能。例如，在通风格栅上采用几何图案，设计师可以设定开放区域的尺寸，让人工智能在格栅上重复某种图案，设计师再进行选择和优化。这种技术节约了大量时间，同时确保所有方案都可落地的，满足技术限制。

人工智能在设计行业一定会有一席之地，我敢肯定这是一个越来越重要的工具，有很多有趣的调研和实验在挖掘人工智能的应用领域和潜能。

技术的发展，让设计越来越高效、迅速和准确。例如，在设计项目的初始阶段，设计师会收到其设计时需考虑的工程数据，然后生成概念设计，选定一个设计方向，结合工程要求进行评估调整，确保最终设计满足全部的要求，这是个逐步推进的过程。在大多项目阶段需要重复这些步骤，直到最终设计和工程数据确定完善。

现在已经有很多技术和软件，让设计师和工程师共享设计及工程计算机模型，保证一直满足设计和结构标准，最终的设计成果是设计和工程数据的整合，无需调整。这是设计和工程的最佳结合。

Part.11

中国拥有成功的设计所必须的能量

据我所知，中国的效率比世界其他任何地区都高。我一直感觉中国的环境让人十分兴奋。

这里的人有信心和决心，决策迅速果断，这是成功的设计所必须的能量。

我相信世界创意中心将从欧洲转移到太平洋沿岸。沿太平洋的顺时针方向的一些创意型城市：上海、韩国、东京、旧金山、悉尼、新加坡等。

我相信上海是到目前为止最具活力和创意的企业，将吸引最优秀的设计师和创意人才来这里工作。

普利创新是一家设计创新公司，专注于交通和出行领域。公司注册于上海市静安区，投资方为中国的大型国企、政府资金和知名大学基金，在设计、创新、研发、工程等领域都可提供专业的服务。

现在大多数公司都明白，设计在于推动公司成功过程中的重要性，但很多公司并不知道如何有效利用设计工具。中国许多大型公司在需要进行工业设计开发时，会找外国的设计公司，但结果有好有坏，设计在文化上不一定正确，也不一定满足全部的技术要求。普利创新公司位于中国，可以很好地解决沟通问题或者文化差异，提供高品质的国际专业设计支持。

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独家采访英文记录

1.   How you feel about the future of the industrial design in the global rolling stock industry? And what`s your insight on the future of the technology aspect of the industrial design?

 

Industrial design has a major role in the future of the global rolling stock industry. One of the big challenges facing the planet is the environment, and travel and transport has it’s important part to play in reducing emissions. Design is a powerful tool that can make the mundane enjoyable, product and services more attractive and change people’s choices to the better.  Through the careful an expert design of trains, light rail and integrated autonomous transport systems the industry can offer a more attractive and convenient form of travel over and above the default use of cars. The challenge in the rail industry is how we persuade people to use public transport and not always use private cars.  Key areas to be designed, engineered and manufactured to help ease the ongoing transition to the use of public transport is to eliminate the negative aspects of public transport perceived by many people. The ultimate aim of course is a seamless home to destination journey the drawers out the benefit of public transport and reduces it's sticking points. I believe that many of these negative perceptions can be eliminated from the rail industry through design. 

 

For instance one of the main advantages of taking high-speed rail from one city to another over and above taking an aeroplane is that the train takes you from the centre of one city to the centre of another city avoiding the inevitable long journey to and from an airport outside the city. But airports have been cleverly designed and built over the years not only as a transit point but also as an attractive retail and dining experience. This is added to the appeal of flying over and above taking the train, so it is not just about the travelling it is the whole journey experience. Airports in some cases have become a destination in their own right and a place to visit even without flying such as Cheney airport in Singapore and the new Istanbul airport. These airports generate lucrative revenue that pay for their running and development and avoid dependency on government funding. Why have rail stations not been able to make this same transition and why are there only a few examples of successful destination rail stations anywhere in the world. Whilst MTR in Hong Kong first pioneered the development model of building shopping malls on top of metro and rail stations but they are almost separate entities. King's Cross St Pancras in London is a very popular retail and restaurant hub in it own entity, in particular in the evenings and weekends, not during peak travel times. This has been achieved through the design of the station from the beginning as an attractive destination not purely as a place to take the train from.  So one way of attracting more people to the railways is to design stations and interchanges to be more attractive and appealing.

 

Since 2021 during the pandemic many cities re-evaluated the priorities and hierarchy of transport modes within their cities. Where once cycling and walking was seen as a marginal recreational activity there are many examples of cities that now prioritise cycling and walking as an important part of the public transport strategy.  In cities such as London, Paris and New York some streets are now permanently closed to cars to allow light rail, buses, personalised electric scooters and bikes to freely and safely move around the city.  Restaurants have been allowed to take over parking spaces for additional outdoor eating areas reclaiming the streets from the dominant car.  This is made the streets more enjoyable more attractive, and they have become busier and the air cleaner.

