With the progress of the times, cultural exchanges between East and West have become easy. While some designers in our country have borrowed Western design concepts while unconsciously losing their national culture, it seems to be the only goal to be in line with international standards. Whether in packaging or advertising design, a series of activities tend to be Westernized. Does not reflect the characteristics of the country and the nation. After a period of neglect in the national culture, we gradually felt a cultural emptiness, and then the rise of national culture has also emerged. This also proves that cultural activities must be developed in the soil of national culture. Therefore, in the cultural phenomenon of packaging design, the infusion of ethnic culture is indispensable.

The Role of Ethnic Culture in Modern Packaging

Since the reform and opening up, the design field has quickly put on a "suit" in terms of concept and form. The design is a cultural phenomenon that inherits and promotes a culture. If it is alienated from the concept and form, it will lead to a serious weakening of our national culture. Design is the most direct reflection of a cultural trait. Oriental culture emphasizes stability, harmony, and material sentiment. It grew up in a relatively independent environment, broad and profound, self-contained, is a kind of "harmonious" culture, in stressing the "harmony between man and nature" harmony, but also showed a cultural domineering. The culture of the dragon is a concentrated expression. The dragon itself is a kind of harmony and omnipotence. Chinese dragon's packaging patterns can be seen everywhere, common to the two dragons play beads, Kowloon shine, dragons and phoenixes, Dragon Tigers and so on. Of course, this kind of dragon culture is the spirit of oriental culture. The cultural idea abstracted from it is the essence of oriental culture.

Packaging design is an important part of national culture, and it is also an important form of national culture. It is closely related to people's lives, so that people can understand its culture from the packaging of a nation, so packaging is not only a carrier of culture. And it is the aesthetic object of consumers. If you do not pay attention to the national culture of packaging design, over time, this aesthetic object may change people's aesthetic habits, and the national culture's superiority and pride will gradually disappear. Therefore, we must pay attention to the injection of national culture in the design, will make our packaging design in an invincible position in the internationalization process.

The Role of Traditional Patterns in Ethnic Culture

In packaging design, the use of traditional patterns is a major form of packaging culture. In addition to satisfying the packaging's commodity functions, a good package should reflect its cultural connotations and be consistent with national culture. In the five “W” design orientations proposed by the West, Who designed it (Who) and why (wher) in the place design all have ethnic factors. We must consider factors such as customs, aesthetics, and consumer psychology, and these are all examples of national culture. The packaging design satisfies these needs and solves the two “W” issues. Therefore, we must consider it as a national culture in packaging design, not just simply beautify the goods.

China has a long history. Five thousand years of civilization have deposited the unique art forms of the East. People have created colorful ethnic patterns. This is the source of our packaging design. The Chinese traditional art pays much attention to the expression, so in the traditional patterns, they often use similar forms or homophones to sustenance people's good wishes. For example, the pomegranate symbolizes many children and more blessings, and the “cats and butterflies map” homonym “map”. I wish the elderly good health and longevity. The use of these traditional patterns in packaging design embodies the features of oriental culture and art. It is commonly recognized by a region and a nation. This is exactly what packaging functions must have. The value of packaging design is to create material products for humans, and more importantly, to engage in a spiritual activity, use a culture to increase its appeal, increase consumers' understanding of the brand image of goods, and further understand the geographical and national production of goods. The cultural tradition is also a kind of propaganda and protection for national culture.

The Advantages of Folk Art Applied in Modern Packaging Design

For packaging design, considering a series of issues such as ease of transportation, storage, display, and convenience for consumers, only the creation process is completed and the distance of the packaging is still far from being reached. It also needs to satisfy the psychological needs of consumers. The famous human culturist Marin Lojensky said: "In human social life, the needs of all living things have been transformed into cultural needs." Therefore, the identification of culture is the most basic prerequisite for product identity. The use of folk art in packaging design first occupied the cultural identity. Folk art is popular from the people. Through a long period of enrichment and development, it has become a national cultural phenomenon. It has always served the broad working people and is well-received by the people. Therefore, it is used in the design of packaging, just to meet the psychological needs of consumers, so that the Chinese people feel at home, foreign consumers feel new. Such as the traditional patterns of dragons and phoenixes, magpies, plums, flowers, etc. used in packaging design to greatly enrich the packaging language, to meet the aesthetic taste of consumers and the need for cultural identity.

Our country is a multi-ethnic country with a vast geographical area, rich material materials and ethnic cultures, and many beautiful packaging shapes are formed. In modern packaging, these shapes can satisfy all functions of the packaging as long as they are slightly improved. . Emotional expression is a major advantage of Chinese folk art. There are many story-like folk art works in China. Applying these folk art works to serial product packaging can not only meet the needs of packaging for culture, but also enhance the sense of series of products.

Several Problems Should Be Paid Attention to in the Application of National Traditional Patterns in Packaging Design

Although ethnic culture plays an important role in packaging design, it is not good to use, but it will have a negative impact. This is a problem that packaging designers should pay attention to. At present, many packages on the market that use traditional Chinese designs have given people an impression of shoddy. To avoid this phenomenon, we should pay attention to the following questions.

1. Some designers do not pay attention to the function of product packaging when designing product packaging, and misuse national tradition maps, resulting in incomplete packaging functions and unclear appeals. The author believes that the packaging of modern high-tech products and foreign products is best not to use the traditional pattern, and the traditional production of the product can use traditional patterns, but to be consistent with the product content, so that products and packaging will complement each other.

2. The emergence of new packaging materials puts new requirements on the combination of traditional patterns and materials, must not be combined at will, and it cannot be combined with inferior materials and traditional patterns. This will not only improve the image of the product, but will also be a national culture. Destruction.

3. Attention should be paid to the use of national color emotions. Chinese people like red, yellow and other colors. They are widely used in many folk art works. The contrast of various colors is also an application of formal beauty in Chinese folk art. Of course, we can't stick to these rules in the design, but we should learn from them and use them flexibly.

Conclusion

The promotion of national culture in packaging design has certain historical and cultural significance. The world culture is composed of different ethnic cultures. Different national cultural characteristics are the hallmarks of distinguishing a nation. Therefore, the application of ethnic culture in packaging design gives us a lot of space. But it is by no means simply to use several national traditional patterns in the packaging. In the era of national culture integration, the use of national culture in packaging design should be good at absorbing and learning, and correctly handling the relationship between tradition and innovation, and cannot design. Staying in the visual form, and deeper understanding of the national culture.

Wang Guangyi Academy of Fine Arts, Jishou University, Hunan Province

Reprinted from: Art Education