Website design analysis: "Chinese style design" in three directions

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Today, Chinese designers have a great opportunity to learn about success stories and failure experiences around the world, but at the same time, the rich and pluralistic culture in the rapid development of the economic trend is gradually neglected and single (except catering culture), to the public, has become a superficial symbol, Chinese designers face the west, And not enough cultural self-confidence.

Whether it is out of the traditional elements and ideas, follow the foreign "International Style", or imitate the ancient cultural heritage, is understandable. But China, as a world-focused superpower, should make a contribution and influence in the field of contemporary cultural creativity in addition to manufacturing. On the one hand, designers should draw on the foreign design methods and ideas, and explore China's unique cultural connotations and spiritual dimensions, so as to develop their own ideas and styles. In the "Design Viewpoint" [1] book has proposed "The Chinese design" the three diligently direction, this article mainly starts from the UI and the Web design angle to discuss.

The first direction is called "Chinese element". such as paper-cut, embroidery, porcelain, calligraphy, ink painting, opera-related patterns and so on. This way in product design, architectural decoration, graphic design application has a long history, some just right, and some far-fetched. In the interface and website design, the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and even now to appeal to the Chinese market in Europe and the United States, the Chinese traditional visual elements have different degrees of adoption.

　　

Figure 1: Ink, opera and other elements of collage, simple to create visual effects

　　

　　

Figure 2: Foreign companies in China, for foreign enterprises, the adoption of a number of "Chinese elements", but not directly related to the actual content (http://www.ivyworld.net/)

　　

Figure 3: The movie "The Painted Skin" homepage: IA is very simple, the style and the movie basically is consistent, heavy is creating the strange atmosphere

Fig. 4 is the official homepage of the Taiwan International Creative Design Competition, IA and vision are all simple, each style is unified, the poster adopts calligraphy + ancient Chinese traditional utensils or natural elements photos:

　　

Figure 4:2012 Taiwan International Creative Design Competition Official homepage (http://tidc.boco.com.tw/2012/)

Hong Kong's website design, a lot of people feel is international and vibrant, the use of traditional visual elements of the site is relatively rare, compared with Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, the tone is more "heavy taste."

　　

Figure 5: Hong Kong web site, ancient illustrations and English characters combine to create a "Chinese and Western" effect, more partial conceptualization, rather than information transmission

　　

　　

Figure 6: Hong Kong design company Point Design for a Shenzhen company designed the homepage (http://titanholding.com/index.php), hue, pictures, fonts are very Chinese wind, home navigation and added to the English, perhaps to cater to customer companies to create "internationalization" The needs of the image.

　　

Figure 7: Korean website template, using shading, ink effect, calligraphy and other elements

Graphical elements are convenient to use, and the proper use can improve the spirit of the product, but in general, it is not enough to stay on the symbolic level. This requires the direction of a second effort-to generalize the way of thinking of traditional Chinese design. For example, "Harmony between heaven and Man", "people-oriented", "neutral beauty", the complexity of Chinese design thinking is being taken out here, and it is not the unique characteristics of Chinese design, but complex thinking does not necessarily create excellent design, simple idea may not be able to play the uniqueness of the work. Here are some brands, including product and website design, some also include packaging and mobile product interaction design, so you can more fully understand the brand's inner oriental thinking.

Because the local culture of neighboring Japan is quite deep with Chinese culture. Japanese design art often shows the content of the works in a traditional oriental way of thinking and feeling. Sometimes the use of distinctive national traditional visual symbols (that is, the first direction), and sometimes in the performance of the arts does not contain any traditional visual symbols, beyond the visual symbols of the surface form of attention, beauty in the non-representational things, Exhaustively the general interpretation of human vision into the perception of the mind. Japanese design art in line with modern visual habits and a posture beyond the eastern and Western culture, to explore new art design Development direction [2]. Here we start with Miyake.

Miyake (Issey Miyake)

Rooted in Japan's national ideas, customs and values. The brand reflects the Japanese style of natural and life of the gentle flow of philosophy, seemingly invisible but sparse but not scattered, with magical charm. He emphasizes the loose, comfortable design idea, liberated the corset and the self-cultivation clothing to the human body's fetter, then made the Western fashion gradually accepted this oriental style. His in-depth research and reconstruction of fabrics, endowed with the charm of the rebirth of the works, and as a go-between for East and West fashion, Miyake and his namesake brand is destined to be in the fashion industry history.

　　

Figure 8: Miyake and its costume design works

Issey Miyake Brand's homepage, the use of minimalist design, in addition to the product photos of other elements are not black and white, and the brand's style and philosophy consistent with the use of white is appropriate:

　　

Figure 9:issey Miyake official website screenshot

　　

Figure 10: A combination of traditional and modern product design cases

Kenzo (KENZO)

Unlike the Latin warm color style of the brand's clothing, Kenzo's perfume conveys a fresh, natural style. "Water", "flower", "Air", "Love" and other series, from the incense, packaging, advertising, website, all pass a kind of oriental close to nature and implicit elegant feeling.