 

I believe that more and more cities will begin to restrict the use of cars in their city centres. This is a great opportunity for the rail industry whether it be the development of more Metro systems, light rail trams, suspended monorails as seen in Wuhan, but also autonomous people moving systems such as Dromos.

 

Research shows the many people choose to use their car over and above public transport because they prefer the privacy of their own vehicle. On high speed rail this is where design can really make a difference. Through the careful design of the seating environment for an individual passenger it is possible to create privacy, and a personal area to sleep, work or enjoy watching the countryside flash past. For a family or group of people travelling it is possible to create private areas / private pods on board a train which can be pre-booked.  This is something that I was involved in when designing implementing onboard the OBB Austrian new high-speed trains.

 

Design can bring out all the full benefits of travelling by high speed rail. On the train you can use the restrooms walk to a restaurant stretch your legs, and most importantly use your mobile device safely. All of this you cannot do in a car without stopping.

 

The skill of an industrial designer is the clever combination of highly creative artistic thinking combined with hard engineering knowledge and expertise.  This is an odd combination as this skill uses both sides of the brain simultaneously. This is not an ability which is taught at school as arts and science is often divided into two different career path's from a young age.  But encouragingly some universities such a Tongji University and the Royal College of Art now have excellent transportation design graduate courses, and transportation design is now seen as a good career path and one that is more commonly known about and this is encouraging more young people to take up the profession.

 

Industrial design is a continually evolving and developing profession, the tools at the disposal of the industrial designer has rapidly developed where once a pencil and sketch pad was used now a tablet is the preferred choice and many designers now prefer to work directly into high end Computer modelling packages such as alias.

Alias was one of the most important step forwards in industrial design as it allowed free-form shapes to be easily and creatively used. This can be clearly seen in car design where in the mid 2000’s car design became very sculptured and began to have highly complex curved shapes which were only achievable through the use of the then new software Alias.

 

Rapid prototyping has also been a major step forward in industrial design. You cannot design for instance a seat purely on the computer because it has to be comfortable and is something that you touch, so the ability to make mock- ups quickly and accurately to evaluate the design is critical.

 

With all the developments and tools now available to the industrial designer it still all comes down to being an excellent designer with inspired good thinking and experience.

2. As an honorary fellow of the RCA and old friend of China, you have in depth understanding to the culture and civilization of both western and eastern world, what do you think is the difference between the deepest understanding of the industrial design between the West and the East, or between China and the West?

 

As a graduate of industrial design from the Royal College of art and an honorary fellow of the RCA I have been creative director and lead designer of teams working on some of the most important and complex projects in the world such as the design of the first interior of the airbus A380, Hyperloop passenger Capsules, and the design of the new London underground tube train. I believe design talent and the understanding of three-dimensional form transcends nationality. To be a good designer you have to understand other people’s requirements and needs because you're not necessarily designing for yourself you are designing perhaps for someone that's older than you, younger than you and in a different part of the world with different cultural requirements.  In my experience the best designer is a very few and far between but they can come from any country and any part of the world.  The is a difference in the design education opportunities in different parts of the world but also how the importance of design is seen in different societies, which affects a young persons choice to pursue design as a career path.

 

The importance of design and how it is valued by a company or brand is the most important. One could pick any of the top most successful travel and transport brands in the world and I would suggest that they all value design very highly and the companies that do not value design highly are not the most successful. It is the company design culture which is important it is not a superficial styling of their products or services it is at the core of their business. 

 

I would also suggest that many of these top brands that value design highly and are highly successful have a dedicated design director at board level within the company.  This person is often design trained but also trained in the management.

My insight from this, from the China perspective is that the top Chinese companies need to consider appointing design managers and design directors at the top level to make a coordinated design decisions on behalf of the company. I also suggest that universities such as Tongji should consider setting up post graduate design management courses to further train designers to become design directors.

 

3． The new intelligent technology represented by AI has been developing rapidly, how you feel their development will influence the product design?

 

AI is rightly so a big buzzword and talking point currently. It is already greatly affecting how products and services are developed.

 

Designers are already using AI in the design process, For example the design of a geometric grill pattern on a ventilation grill. The designer can set parameters such how much open areas required and then set AI to come up with multiple designs for the ventilation grill pattern, the designer can then choose and refine these designs. This saves an immense amount of time it also ensures that all options are explored and each of the solutions meet the technical requirements.

 

Design is not as simple as feeding in all of the design and engineering requirements joining the dots, and then out comes a great design. As I need to spark a flash of inspiration taken from years of experience and random thoughts.

 

There is definitely a place for AI in design and I am sure it will become a more and more important tool, and there are some interesting research and experimentations into how AI will do this.

