The Influence of Modern Consumption Psychology on Packaging Design

The famous cultural anthropologist Malinowski said that "in human social life, the needs of all living creatures have been transformed into the needs of culture;" modern packaging design is a culture-based, life-based, Modern oriented design discipline. Therefore, both in theory and in practice, we should treat packaging design as a form of culture: In modern society, the study of design theory is not only an in-depth analysis of a discipline, but should be a variety of Interdisciplinary views. The packaging design activity as a cultural phenomenon to observe, it is not only a simple material function of the satisfaction and spiritual needs can be covered in one word, which is the connotation of modern designers must be explored.

Culture is the sum of material wealth and spiritual wealth created in the course of human history practice. So can the packaging design culture include all people’s behaviors and the things created by these behavioral methods, as well as those formed on these aspects? Mental concept. In general, there are many composite elements of design and cultural elements that can be divided into three levels.

First, the physical layer of packaging design, which is the surface layer of design culture, mainly refers to the material carrier that contains the elements of design culture. It has the characteristics of materiality, foundation, and degeneration. Such as various packaging design departments and packaging design products, exchange of goods and consumers in the use of packaging products, consumer behavior, etc.;

Second, the packaging design organization system layer. This is the middle layer of design culture, and it is also the materialization of the inner layer of design culture. It has a strong era and continuity: It mainly includes the coordination of the relationship between the various elements of the design system, the standardization of design behavior and the judgment and correction of the organizational system of design. Countries with relatively advanced packaging design culture in the world have their own relatively complete organizational systems. In countries where packaging design culture is relatively backward, the organization system is largely incomplete.

Third, the concept of packaging design. It is a state of cultural psychology, so it can also be regarded as the conscious layer of design culture. It is at the core and dominant position and is the basis and basis for all activities of the design system elements. The impact of the development of science and technology, productivity enhancement, and cultural advancement on the packaging design culture is mainly manifested in the aspects of production and life concepts, values, thinking concepts, aesthetic concepts, moral and ethical concepts, and national psychological concepts. . It is the most stable part of the design culture structure, and it is also the soul of design culture. It exists in the human heart, and it develops and changes. It will eventually be directly or indirectly expressed in the organizational system. This stipulates its own development and laws, absorbs, reforms, or repels the elements of foreign cultures, and influences the development trend of design culture.

The three aspects of the packaging design culture structure are related to each other and form a system that constitutes an organic whole of the packaging design culture. The material layer of the packaging design culture is the most active factor. It is active and frequent, and the changes in the packaging design culture are always reflected first in its body. Such as China’s reform and opening up, learning advanced science, culture and technology from abroad, product penetration is playing a leading role in this cultural shock; in the market, product packaging is updated. An endless stream. The organizational system layer is the most authoritative factor, which stipulates that the overall nature of the packaging design culture is an important link for maintaining the inter-group relationship of design, and it is also a guarantee for the scientific and effective implementation of packaging design. This level consists of a set of intrinsic criteria systems, which is the yardstick for packaging designers to engage in design activities. Different design concepts will bring different behavioral styles and social outcomes, recognizing new requirements imposed on us by the new environment, and mastering new ideas, concepts, and new methods that meet such new requirements. This is the new design concept. height. The three are interdependent, combined with each other, infiltrated each other, and integrated in each specific packaging design activity and design work.

Packaging cultural elements spread in space and time, exist in a certain space, that is, the inevitableness of the same social crowd, resulting in the nationality of the packaging design culture, because the culture exists within a certain period of time, that is, the inevitable changes in the social historical changes In the past, the era and nationality of the packaging design culture have emerged, which constitutes the social attributes and essential attributes of the packaging design culture.

