The Influence And Inheritance Of Chinese Totem Culture On Modern Graphic Design

For thousands of years people lived in Northwest China have developed their own totem patterns in production and livings.These unique patterns are the reflections of people's living conditions from different eras,but same wishes towards better life and praises of overcoming courage.These totem patterns have strong regional characteristics,root deeply in ancient Chinese culture and Chinese people's natural virtue.They functions in the practical without losing ones aesthetic and historic-cultural features,which brings peoples' material life together with their spiritual ones.The totem patterns in Northwest China is an important part of Chinese cultural legacy.Modem graphic design,as a tool of visual communication,in today's era of information,have multiple varieties in forms,which carries vital messages and brings visual impacts at the same time.How to stay stand out among all other kinds of media with its irreplaceable cultural meaning and information in such impatience,fast-pace world?The paper provides a feasible answer to this question-by adding elements from Northwest China totem patterns.At home and abroad there are plenty researches solely focused on totem,but few will focus on the combination of graphic design and totem patterns,and the analysis of regional specific totem patterns applied in design is even less.From this point of view,this paper is using Northwest China as research region,targets its unique regional characteristics,applied untraditional angle to make analysis-to put efforts to reveal its strategical and profitable potentials to be utilized in modern graphic design,as an symbol of culture,at the same time,to emphasize the importance of its application in design.This paper firstly sorts all the related information about totem pattern analysis and the trend of modern graphic design,makes briefly discussion about the current status and foregoing of the application of totem from Northwest China in design nowadays,provides material and directions for further research.Then,to lay a theoretical foundation for the discussion in the last part,second part of this paper discusses thoroughly on the topics,i.e.totem patterns,modern graphic design theory and related fundamental theories,etc.,illustrates the origin,characteristics and lassification of totem(patterns)in Chinese culture,and the relationships between the modern graphic design and the application of totem patterns.At the last part of this paper,the discussion majorly focuses on the analysis of totem(patterns)in Northwest China,including the composition,embodiment and the color scheme along with their projections applied on design.Furthermore,the paper points out the importance and necessity of the applying totem patterns from Northwest China to the modern graphic design practice,and makes attempts to draft the application principles regarding the design techniques per the semiotic principles and its applications in modern graphic design theory.At last,this paper expounds specifically the theories discussed above by using examples from three aspects in practical design exercises,including corporate logo design,graphic advertisement design and modern packaging design.