Excavation of traditional design elements in packaging design

[Abstract] Great Chinese civilization has guiding significance for packaging design and creation. In the rich traditional design elements, we can divide it into tangible and intangible elements. Without a deep understanding of traditional culture and without understanding the spiritual connotation of traditional art, it is impossible to design well. It can be seen that the significance of the intangible element is more profound. This article explores how to explore intangible elements in traditional design elements from the perspective of history and traditional culture.

Keywords: traditional culture; packaging design; intangible elements

“Only the people of the nation are in the world. This statement has always been a wake-up call for contemporary designers to explore, apply, and reflect the traditional Chinese design language to demonstrate the profound and profound cultural heritage of the Chinese nation. However, many designers have little to traditional culture. With profound understanding and reflection, our education work also seldom systematically elaborated on the history of Chinese design in teaching, which resulted in many people lacking the grasp of traditional design elements in the design process, and it was purely a fight. Posts and combinations, the results of the design are neither fish nor fowl, and they can barely reflect the spirit of the Chinese nation.

I Intangible and tangible elements

The traditional elements mentioned here, that is, traditional design elements, include both tangible and intangible elements. The so-called tangible elements are the shapes, patterns, textures, etc. that our senses can feel; the so-called intangible elements are the spiritual culture, thoughts and emotions inherent in our nation, and they affect our outlook on life and values. Directly touched by human senses. Undoubtedly, design behavior is to pursue the feelings of beauty, both tangible elements. However, people's perception of beauty is different from animal-like sensory pleasure. It is precisely because they contain concepts and imaginary elements, that is, the pursuit of intangible elements. The reason why the United States is not an ordinary form is precisely because it precipitates the natural form of social content. Mr. Li Zehou said:. Beauty is not in the form but in the form. There is no beauty in the absence of the form. Only the form does not become the beauty.形式 The form here refers to the natural form, the tangible element. In other words, different stages of history have different ideologies, and this ideology is reflected in the design behavior of the time. Design is nothing more than the reproduction of history or development history. However, reproduction is not blindly copied and copied. Nor is it simply a combination of elements and modifications. Without a deep understanding of traditional culture and without understanding the spiritual connotation of traditional art, it is impossible to design a good one.

2 Mining intangible elements from history

In the packaging design process, the management of intangible elements is more important than the tangible elements. The importance of emphasizing intangible elements is that understanding and grasping intangible elements can better guide the use of tangible elements for design, and can also highlight the cultural quality of product packaging. So how do you explore the intangible elements of traditional design elements? First, you must understand history and draw inspiration from traditional works of art. For example, in the pursuit of a romantic style of Chu Han in packaging design, we see the Han Dynasty

The figures in clay sculpture, pottery sculpture, and paintings are inconsistent in their postures, their lengths are not proportionate, and their lines, edges, and squares are so lacking in softness. However, in the various fields of ideology in the Han Dynasty, strong ancient traditions have been strongly maintained and developed. Still permeating in the world of totem myths with bizarre imagination and blazing emotions, it is not difficult to experience the innocent and romanticism of the Chu-Han culture and the ancient and imposing beauty of people’s conquests of the world’s omnipresent behavior. When the designers learned that these are again using the Han Dynasty design elements to pursue that kind of. How old is it when you were in ancient times.

Of course, to understand history, we must naturally grasp the design art form of each period from the time series. Compare them longitudinally to find out the regularity and characteristics to guide our design. For example, the art forms of the Tang Dynasty demonstrated the blending of Chinese and foreign arts, and therefore they are very much alive. Hu Qi. In Qing Dynasty society, people claim to be “minions, the slavish consciousness of the whole society is more serious and reflected in the sculpture works. Shishi’s sculpture reveals a cat-dog-like domestication. This is the development of history and the imprint of the times. When we savor the taste of the years, we will suddenly discover that what we have gathered is the heritage of traditional culture and the spirit of the nation. It has both lofty and great sides and has bad roots and dross.

