Guidelines To Develop Product Forms From Chinese Calligraphy

Abstract

“Global Westernization” is the most prominent characteristic of the 20th century. World culture, design and art form lean towards the West. Western products, like German products can be seen in markets all over the world. But where are the Chinese products? As an Industrial Design thesis, this research was conducted to study the product design from the perspective of Chinese culture. From the heritage of Chinese culture, calligraphy was chosen in this study. The relationship between product form and the aesthetics of Chinese calligraphy was studied. The emphasis of this research was to create a link between contemporary product form design and traditional Chinese calligraphy. Comparisons among the four different styles of Chinese calligraphy and their uniqueness were the goal of this research. Once the guidelines are set, product designers can incorporate these elements into their designs. They can not only design a Chinese product, but also a Kai-style product or a Cao-style product. China’s population is about 21.3% of the world’s population; therefore, Chinese-focused products will have a huge potential market. In this thesis, the guidelines were applied to one product that was replicated four times, with each utilizing a distinct calligraphy style to demonstrate how the transformation was carried out.