　　

Figure 11:kenzo Perfume "Water" products introduction page, with the tone of the product to maintain unity, quiet, indifferent

　　

　　

Figure 12: "Flower" series, the design of three bottle body respectively shows the poppy flower bud, blooming, fading

　　

Figure 13:kenzo Perfume Official shop, the same focus on simplicity and white #p# subtitle #e#

The same is the inspiration from the natural Davidoff perfume, incense and related visual design embodies the western expression more direct, pay attention to the characteristics of visual impact. Davidoff's "Cool labeled (cold water)" and Kenzo's "Water" product page comparison, female and male use of the overall tone similar, but the latter is significantly more quiet and implicit:

　　

Figure 14:davidoff "cold water" and "Kenzo"

No Muji (MUJI)

And the international brands of Western and western Issey and Kenzo different, no printing products always adhere to as "Japanese brand" existence, and has been widely affirmed internationally. Products without printing good focus on simplicity, simplicity, environmental protection, people-oriented ideas. One of its biggest features is minimalism: Taking off the logo, eliminating unnecessary design, removing all unnecessary processing and color, and simply leaving the material and function itself.

It is clear that its web site also perpetuates this feature:

　　

　　

Figure 15:muji Message: A series of flash pages that describe the product concept. Both Chinese and Japanese versions are made of ancient vertical typesetting, right-to-left reading order, and Western version of the horizontal layout, reading from top to bottom.

But most of the Japanese web sites are very simple and usually use a narrower page width. Text-oriented, less sense of design, simple cute cartoon pictures are used more.

Muji app: Each application's interaction and vision are consistent with Muji's consistent philosophy, while Muji's daily products are integrated into applications. For example, Muji to go (Figure 16), which is a variety of services with a focus on travel and mobility for Muji products. Here are a variety of products in the travel and business, and provide "global Time", "exchange rate", "Weather", "calculator" and other information services. Above the screen there are a variety of Muji products to help you comfortably through the journey of goods, and detailed description of its functions.

　　

Figure 16:muji's app "MUJI to Go"

　　

Picture: "MUJI Note": ipad notebooks, handwriting recognition and intelligent input bring a new experience of taking notes and sketching.

　　

Photo: "MUJI CAL": The ipad version of the calendar, the pursuit of comfortable and smooth use of the feeling, hoping to be unconsciously integrated into your life. Using pinch in/out (expanding or narrowing the screen with two fingers), you can access the page you want to query.

I have used several of these free applications, all the applications are "small, light, fast" route, the function is relatively simple, not very flexible to use, but the interaction is very smooth, pay attention to every detail, the same series of applications can be easily switched.

"Design Design" for everyone familiar with the Japanese designer of the original research is Muji's art direction. The design of the world, in his mind, is non-existent and illogical: "Japan's design will always be Japan's design." And Muji, will never be a Japanese brand into the world brand. A total of more than 6,000 projects are designed by local Muji designers, based on the lifestyle and habits of locals. As a country with a long history of design, we are not keen to become a part of globalization, and the popularization of the simplistic is something we must try to avoid. ”

Taiwan's Cultural Creativity ("literary creation"), cultural consumption, local culture and other aspects are more important, the relevant education in the intellectual property law is also an indispensable part. 2012 Wen Chong Boutique Award, including making handmade soap, the original studio, Gan Lewen from the Three Gorges Street, a career, across the full range of entertainment and consumption of Perak international multimedia.

One of the original studio by "Tea Truth-Pure Heart Tea" (see Figure 19) to get the new Sharp Awards and service awards, the product highlights the concept of environmental protection and health care, guiding the return to the pure heart of the tea to protect the truth, to "' Heaven, earth, people, things, The spirit of the law, adhere to Taiwan's manufacturing, the practice of Taiwan's good products, driven by the forgotten in the real estate industry, promote the beauty of Taiwan. "(excerpt from the wave Cool net http://www.boco.com.tw/)

　　

　　

Figure 19: "Tea Truth-Pure Heart Tea" in Taiwan's original studio

In recent years, the domestic gradually appeared some of the same advocates close to the nature of the designer brand, products include apparel, furniture supplies, magazines, clothing is usually used loose lines and cotton hemp and other natural materials, usually known as "literary". These brands need to solve the problem is the concept and style of homogenization, need to broaden their thinking, improve international influence, reflect the unique characteristics of the brand and quality.

Domestic high-end designer Brand: "Up and Down". Use the circle as the basic pattern throughout (see Figure 20). This popular shape has appeared many times in this article. The biggest feature of this full flash site is the deliberate drag of load time, although some "anti-human", but can create a "slow life" experience.

