Unique Visual Communication System

The order of “Heaven, Earth, Monarch, Parents, and Teacher”, which could be displayed by visible symbols, constituted the invisible spiritual belief and the moral foundation in the traditional Chinese society as the universal value held by the entire Chinese nation. The memorial tablet of Heaven, Earth, Monarch, Parents, and Teacher” integrates visual symbols such as color, Chinese characters, graphs etc., and combines two-dimensional design in its three-dimensional structure. Typically the tablet would be placed in the central room in civilian houses, which also represents the spiritual center for the folk activities where the people would feel the appeal of moral rules and actively adjust their own behaviors by watching and worshiping the tablet that communicates the visual information. It can be seen from this that this system is powerful in communicating information and guiding people’s behaviors, which is inherently isomorphic to the modern visual communication system.This paper, based on the platform of artistic design, treats the memorial tablet of “Heaven, Earth, Monarch, Parents, and Teacher” as a unique visual communication system, analyzes the design approaches for the symbols of this system by use of semiotics methods, and interprets its functions in visual communication. This paper is divided into five parts. Chapter 1 is the Introduction, which introduces the research background and reasons for choosing the topic, and identifies the research method as well as the theoretical and practical significance of the research. Interprets the basic theories, defines the basic concepts in visual communication and identifies the basic theories in semiotics to establish the theoretical basis for analyzing the visual communication system through semiotics methods. Chapter 2 analyzes the representation of the visual symbols of “Heaven, Earth, Monarch, Parents, and Teacher” tablet, demonstrates its inherent isomorphism to the modern visual communication system, and expounds the visual symbols of the system by classing them into different categories. Chapter 3 analyzes the structure of the symbols in the system, namely, the structures of graphs, functions and connotations, interprets the communication of core symbols and core connotations, expression of auxiliary symbols and background connotations, and finds out the root cause for the formation of its uniqueness. Chapter 4 has vertical analysis of the changing process, i.e. the establishment, extension, and replacement of the design objective of the system, and explores the causes for such changes. Chapter 5 offers the Conclusion, which explores the possible lessons can be learnt by the modern design from the design of symbols in the visual communication system. Moreover, the problems encountered during the research are summarized to identify the places where future improvement can be made.