For 60-year-old Chen Aihua, it's never too late to do something new and, with a bit of luck, make some money.

Chen has spent more than 20 years designing and developing a metalorganic chemical vapor deposition, a key component in LED chips, which he said is superior to most others used in Chinese factories.

A technician works with an MOCVD system, a piece of equipment used in the production of LEDs, at the Ideal Energy Equipment (Shanghai) in the Zhangjiang Innopark in Shanghai. [Photo/Xinhua]

A native of Hunan province, he worked as an engineer and then senior executive at a US technology company. In November, he sold the first machine he designed and manufactured at his own company in Shanghai's Zhangjiang Innopark, a high-tech zone.

"Our products provide higher yield, but cost less. I'm very optimistic about the future," Chen said.

The combined revenue of companies started in Zhangjiang by entrepreneurs such as Chen exceeded 400 billion yuan ($63.5 billion) last year.

The area, previously a small town known for its preserved vegetables, has become "one of China's most vibrant development zones, where innovation is an engine for growth", according to Wu Xinbao, deputy Party chief of Shanghai's Pudong New Area.

Apart from technological innovation, the city is also strengthening its creative design industry and is aiming to make Shanghai a "design capital".

Eric Chu, a 29-year-old industrial designer, came to Shanghai two years ago to pursue his dream in a city with a "strong atmosphere" for innovation.

"When I graduated from college several years ago, few people knew what industrial design was, but now it's more widely known," said Chu.

He said that products from domestic companies such as Haier and Lenovo are now more fashionable because of their improved industrial design.

Chinese entrepreneurs used to invest relatively little in the design of their products, and always paid more attention to saving costs.

But Chu said there is now a growing realization that good design will improve a product's image, make things easier to use and help add value.

Shanghai has defined the innovative design industry, including industrial, fashion, architectural, and multimedia art design, as a pillar industry of its 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15). The city has also introduced a preferential taxation policy and set up an investment fund to support the industry's development.

The industrial design sector's output reached 68.6 billion yuan in 2011, up by more than 37 percent from 2010, and the industry has become one of the fastest growing in the city, according to Shanghai Bureau of Statistics.

Each dollar of investment in industrial design will increase sales by $1,500, according to the Industrial Design Society of America.

Chen Aihua has long accepted that idea, saying that his company has invested more than 200,000 yuan and commissioned a Chinese design firm to get a good design for its equipment.

"It makes the equipment more compact, which requires smaller space, and it looks clean and tidy," he said.

Three years into his role at the helm of the only East Asia studio of Frog, a global innovation company, in Shanghai, Rainer Wessler said encouraging changes are taking place in the city.

"I think work is becoming more authentic — a couple of years ago things were perhaps more generic. There was a sense that design in China should look a certain way. But things are becoming more individual, more Chinese in a very healthy way," he said in an earlier interview.

Contact the writer at xieyu@chinadaily.com.cn