Work · Lenovo
IdeaPad U160
One of five IdeaPad laptops I led, from first sketch to factory approval.
- Client
- Lenovo
- Year
- 2010
- Made at
- Lenovo Innovation Design Center, Beijing
- My role
- Design lead
- Credits
- Images © Lenovo. Deck photo: Notebookcheck
The product
An 11.6-inch subnotebook in Lenovo's IdeaPad range, launched in 2010.
My part
I moved to China because design without manufacturing is nothing. Lenovo's Innovation Design Center in Beijing gave me a whole product line early on, the IdeaPad netbooks, just before the iPad arrived, and I became design lead on five IdeaPad laptops, from the S10 to the U160.
Design lead meant following each one from the first sketch to factory approval. I flew to the factories around Shanghai to approve samples part by part and tuned in-mould films on site in Tokyo and Kyoto. Along the way I filed two patents, co-developed with Lenovo's in-house engineers.