 

Design will become much more effective, faster send more accurate through technology. For instance, typically at the beginning of the design project the designers are given the engineering parameters that they have to design within. Concept designs are then created, and a design direction chosen, the design is then checked again against the engineering requirements and adjustments are made to the design to make sure that the design meets these requirements, it is a step-by-step approach. These reiterations go through a number of stages until the final design and engineering data is finalised. Technology and software already exists so that the designer and engineers work on a shared design and engineering computer model so that both the design and engineering requirements and parameters are continually met and highlighted so that the output is a combined design engineering output with no need for reiteration and changes.  This is the ultimate linking of design and engineering.

 

4.  After setting up a joint-venture in China, what`s your insights on the future of the design industry in China, and What`s your plan for the future of the company?

 

Things move much more quickly in China then anywhere else I know in the world. I have always found China are immensely exciting environment. There is a positive can-do and will do attitude, where decisions are made quickly and decisively which are all things that successful design requires.

 

PULI innovation is a design and innovation company specialising in the travel and transportation sector.  The company is registered in Jing’an District, Shanghai and has the backing and investment from a major Chinese company, government and a university.  PULI innovation provides expertise in design, innovation, research, and engineering to large companies, cities, and governments to realise and implement their future transportation plans, products and services.

 

I believe the creative centre of the world is shifting from Europe to the Pacific rim.  Taking a clockwise circle of key creative cities around the Pacific: Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo, San Francisco, Sydney, Singapore. I believe Shanghai is by far the most dynamic and creative city and will attract the most talented designers and creatives to come and live and work here.

 

PULI innovation plans to become the leading and best known design and innovation company in China and the rest the world. 

 

Most companies now understand that design is critically important in building a successful company and brand, but not many know how to use design effectively. Many of the larger manufacturers in China when needing industrial design development default to using foreign design companies, but the results can be mixed, the designs are not necessarily culturally correct, and do not meet all the technical requirements. This can be due to communication issues and cultural differences in work practice.

 

PULI innovation is a Chinese company that offers a long term partnership working principle with companies and provides the best international design expertise from its design office in Shanghai.

 

Paul Priestman MDes RCA, FRCA, FRSA

 

Paul Priestman is the CRRC Innovation Centre Chief Strategic Consultant and a world-leading industrial designer, known for envisioning and delivering complex, high profile transport projects, including the New Tube for London, the Hyperloop passenger capsules, Airbus aircraft interiors and the Hong Kong Metro Trains.

 

Priestman founded the international design company PriestmanGoode [PG] in 1987, and chaired the company until April 2022. He successfully transitioned the company to employee ownership in 2016. PriestmanGoode has been listed by Fast Company as among the Most Innovative Companies in the world. Under his leadership, PriestmanGoode won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise – the highest official UK awards for British businesses – as well as multiple International Design Excellence Awards, Red Dot Product Design Awards, Travel + Leisure Awards and London Design Awards.

 

Priestman is an international design champion and expert, with particular experience in the UK, Brazil and China. He is regularly appointed by governments and cultural institutions for high-level advisory work and creative thinking. Priestman often represents the UK’s design sector abroad, including accompanying UK Prime Ministers on three delegations to China. He also delivers lectures on the future and business of design, including at the GREAT Festivals of Innovation, Dubai Design Week, Design Indaba and the World Design Forum.

 

Priestman is best known for creating innovative design solutions for transport and travel – envisioning speculative, paradigm-shifting concepts as well as delivering large-scale projects for clients including the UK Department for Transport, Embraer, Transport for London, Heathrow Airport, Royal Caribbean and Virgin. His work encompasses a range of design beyond transport, however – from product to hospitality – working with industry leaders such as Accor and Honeywell to lead a step change in design approach.

 

A driving focus of Priestman’s work is demonstrating how design can improve life in a way that is sustainable for the planet. Far from designing for obsolescence, his work anticipates the social and environmental needs of the future and embraces circular economy principles, while harnessing technological innovation that centres intuitive human experience.

 

Priestman’s projects have re-imagined and enhanced urban mobility – championing a radical improvement of public transport over a reliance on fossil fuel-powered cars – and shown how the design of anything, from a smart phone stand or water-saving tool to an airline meal or mobility device, can improve efficiency both in terms of resource use and personal experience.

 

His innovative, solutions-focused approach has earned him numerous design awards, including the London Design Festival Design Innovation Medal.

 

As a thought leader on the sustainable future of cities, transport and product design, Priestman has been featured on BBC World News, BBC Radio 4 and CNN, as well as in Wired, the Evening Standard, The Times, The Economist, the Financial Times, Forbes and El Mundo.

 

Work by Priestman has been exhibited at the Design Museum and Science Museum in London, as well as the British Embassy in Paris and the Pratt Manhattan Gallery.

 

He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Art and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He has been voted one of the most influential people in the UK by The Times Newspaper and one of the most influential Londoners by the Evening Standard Newspaper