On the Relationship between Traditional Culture and Contemporary Design (I)

I remember what a master of graphic design once said: "It is not an era where products are sold..." This may indicate the progress of an era. While looking at the products of our time, when we walk in the streets, sitting in a journey car, busy in high-end office buildings, and even flying in tens of thousands of feet of air. Colorful merchandise information like a wave of unstoppable heat waves, newspapers, television, radio, the Internet ... ... inexplicably poured into our eyes, blocking our breath. Busy cities, quiet countryside, every corner of the world, design behavior is pervasive.

Contemporary design

The socio-economic and cultural development entangled people in an age of individual goods. We have also begun to gradually realize that design is the foundation of the commodity society.

Broadly speaking, design is actually a question of “human modernization,” which is the modernization of aesthetic taste. The elements of "human modernization" include two important contents: aesthetic literacy and creative ability, or the innovative spirit and creative ability under the control of aesthetics. In modern society, it is a remarkable progress to realize the value of designing this field. For designers, it is even more encouraging. From leadership to every citizen, they truly understand the significance and value behind design, and the importance of design to the development of a city and even a country. In a narrow sense, designing this concept is a cross-industry, cross-sectoral, comprehensive, and special industry. If society and business are likened to hardware, then design is one of the most important software that covers almost all industries. It is even more indispensable in today's economic society. It is an important cause for the promotion of a country, a city, a company, a brand, and a product quality, especially brands and products. It can be endowed with enormous invaluable added value. Why does the same product have a street vendor? In a luxury store, prices are ten or even dozens of times higher than in a glass case.

What I want to say is that design is a huge industry that China needs to develop.

Contemporary understanding of design deviation

China has a history of several thousand years of cultural development, but the real great development is after the reform and opening up, and its growth rate is of global concern. China's design industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the country. But what we worry about is our dilemma in the design industry. Shanghai's industrial development needs design to lead. However, the misunderstanding and misunderstanding of the concept of "design" have become a big issue.

The current misunderstanding of the design is reflected in our designers. It is seen as the design as a purely individualized artistic behavior. Its design is out of the market and out of life. It may become a prize winner in the stadium because of its peculiar shape. However, they are not favored by the market and cannot achieve real value. The awareness of misunderstanding is reflected in our company. Its performance is to regard designers as “artisans”. Designers must submit to the R&D and manufacturing department’s views on products. Designs are only embellishments and are accessories. Due to the lack of overall and systematic planning and promotion of product design, the design innovation has always remained at a low level of decentralization, isolation, and single-piece operation. Apart from the periodical impact on sales, the overall brand image of the company has been improved. Did not contribute. The deviation of consciousness is reflected in the society, which shows that the focus of the design industry is skewed. In Shanghai where jewellery, packaging, clothing, poster advertising and other industries have been greatly developed, the more urgent area is the design of large industries. Industrial products such as bicycles, sewing machines, and household appliances designed and manufactured in Shanghai have once created glory. Now that Shanghai is developing advanced manufacturing, it is necessary to rely on design to achieve high value-added products and high profits.

Consciousness influences behavior, and different deviations in design understanding affect the development of the entire design industry, constrain the designer's independent creativity, and limit the significance of design as a free person. I want to get rid of these misunderstandings. For example, if you want to get rid of feudal superstition and push design into a whole new field, not only do we need a lot of professional talent, but we also need people’s awareness and standards including decision makers and the public. Constitute a huge foundation and driving force.

Collective classes

Why are the talents we cultivated who are skilled in routine and skilled arts but lack creativity and creative thinking? We have state-of-the-art scientists inventing high-tech products. From the appearance to the branding of the publicity products, we can't stand it. Many people who engage in fine art do not understand the United States and are very common in China, but we are blind to them. Because of the lack of modern design aesthetics and tastes, the so-called high-educated “bamboo dumplings” abound. These problems all make it impossible for us to ignore a question that is about the cultivation of aesthetics, beauty, comprehension, personality, and freedom and autonomy. Speaking of the word "beauty," Cai Yuanpei proposed a slogan in the 1920s: "Representing religion through aesthetic education." Looking back, for nearly a century, this is a very loud and practical inscription for the contemporary society. And Chen Shaohua also said: “The root cause of China's design is the lack of creativity and aesthetic education. We should proceed from popularizing and raising the aesthetic consciousness of the public, and promote the progress of social civilization through the promotion of public taste.” Socialization The improvement of creativity has to be achieved through education and through the spread of society. ”

After a hundred years of experience, lack of individuality and creativity is still the deadly crux of our national cultural spirit. When the social economy develops to a certain level, it will correspondingly put forward the requirements of high requirements and overall quality. However, the quality is not only a cultural quality, but if you take a professional design talent, you also need to look at the individual’s view of beauty and comprehension. . Those who have truly academic accomplishments, have an international perspective and are forward-looking, and those who have in-depth and can give more developmental suggestions and works from a strategic perspective, those who know the United States, understand the beauty, and use the United States are the present-day society. , an urgently needed figure in the contemporary design community.

After perfecting the individual, what kind of appropriate development space and atmosphere should society provide to cultivate such a culture? Mr. Chen Yifei proposed: In many countries, there are not only a large number of schools that develop visual design talents, they are constantly sending fresh creative blood to the visual industry; in addition, there is a designer, a manufacturer, and the most common consumer. The strict design system composed of many social forces, such as art critics and academic event planners, turns design into a product and pushes it to the public to ensure the good operation of the design industry. In our cities, there is hardly any real establishment of a so-called design system, that is, without an orderly and scientific process, many interesting ideas for design talents have become part of the public life. In our social life, new creations and new design experiences are far from constituting an overall and powerful social force. This can not be said to be a certain level of backwardness, how to establish the circular state of the design system, to change the social life of our city with newer, more outstanding design works, not only need to think about the problem, but also each The kind of social forces that need to actively participate in the establishment of a strong design industry needs the response of the entire society as the fulcrum. I think: To encourage and confirm people's individuality and creativity, and to put people's greatest value in the most important position, it is the entire society that should create a big environment for the design system. Need for people's needs, this is a certain process.

As society grows, the consciousness and needs of all parties and the requirements for quality of life also increase at the same time, and “design” is an essential product in the process of civilization development in this era. Because the times have also entered a new stage with the progress of mankind. People's tastes are more and more critical, their eyes are getting more and more pungent, and their needs are increasing. This is not only a requirement for society, but also a requirement and a good wish for human beings.

Mr. Chen Yifei said it well: It is not an era of masters. We need to make up classes.

(to be continued)