The shape of the design works is based on. God has vitality. Any good work must be able to reflect the social outlook of an era and the designer's own spiritual pursuit. What we call “God is the national spirit. It is the sedimentation of our traditional culture in people’s ideology in the long river of history. It is the soul of China that our nation is able to continue, that is, what we call the intangible element. The pursuit of intangible elements is the ultimate in our design behavior.Our design not only brings people a feeling of beauty, but also embodies the spirit of an era and a nation, and expresses intangible elements through design language. To influence a generation to make it have a higher spiritual pursuit and national pride, so we say that the pursuit of intangible elements has more important significance.

3 Drawing intangible elements from traditional culture

Intangible elements are drawn from a deep understanding of traditional culture. In the "Book of Changes" in the "Xi and Biography" day: "Heavenly days, the gentleman strives for self-improvement. Self-improvement shows a healthy, upright vitality, does not yield to the harsh environment, does not bow to evil forces, awe-inspiring righteousness, outstanding standing This kind of vitality, in the midst of hardships and sufferings, is "frustrated by its own mental aspirations, its own bones and muscles, its hunger for its skin, its lack of space, and its perversity in behavior. Persist in the perfection of personality. The three armies can win handsomeness and they can't win the battle. This spirit of self-improvement and perseverance has often been postmodernized into things like pine and bamboo. In fact, this is also a design action of the ancients. This is the best example of the use of intangible elements. In the process of packaging design, we often use dragons to design symbols to express our country's cultural characteristics. Dragon is a representative of our country's traditional culture and is also a symbol of our nation. the ancients. We created dragons. We are descendants of dragons. We have placed our beliefs in dragons and how dragons have been expressed. (7) The dragons in the Warring States Period, Qin Dynasty and Han Dynasty in the Spring and Autumn Period were relatively simple in shape, except for dragons. Outside the head and dragon feet, there are few detailed descriptions of the dragon body and other parts. It focuses on the dragon's overall form, which shows that the dragon's ascendant and mighty form shows the great strength of this kind of beast. Strong artistic expression, but after the Song Dynasty, especially during the Qing Dynasty, the dragon body was more delicately portrayed, and the scales of dragon head, dragon's beard, dragon foot, dragon claw, and dragon's body were all very clearly depicted, but The dragon's overall shape is not as good as it used to be, but he lacks rigorous intensity, lacks dynamism, and loses his placid demeanor and demeanor, focusing only on the depiction of tangible elements while ignoring the expression of intangible elements. The pursuit of details seems to have become more popular and skillful, and therefore, we must always pay attention to the design process.

Another example is that calligraphy art is often used in packaging design. The works designed in this way not only look old, vicissitudes of life, but also rich in Oriental charm, but also reflect the harmony and rhythm required in modern design, even if the Westerners can not read calligraphy It can also be touched by its beauty. China's calligraphy art is a huge database. Calligraphy itself is a tangible element. It has the rules of beauty, but in this tangible element, it also has intangible elements. Calligraphy can either reflect the tenacity or not. The rising trend of the pull, or the momentum of the rainbow, the power of the road, or the beauty of the beauty, the freshness and the sensation, gives a sense of spiritual sublimation. Through the exaggerated distortion of calligraphy, we can have thousands of creative inspiration. However, the premise of this application is to be able to profoundly understand and understand the art of calligraphy. Of course, Chinese culture is more than just a kind of calligraphy. Our architecture, arts and crafts, folklore, sculpture, gardens, and even poetry and poetry are the source of our constant creation.

4 Conclusion

Emphasizing the importance of traditional design elements here does not mean retro. It does not mean to pursue the depiction of ancient paintings. Imitation is never improved. We must be good at savoring the taste of modern life in classical style. We must seek the shadow of traditional culture in modern design. Mr. Han Meilin also said: “What is tradition? (7 traditions are a relay race that is constantly innovating.) In this ever-changing era, change is through and constant, but our design behavior must keep up with the beat of the times. We need to study the valuable wealth left by our ancestors, absorb nutrition from vast traditional culture, understand and absorb the design elements of traditional culture, and use modern expression methods and materials technologies to create works that meet the contemporary aesthetic sensibilities. We must shoulder the historical responsibility of revitalizing national culture and guide the people's spiritual orientation. We must be good at using tangible elements in designing, and we must pay more attention to the expression of intangible elements, so that China's packaging design will open up in the international design community. Beautiful and colorful flowers.

Yan Jianye, Zhang Hao
(He Bei University)
Source: Packaging Engineering, Issue 4, 2005