Narration In Product Design Based On The Regional Culture

Under the influence of western civilization and the market-oriented economy,the aesthetic taste of popular culture is dominated by the popular appreciation,leading to a tendency of neutrality in the term of cultural content and value.As a result,the content and form of the mass cultural product tend to be homogenized,similar and popular,which are more easily accepted by the public.Apart from that,existing design methods for cultural product normally focuse on the extraction of regional cultural symbols,but ignore a key problem that how to convey the cultural content and its theme through product in a proper way.Because of this ignorance,many cultural products that are designed to suit customers’ needs are just "a marketable blend of the cultural element and mainstream aesthetic".These fusion objects are produced nearly completely out of the cultural context,and it has been an obstacle in the process of innovative design for cultural products.There fore,this research introduces the narrative theory into design,focusing on the way of cultural narration and the design method to spread regional culture by products.The narrative design refers to the process of thinking,sorting and writing in a way of literature writing.The purpose of this way is to promote the communication between "reading" and "writing","speaking" and "listening",focusing on the"storytelling" of the product and the transmission of the theme.Firstly,this research introduces three elements,including theme,plot and situation,into the research of the product narrative design,so the product can convey information by narrative ways to the target user,and then combing product case analysis,to summarize the existing narrative design methods used in product,which provides a foundation for the development of the following theoretical model.The next part of this research is to develop the design model of narrative product based on regional culture.In the perspective of regional cultural studies,the model of product narrative design includes five steps:cultural probe and immersion in the community,narrative theme extraction through local culture learning,the transformation from narrative text to product design language,context research and narrative setting by product design methods.At the end of this paper,the author tests the feasibility of the design model through product design practice for Dong minority in Tongdao.The target user is the group of young and middle-aged Dong people,and they are far away from their home because they work in big cities to support their family.The author uses research methods such as literature review,participatory observation and interviews to understand target users’ needs,and the finding shows that they like product which integrates Dong’s culture elements.The design theme is "Home",and the author extracts design elements from the local cultural knowledge system and narrative theme map,completing the transformation from narrative text to design language,and then define the narrative context on the basis of contextual research.The final output is a lamp design integrating narrative setting to combine their traditional culture and modern living.The theory and design practice show that the product narrative design process based on the regional culture has played a positive role in conveying the cultural theme to users,and can effectively improve the cultural connotation and cultural value of the object,widely promoting the spread of regional culture.