-- Sparker Lab, the independent design consultancy led by industrial and product designer Yajin Li, has built a body of work recognized across multiple international design institutions, spanning ultra-fast electric vehicle charging systems, luxury consumer goods, children's emotional wellbeing tools, and women-centered micro-mobility products. Li's work has been recognized by the London Design Awards, the Red Dot Award, and the China Europe International Design Association (CEIDA), among others.
Photo Courtesy of Yajin Li
Li works as a product design consultant for an energy company connected to a major Chinese electric vehicle group Her work includes the design of high-powered EV charging stations and home chargers. The chargers she helped develop can add roughly 200 kilometers of driving range in just five minutes, with more advanced models delivering over 600 kilometers in about ten minutes. Home chargers built from her designs are now in use across more than 500,000 households, including over 10,000 outside of China.
A key aspect of Li's work on EV charging infrastructure centers on a methodology she calls “Anthropometric Systems Design,” integrating anthropometric data, cultural-behavioral context, and infrastructure constraints into unified design systems. Applied to EV charging, it uses form, light, and materials to guide driver behavior and build trust in high-voltage hardware.
Those designs for ultra-fast public charging stations established a visual language that clearly separates the user interaction zone from the high-voltage zone, using sculptural enclosures and behavioral lighting cues. That design language has been referenced in industry media as a benchmark for the user experience of five-minute charging and has been adopted across a nationwide network of thousands of public terminals.
Li's design work includes a fine-silver side-handle teapot created for a leading white-tea brand seeking to establish its presence in the luxury gifting market. The teapot, which combined architectural precision with careful attention to pour dynamics and handle balance, became the brand's flagship premium product. Following its launch, the brand reported 58% year-over-year growth in high-end tea ware revenue — compared to 37% company-wide. The share of revenue coming from premium products also nearly doubled, rising from 15% to 27%. The teapot received the Platinum Winner designation at the 2023 London Design Awards in the Product Design — Bakeware, Tableware, Drinkware & Cookware category.
Another project, "Music Elf," is an interactive physical object for children that responds to touch, movement, and voice with musical feedback — calm tones for gentle interaction and dissonance for frustrated movement. The object was developed as a tool for children's emotional expression, offering a tangible, screen-free way to build emotional vocabulary. Music Elf received a Silver Winner designation at the 2024 London Design Awards in the Experience/Interaction category, earned a Top 100 International Outstanding Award from CEIDA, and was exhibited at the Louvre in Paris as part of the UWEE International Art Exhibition "One World · One Future," where Li received recognition as an Excellent Artist.
"The most powerful designs change how people feel about the world around them," Li has stated in published accounts of her work. "When your design becomes infrastructure, you're not just solving for one user — you're solving for thousands across different cities, weather conditions, and skill levels."
Li also served as design consultant on a compact city e-bike for women, developed for a European micro-mobility manufacturer. Rather than applying generic proportions to the frame, Li used peer-reviewed female anthropometric data — covering shoulder width, arm length, and hip-knee ratios — to re-engineer the geometry from the ground up. The frame uses a hexagonal aluminum main tube reported to be 15% stiffer in torsion than round tubes, with integrated safety features built into the frame itself. The project received the Red Dot Award: Product Design in 2025.
Beyond product design work, Li has also served as a juror and expert reviewer on multiple occasions. Between 2022 and 2024, she evaluated design proposals for EV charging infrastructure and smart energy products for a major Chinese EV group. She additionally served as an external expert reviewer for regional innovation and design contests in Hainan and participated in a China–Europe cross-border design mentoring and selection program in 2024. Li holds Elite Designer Member status with CEIDA and has received a consultation letter from the CEO of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) stating that she qualifies as an individual of extraordinary ability in her field.
About
Sparker Lab is an independent industrial and product design consultancy based in Sacramento, California, led by designer Yajin Li. The consultancy works across technology, consumer products, and social-impact design.
Li’s work has been recognized by the London Design Awards, Red Dot Award, CEIDA, and the UWEE International Art Exhibition at the Louvre in Paris. Li holds a Bachelor of Arts from Changzhi University and has completed verified certificate programs through HarvardX, Yale University via Coursera, and Google.
Contact Info:
Name: Kelly Smith
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Organization: Sparker Lab
Address: Sacramento, CA 95811, USA
Website: https://sparkerlab.com/
Release ID: 89188289
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