On May 24th, Yilai Sanitary Ware, as the only sanitary ware company to receive an award in the “First National Tourism Toilet Design Competition” organized by the National Tourism Administration, showcased its work “Axis of Nature” at the 7th China International Tourism Commodities Fair, fully demonstrating itssanitary productsand spatial design innovation and capabilities.
“Yilai not only provides high-quality, environmentally friendlysanitary productsfor a wide range of consumers, but is also committed to the design of the overall bathroom space and the creation of a bathing lifestyle atmosphere. It is our duty as a sanitary ware company to provide every traveler with a comfortable toilet environment,” said the Marketing Center Director of Yilai Sanitary Ware in an interview with People’s Daily Online at the awards ceremony.
“The best design is not designing for the sake of design.”
With increasing industry competition and constantly changing market demands, the shortcomings and deficiencies in product design among sanitary ware companies have become evident, leading to significant challenges in their development: on one hand, most manufacturers have gradually fallen into the trap of blind R&D and design, neglecting the fundamental purpose of design, resulting in many “similar” products on the market with serious homogenization; on the other hand, as living standards improve, consumers are increasingly pursuing a sense of design in their lives, and their requirements for sanitary products and bathroom space ambiance have moved beyond the functional level into a richly diverse realm of “personal enjoyment.” Consumers’design expectationsfor sanitary ware companies have become increasingly stringent.
“Over the past thirty years of development, China has been labeled as the ‘world’s factory,’ and a lack of creativity has been a shortcoming that restricts Chinese companies from stepping onto the international stage. In the sanitary ware industry, while product quality can generally meet usage needs, there is a serious lack of original design. To win a larger market, sanitary ware companies must innovate and evolve in terms of original product design.”
“What the domestic sanitary ware industry lacks is not only the capability for original design, but also forward-looking research on market demand and future aesthetic trends,” industry professionals added.
Meeting consumer needs and appropriately creating demand for consumers in a timely manner is the foundation of manufacturing survival and development. According to the design director of Yilai Sanitary Ware, the design of sanitary products and bathroom space ambiance should have two starting points: first, it must be people-oriented, conforming to consumer habits, and product design as well as overall environmental ambiance design must be driven from the consumer’s perspective—for example, the work “Axis of Nature” took into account the uneven ratio of male and female toilets in tourist restrooms and specifically adopted an enveloping spatial design with the female toilets on the outside and the male toilets on the inside, maximizing the number of female toilets and greatly reducing waiting time for female visitors. Second, the design of sanitary products and spaces must be forward-looking, studying future aesthetic trends so that products remain at the forefront of the industry for a longer period. Considering that open design will be a major trend, Yilai Sanitary Ware boldly adopted an open-top design in “Axis of Nature,” which increases lighting and transparency while enhancing aesthetics.
“Minimalism as the main focus, striving for timelessness”
Looking across the sanitary ware industry, there are occasionally some unique products—such as a “golden toilet” that gleams with gold or a “blue-and-white porcelain” toilet with a Chinese flair—which may be stunning at first glance but fail to maintain long-term consumer interest, or are found to clash with the home ambiance once purchased.
“What the sanitary ware industry truly needs are timeless designs that can withstand the test of time. This requires that the styles of both sanitary products and spaces be first and foremost minimalistic yet dynamic.”
How to make minimalist designs dynamic is something Yilai Sanitary Ware understands more profoundly.
First, the shape design of a product is not about being different for the sake of difference but requires designers to integrate their understanding of life with their understanding of industrial design concepts. It is even more important to infuse cultural meaning into products, bringing a humanistic touch to bathroom spaces. Take “Axis of Nature” as an example: the overall shape of the restroom adopts a relatively common and simple circular design, without deliberately pursuing ostentatious exteriors. Moreover, the internal layout breaks away from the traditional separation of male, female, and accessible toilets, emphasizing instead a cultural concept of mutual care and integration. While showcasing human-centered design, it also gives due respect to special groups.
Second, creating enduringly appealing products is more important than making an eye-catching first impression. Sanitary products are durable household goods, and maintaining a classic, popular style creates a longer-lasting interaction with users. Product and space design should not blindly chase short-lived trends but prioritize minimalism and timelessness. Seek variation within simplicity, and ensure that this variation carries humanistic meaning and aligns with future aesthetic trends.
Yilai believes that nature will become part of the design, even the core of the design. When designing “Axis of Nature,” a “natural axis” was established centered around a towering tree, integrating with nature and plants. Plants help purify and deodorize the public restroom environment, while the restroom provides nutrients to the plants. With nature at its core, a brand-new restroom ecosystem was born.
Under the creativity of Yilai’s designers, sanitary products are no longer merely facilities that meet usage needs but have become important lifestyle elements that enhance the beauty, fashion, and value of restrooms.
“Carve products with the mindset of sculpting”
As consumers’ demands for quality of life gradually rise, details have also become key to winning them over. A closer look at domestic sanitary brands reveals that improper handling of product details and insufficiently humanized design are all too common. The design of product details not only reflects the production standards of sanitary products but is fundamentally a reflection of actual production capability. For sanitary ware companies, meticulous refinement in craftsmanship details is a pivotal turning point that can support an entire brand.
The design director of Yilai’s R&D department stated, “We carve products with the mindset of sculpting because the final expression of a product—whether in terms of connotation or trend—is supported by points, lines, and surfaces. Even the flow effect of natural light and shadow on a product is repeatedly verified through technical means such as 3D digital design and hand-board modeling. Taking abathroom cabinetproduct as an example, we continuously measure and consider every storage space based on ergonomics and reasonable dimensions. In this fast-paced era, to create exceptional products, designers must possess the spirit of craftsmanship, meticulously scrutinizing every detail, nitpicking to eliminate subpar works, improving every imperfect or unreasonable detail, and perfecting the product design.”
It is reported that most designers on Yilai Sanitary Ware’s professional product design team come from the automotive industrial design field. As is well known, automotive industrial design leads the entire industrial design field, with extremely strict and precise requirements for the control and realization of design details. At the same time, Yilai is the only company in the sanitary ware industry to adopt the world-leading Alias software, which is primarily used for aircraft and automobile design and manufacturing. When applied to sanitary ware product design, Alias helps Yilai strictly control the precision of product data release, achieve simple yet perfect product surfaces, and enhance both aesthetics and comfort.
Leading the future of the industry with strength
“Innovative design is a company’s soft power, enabling it to quickly capture the market. The entire bathroom market is pushing the industry to enhance itsinnovative designcapabilities. In fact, the bathroom market has never lacked designers, but whether design-forward works can be turned into commercial products depends on how well companies manage that.”
Today, as the bathroom industry gradually matures, Yilai Bathroom has addressed these two major issues: professionalization and commercialization of design. Professionalized design means respecting humanistic values, daring to disrupt conventions, and pursuing timelessness; the commercial application of design must be people-centered, integrating resources, fostering cross-industry collaboration, and continuously exploring future aesthetic trends to apply them in product design.
In addition to its outstanding design advantages, Yilai Bathroom remains committed to deepening its sales channels, adopting a “direct sales + distribution” channel strategy. On one hand, it takes the initiative to strengthen refined management of terminal stores, winning at the point of sale. On the other hand, Yilai employs a “low inventory” model for its distributors, guiding them to maintain healthy stock levels, reducing their costs, and significantly easing operational burdens.
As a company that stood out in the “First National Tourism Toilet Design Competition” thanks to its high quality and design appeal, Yilai Bathroom is demonstrating with strength to the industry and consumers: when quality has become a must for bathroom products, design capability will become thecore competitivenessdriving the future development of the bathroom industry.