　　

　　

Figure 20: "Up and down" domestic high-end designer brand launched in cooperation with LV

JNBY (Jiangnan cloth): Similar Kunju Kawakubo "beggar clothes" designer brand. The site is also a concise route, black and white gray tone mainly.

　　

　　

Figure 21:jnby Official Shop and homepage

Now, it is not surprising that the East wind and west wind are fading. "Zen (Zen)" has become an internationally renowned concept of life, although from China's six zu can, but most Westerners from Japan began to understand the Zen. The concept of "emptiness and stillness" and the design that strike a balance with nature are quite common, figure 21 (http://www.beautifullife.info/industrial-design/natural-zen-perfume/) The "Natural Zen (Natural Zen)" series package, designed for the Kazakh design company, is designed to grab elements from nature and add them directly to the design.

　　

　　

Figure 21: The "Natural Zen" series perfume packaging of the design company of Kazakhstan

The third kind of effort is the study of ancient Chinese design history and design works.

It should be noted that this aspect of the content, if divorced from the practice of modern design, it is easy to become from academic to academic, but the creation of contemporary design misleading. In addition, the ancient Chinese design has a lot of incompatible with the modern design of ideological content, such as the inferiority of the people, such as the ancient Chinese did not stress copyright, design is not too emphasis on originality [1].

　　

　　

Figure 22: Both the popular "guide fish", or the official instrument "seismograph", from modelling and use are lively and harmonious

"A Brief History of Chinese ancient design Thought" [3] a book takes the time as the vein, takes the ancient literature as the basis, from the understanding ancient design thought angle, narrates the Chinese ancient creation design historical and the design theory, introduced the Chinese ancient art design and the construction aspect thought and the theory. Here is an outline of the content, you can choose the period of interest to understand or study:

The first chapter of the pre-Qin design thought

The first section of the great craftsman-Mozi

Section II slow-witted--Taoism

The third section is gentle--Confucian

Fourth quarter no service--"Shang Shu"

The fifth section: the way of ornament--the Book of Rites

The sixth section is the degree of rule--Han Fei zi

Section seventh and adaptation--"The spring and autumn of the LU"

The eighth section--"Kaogongji"

Chapter II Design thought of Qin and Han dynasties

The first section of the June-shaped person--Huai nan Zi

Section II--dong Zhongshu

Section III Heart-Xiong

The fourth section is the deputy-Wang Chong

Chapter Three design ideas of Wei and Jin dynasties

The first verse is written by God--gu

The second verse is vivid--Sheikh

Section III Application of the appropriate--Liu daylight

Fourth chapter the design thought of Sui and Tang dynasties

The first section Wu takes as the wind--Daozi's painting style and the design thought trend of Sui and Tang dynasties

The second section: the integration of culture and the design of the sea

The third section: Good luck to all the workers--"Zi Man Biography"

The fifth chapter the design thought of song Yuan

The first view of Daniel Shao

The second section Scientia--Zhu Xi

The third control device is still like--Zheng

The fourth section true shape true number--shen

Section Fifth creating French--the state-issued design code of Creation

The sixth section: the Shijing of the Zi people

The seventh section is simple and insipid--the design idea of creation under the influence of "sandwich"

The sixth chapter design thought of Ming Dynasty

The first section is the unity of knowing and doing-wang

The second festival uses the DAO--Wang Gen

Section III Heavenly Creations-Yingxing

Fourth quarter secret manpower--"garden metallurgy"

The fifth section with square system image--"Superfluities zhi"

The sixth verse--"The decoration of the book"

The seventh chapter the design thought of Qing Dynasty

The first section "Returning from the King"--creation design thought in the early Qing Dynasty

Section II Practical and practical--Huang Zong-XI, Yanwu, Wang Fuzhi

The third section of leisure--Li Yu

The fourth verse--"style thunder" and its architectural design

The fifth quarter European wind East gradually--the Chinese and western exchanges and the Master Yi long skill

Regional differences

In addition to the above three points, China's regional differences also need to consider. Unlike northern Europe and other countries, China is a multi-ethnic country, although the basic tone of the Chinese culture, but the local culture and customs in each region there is a great difference, so it is impossible to propose a similar "Nordic design" of a design style to include all, which for the local designers, is both an opportunity and a challenge.

Conclusion

China's appreciation of the aesthetic, "to increase a point is too long, minus one point is too short, the powder is too white, Shiju is too red, that is," just right "of the exquisite; Chinese culture, the flow-like natural fluency, or" water out of hibiscus, natural to carve "fresh and simple, avoid" deliberately ". The design of "Chinese style" should be built on solid design skills, extensive cultural accumulation, and profound cultural understanding. This can be based on the rational use of "Chinese elements", summarizing and continuing the thinking mode of Chinese traditional design, as well as three aspects of Chinese ancient design history and design works.

Of course, the development of design, like other industries, is closely related to the national economy and international status, perhaps this year's Nobel Prize in literature for Mo Yan is a positive signal.

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