In April 2023, Paul Priestman, the Chairman and Creative Director of the Shanghai-based design company PULI innovation, was interviewed by CRRC National Innovation Centre of High Speed Trains, where he serves as the Chief Strategic Consultant. In the interview, he shared his insight about the future of industrial design in the rolling stock industry, the mind of a designer, the role of AI and the future of design in China.

IC: CRRC Innovation Centre of High Speed trains

P: Paul Priestman

IC: How do you feel about the future of industrial design in the global rolling stock industry? And what’s your insight on the future of the technological aspect of industrial design?

P: 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, products and services more attractive and change people’s choices to the better. Through the careful and 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 draws 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 Changi 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.

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 that 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 or pods onboard a train, which can be pre-booked. This is something that I was involved in when designing implementing onboard the ÖBB 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 are often divided into two different career paths 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 have rapidly developed where once a pencil and sketch pad were 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.

IC: As an honorary fellow of the RCA and old friend of China, you have in depth understanding of the culture and civilisation 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?

P: 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 designers are very few and far between, but they can come from any country and any part of the world. There 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.

P: 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 as 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, and 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 interactions 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.

P: Things move much more quickly in China than anywhere else I know in the world. I have always found China an 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 of 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.

For additional information, please see the WeChat account of National Innovation Centre of High Speed Trains:
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/heotHaHYmVcyP-fGLLXq2A
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/A1_7zNmAKFtDphuS3-aFcQ