Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. and Honest Motors Ltd., in collaboration with the Hong Kong Design Centre and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University held the first-time Nissan Design Forum, themed "Imagination Factory", in Hong Kong from 11th to 16th December 2007.

Nissan was the first auto-maker to hold such a dedicated event to share the behind-the-scene works of automotive designers to the publics in Hong Kong. The objective of this Forum was to create an interactive platform for Nissan's designers to share the processes of automotive design with aspiring design students and designers in Hong Kong.
Designers from both Japan Nissan Design Center & Taiwan Yulon Nissan Design Center (YNDC) were invited to attend the Nissan Design Forum in Hong Kong.

Tsunehiro Kunimoto, General Manager, Global Design Management of Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. was also invited as a guest speaker at the 'Automotive Track' of the Business of Design Week (bodw) organized by Hong Kong Design Center on 12th December 2007. He addressed the topic "Design as a strategic driver for Nissan's business growth" to an audience comprising over 300 business leaders, designers and media at the Forum.

"Imagination Factory" attracted about 40 journalists from both TV & print media to attend. Some of them were also invited to have exclusive interview with Mr Kunimoto and Mr Koju Huang, General Manager of YNDC. With the professional & experienced sharing & introduction by the Nissan designers, all media journalists were impressed by the display works of the "Imagination Factory", the different aspects of Nissan's design approach & culture, and to the pivotal developments of Nissan Design Centre of recent years. Surely the friendliness of the Nissan designers counts.

The Nissan Design Forum started off with an interactive workshop between six pre-selected students from the School of Design of Hong Kong Polytechnic University. This workshop provided an opportunity for students to present their design concepts and at the same time, have them appraised by Mr. Kunimoto.

Another two workshop sessions dedicated to sharing the inner workings of bringing automotive designs from concept to prototype took place with about a hundred student participants. These featured design presentations by Nissan's designers as well as a live demonstration and trial session of the clay modeling process.

Sharing the design concept, personal vision, inspirations and experience in designing automobiles by the Nissan's designers, participants were given a rare insight into the intricate working processes of automotive design.

The Nissan Design Forum, as part of Nissan's global corporate social responsibility program of promoting education and nurturing the next generation of automotive designers, surely could encourage local students in Hong Kong to pursue a career in automotive design.

As part of the Nissan Design Forum, an "Imagination Factory" exhibition was held concurrently to showcase Nissan's design philosophy and the creative development process involved in designing a car.

Consisting of display panels, precious quarter-scale models such as GTR-proto, Fairlady Z, Tiida, Lavina, etc., the design tools and sculptures also helped to explain Nissan's design heritage, philosophy and concepts. The "Imagination Factory" exhibition told the story of the creative development processes involved in designing a car model, from concept to prototype, which surely could let the design students & practitioners in Hong Kong have a deeper understanding of Nissan's design culture & idea.