Welcome to the newest column of the ASUS Design Center website: Shanghai Life. Many of you may or may not know that ASUS has a design center in the heart of Xuhui District, the heart of Shanghai. This column will shed some light on what’s going on in the Shanghai Design Center and what life is like there.
Some of the advantages of our office are its location. Being in the center of Shanghai, there are various local and international exhibitions nearby. There are many events during the workweek as well as the weekend.
Shanghai Design Center has three main advantages in terms of the industry. Our lab, like the Taipei branch, is for innovation and experimentation. We are close to the Suzhou and Kunshan production areas, so it is easy to get quick information for research and development related tasks. There are many opportunities to fly across China to Beijing, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Suzhuo, even Taipei and Hong Kong.
Now let’s dive into some of the projects we worked on last year.
The first is the ROG G14, recently sweeping the 2020 CES, which won many awards and the best gaming laptop of CES, CNET, Tom’s Hardware, and PC Magazine.
We developed the DOT lighting on the ROG Zephyrus G14. Using the LED panel we played with ideas and redeveloped the surface. For more details check out our article on the ROG G14‘s lighting.
We also launched the AdolBook 14. This was designed to bring a fresh experience to the younger generation by using a soft pink as the primary color. A 3D nano printed gradient creates a seamless transition from metal to matte pink. Our research revealed pink is currently trending as a gender-neutral color in the fashion industry, so using it on the notebook integrates art and technology.
Speaking of fashion, we have found the perfect blend of fashion and technology with the ArtOne product. You may know it as the ZenBook 30th Edition.
Slim and elegant, the laptop features a combination of Italian Leather and rose gold. The seemingly feminine combination was a hot topic amongst Chinese netizens.
The ArtOne was the main feature of the 2019 Shanghai Conference. Also featured were the ADOL and ROG products. Everything was a result of the labor and cooperation of the entire SHADC team. In addition to designers, our team also has marketing and design research members working right next to each other. This way we can have easy collaboration between colleagues of different expertises.
This is a self-portrait drawn by everyone from the SHADC. You can tell someone’s personality from their self-portrait. Almost every day we order food and play board games together.
As mentioned, we also get to travel a lot. Mr. J was our champion last year, with a total of 66 flights and over 80,000 kilometers distance traveled. One trip was the Laptop Innovation Summit Forum in Kunshan. Speakers got to introduce the 30th Anniversary ArtOne design concept. Out of all the itineraries, the farthest distance to fly was to the Netherlands to participate in the ecco “Hot Shop”. This is a workshop for leather innovation with brand designers from all over the world.
This large-scale event brings together the world’s top designers and trendsetters. Twelve sessions have been held so far. Upon returning, our colleague who previously worked for Dr. Martin, guided everyone to experience the hands-on process to their shoe design mock-up.
If you have any questions about Shanghai, or about any topics in this article, you can email me: Syufei_H@asus.com