The Evolution of Chinese Packaging Design Inspired by Japanese Aesthetics

The development of Japanese packaging design is inseparable from the unique cultural tradition of the nation, especially the Japanese aesthetic tradition, which focuses on functionality, emphasizes natural beauty, and advocates simplicity and fun. Therefore, Japanese packaging design emphasizes the efficiency and naturalness of packaging aesthetics. Chinese packaging design can learn from the development experience of Japanese packaging design to form a Chinese design that has the characteristics of traditional Chinese culture, is national, contemporary, and novel, and is in parallel with the general trend of world design.

Keywords: Japanese packaging design; inspiration; influence

The development of modern Chinese design started in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Under the social background of reform and opening up, China's design circles underwent radical changes. The popularization of computer design technology in the 1990s accelerated the pace of Chinese design. The strong pace of China's design development has attracted the attention of the world and also made Chinese people see the bright future of contemporary Chinese design. With the acceleration of the globalization process, the impact of foreign culture and modern design concepts has challenged my country's long-standing traditional culture, and some problems have also appeared in the field of design in my country, such as blind imitation of Western product design styles, poor processing technology, and packaging design. Simple and rough, lack of communication between design categories, etc. Design plays a very important role in all aspects of society, culture, science, economy, etc. Simply borrowing and copying other cultures cannot promote the development of a country or a nation's civilization. Design should be rooted in the deep soil of its own history and civilization. Japan’s experience in developing modern design in combination with its own traditional culture is worth learning.

1. Overview of the development of modern design in China

The active market economy has brought many new topics to China's industrial development and also opened up a broad world for China's contemporary design. In the 1980s, under the favorable environment of reform and opening up, Chinese contemporary design developed rapidly. After the 1990s, a large number of private small design firms emerged in China, engaged in advertising design, fashion design, decoration design, packaging design, computer animation design, lighting design, and some small household appliances design. These small and flexible design companies are full of vitality due to their compliance with market demand and have promoted the development of Chinese design in many ways, but they have also caused some problems: imitation of foreign contemporary design forms; only focusing on design practice, not Summary of theory and experience; cultural choices are chaotic, and no design form with traditional Chinese cultural characteristics has been formed. At present, Chinese design has evolved from imitation to an independent style, such as the refrigerator design of Guangzhou Kelon Electric Co., Ltd., and the high-definition digital TV set designed by the Industrial Design Department of Shenzhen Konka Group. It can be seen from these designs that the design institutions of Chinese enterprises, as an important force in the field of modern design in China, are gradually developing in a formal direction, and the gap between Chinese product design and the international market is narrowing.

2. Overview of the development of Japanese modern design

Modern Japan devoted itself to the development of the industry. After World War II, the United States stationed troops in Japan, and American culture also entered Japan. After several years of blending European modern design represented by Bauhaus and American modernism and commercialism, it has developed into a complete and market-oriented modernist design style with American characteristics, representing advanced science. This design style entered Japan along with the products, bringing a new style of design to Japanese companies and design circles. Therefore, from the late 1940s to the early 1960s, the design appearance of Japanese commodity packaging was basically the American appearance, and imitation prevailed. It is also a common phenomenon that Japanese characters cannot be seen on the packaging of Japanese products. At the same time, problems such as poor quality and backwardness of Japanese manufacturing have become increasingly prominent. By the 1960s, the problems with Japanese design became more apparent.

The Japanese design community began to reflect on the way of industrial development and design development for more than ten years, and at the same time proposed a corresponding solution, which is to adopt a compromise method in design to adjust and deal with modern Western design culture and Japanese traditional culture, national habits, The relationship between economic characteristics and industrial conditions reflects the compatibility and dual characteristics of Japanese design to the greatest extent. Japanese design has gone through such a nationalized development process and has made remarkable achievements. After the 1980s, Japanese products were all printed in Japanese in the most conspicuous places. "Made in Japan" has become synonymous with beautiful form and superior performance. Taking a comprehensive look at Japanese design, the reasons for the great development of Japanese packaging design can be roughly summarized as follows:

First of all, Japanese packaging design is for the public, not just for the nobles. This requires Japanese designs to target the domestic mass market and at the same time meet the cultural background, usage habits, and psychological and physical needs of consumers. This has prompted Japanese designers to keep streamlining, reaching a very concise and refined height, and finally forming packaging design products that meet their national aesthetic standards. The commercial culture was highly developed, and a popular and urbanized art culture was formed. The Japanese gradually paid attention to and loved the luxurious graphic decoration, so the Japanese graphic packaging at that time reflected the rich graphic decoration effect. At the same time, Japanese ukiyo-e had an important influence on the style of Japanese packaging design at that time.

Secondly, Japan attaches great importance to the protection and development of traditional designs. For example, Japan's traditional food packaging, traditional clothing design, traditional graphic design, traditional architecture, etc., all have high-level protection measures and policies. This kind of protection system, from the results of its development after World War II to the present, has a remarkable effect. The packaging of Japanese traditional products, such as Japanese rice wine, Japanese gifts, Japanese cakes, Japanese ceramics, and other products, has quite distinctive national characteristics and is unique in the field of packaging in the world. It is not only loved by people but also affects many countries. Package Design.

Finally, there is another distinctive feature of Japanese packaging design, which is its admiration for the original characteristics of materials. Japanese packaging is good at using all kinds of original ecological materials without post-processing and treatment. For example, the Japanese wrap eggs in straw; put wine in bamboo tubes; use bamboo boxes or bamboo strips to make baskets and small boxes Candy and candied fruit are in full bloom; natto is wrapped in straw, which is both a packaging and a fermentation process. The interactive decoration between these delicate products and materials is defined as the embodiment of national habits. It can be realized that nature and its connotations play a very key role in Japanese packaging design aesthetics. Oka Hideyuki said: "Because these packages are not products that need attention, nor are they theories, their shapes are unconsciously fixed by years of life and aesthetic experience."

In short, the development of Japanese packaging design is inseparable from the unique cultural tradition of the nation, especially the Japanese aesthetic tradition, which focuses on functionality, emphasizes natural beauty, and advocates simplicity and fun. Therefore, Japan pays attention to the high efficiency and natural spiritual meaning of packaging aesthetics.