TITLE:
Transforming Chinese Characters into Product Design: Learning from Nature
AUTHORS:
Jing Cao, Tzu-Chiang Chang, Yikang Sun, Rungtai Lin
KEYWORDS:
Learning from Nature, Chinese Characters, Cultural and Creative Products, Design Teaching, Design Effectiveness
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.13 No.3,
March
30,
2022
ABSTRACT: Chinese characters are an important intangible cultural heritage in
Huaxia civilization. It is a symbol system that originated from nature. Chinese
characters are interpreted by humans in ways that coincide with their
perception of nature.Connecting creation with nature and pursuing the unity of function and aesthetics, and exploring the configuration of Chinese characters is a problem worthy of study in
modeling design, it is also an exquisite embodiment of “learning from nature”. In the teaching practice, we have found that fresh design students do not
have a clear cognition ofmodeling design when teaching
design, resulting in weak design creativity and connotation. The purpose of this studyis to provide guidance to students through the foundation design curriculum concerning
the cognitive process of the transformation of Chinese characters, as the
object of this study, into product design.This
study aimed to lay a solid foundation for students’ understanding of modeling
design and the teaching methods to be verified through design practice. This study uses literature to explore and
construct the teaching mode of Chinese character transformation product design. The feasibility of the teaching model has been practiced through the
basic design course, and the effectiveness of the teaching effect
has been verified by questionnaires and semi-structured interview. It has been found in this study that: 1) a basic
design teaching system with localized characteristics can be established by
taking Chinese characters as a study case; 2) through systematic teaching
design, students have a clearer understanding of the logical thinking mode of
product modeling design which can be integrated and applied into design; 3)
through the delivery of themed courses, students have made great improvements
in creative thinking and design connotation.