Lidan Liu

designaffairs China Partner, iMonkey Technology CEO Lidan Liu is the partner of designaffairs China, founder and CEO of iMonkey Technology, and Professor of Industrial Design at Tongji University, College of Design and Innovation. Lidan advocates authentic design that answers the most important questions.

Lidan graduated from Zhejiang University with a bachelor degree in industrial design in 1998, and started her design career at ZTE Corporation. Her team was responsible for creating the very first generation of mobile phones in China.

After gaining her master degree of industrial design at University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany, Lidan joined MEDION in Germany as a senior designer. Sensing China's immerging opportunities, Lidan returned to Shanghai in 2005 and founded her own design studio XLPLUS DESIGN, which has won the Shanghai Original Design Studio Award.

In 2010 Lidan joined arms with designaffairs group to found designaffairs China - one of the world's leading design consultancies. Today designaffairs has offices in Munich, Erlangen, Shanghai and Portland, with more than 120 experts, delivering top-notch Brand Strategy, Product Experience and Interaction Experience that define and shape key sectors including healthcare, mobility and smart living. Over the past decade, Lidan has worked with notable clients including Bosch, Siemens and Huawei, and led the team to winning over 60 international design awards, including Red Dot Design Award, iF Design Award, Chicago Good Design Award and more. Lidan was a jury member of the 2014 iF Design Award, and won the award of "China's Top Ten Industrial Designers" the same year. In 2011 Lidan was awarded “Top Ten Creative Youth Talent of Shanghai” and “Shanghai Women Pacesetter” in 2011.

More than an entrepreneur, Lidan is also a dedicated educator as an industrial design professor at Tongji University. Lidan is known for advocating in bridging the gap between academia and industry, enriching the design curriculum by inviting distinguished industry leaders to share their experience in the classroom, preparing generations of design talents with the skills and mindset for today's economy.