The nationality of the packaging design culture involves the occurrence of culture. It is precisely because the culture of the world does not come from the same source. Of course, there is a nationality problem. Every nation in the world, due to the constraints of different natural conditions and social conditions, has formed the language, habits, morality, thinking, values, and aesthetic concepts that are not to be asked by other peoples. Therefore, it will surely form a distinctive national culture. The nationality of packaging design culture is mainly reflected in the conceptual level of the packaging design culture structure, which reflects the psychological commonality of the entire nation. Different cultures and different cultures lead to different cultural concepts, directly or indirectly, in their own design activities and products. Like the scientific, logical and rigorous and rational style of German design, Japan’s novelty, dexterity, exquisite and exquisite human touch, and Italian design elegance and romantic sentiment are all born of their different ethnic groups. In the atmosphere of cultural conception, the stability, completeness, formal integrity, and symmetry of China's packaging design style are also the reflection of the introverted psychological characteristics and relatively conservative social consciousness of the Chinese people.

Because the design organization system was born out of the concept of consciousness of design, the materialization of design consciousness, and the derivative of national design consciousness, then it combined with the activities and practical results under the guidance of people’s design concepts, and therefore they put different national colors on them. National brand imprint.

The packaging design culture is both ethnic and contemporary.

After a nation is formed together, it has formed a long and turbulent historical development process. At this stage of the historical process, the national culture will show a series of characteristics of the times. As long as we recognize the acceptance and development of packaging design culture, there is a time of packaging design culture. This is because the packaging design culture is first a process of historical development. It is the superposition and acceptance of the design culture in each era of the nation. It is based on the material society of the era and is the accumulation of traditional design culture and its continuous abandonment. The unity of opposites, historicity and reality are the unity of opposites.

Packaging design culture has its time, mainly reflected in the organizational structure of the packaging design culture and the material outer layer. However, design is closely related to the times and focuses on ideas. In the globalization of economy and rapid development of science and technology. The subjective forms of society have undergone fundamental changes. In particular, the widespread and high-speed dissemination of information, the escalation of open concepts has become increasingly fierce, the diversification of social structures and values, and aesthetic concepts, the frequent interactions between people and people, the increasing demands of society and people, and the dissimilation of industrial civilization. The energy, environmental and ecological crisis that comes with it, and whether we can adapt to it, use it, and make packaging design a product of this era, have become an important task for designers today.

The epochal characteristics of packaging design culture naturally make our design activities and products impossible to measure with an absolute standard. Different eras have their own standards, and today’s or yesterday’s can’t be regarded as an absolute, sole criterion. The judgement of the historical design culture must recognize that it is historical. The era of culture determines that all historical understandings are historical in nature. The packaging and design culture of each era has its own absolute content. It has its own concept system, has its own historical development, and has this era. Branding, so it is also corresponding to the limitations of the times, without these understandings, we can not have a comprehensive grasp of the era of packaging design culture.

The nationality and the times of packaging design culture are both content and form. These two basic attributes are generally the most active factors in the three dimensions of packaging design culture structure, generally speaking, the material aspect is more plentiful. The most easily accepted by people, popular. The psychological level has strong nationality, is relatively stable and conservative, and changes are slow. When the two heterogeneous packaging design cultures come into contact under equal or unequal conditions, the first thing that is discovered by each other is the outer layer of the material and the habit of using it for a long time. It can gradually recognize the middle layer, that is, the institutional layer of the theoretical organization. In the end, we can appreciate the core level of each individual, that is, the level of psychological concepts. The development of Japan's post-war packaging industry, and the introduction of material technology equipment from the reform and opening up of China's packaging industry, to the introduction of various advanced organization and management systems, and the penetration of modern packaging design concepts all illustrate this point.

Each ethnic group’s packaging design culture forms a design culture system. Each ethnic group's packaging design culture of a certain era also forms its own cultural system. Different packaging design culture systems contain some common cultural factors. Some different cultural elements, the former show the universality of the packaging design culture, the latter shows the particularity of the packaging design culture. Every ethnic group's packaging design culture has its own human part. The human nature of packaging design resides in the nationality, the eternality in the era, and the commonness in the speciality. This is a dialectical unity of the packaging design culture.

Therefore, I think that many aspects of packaging design, such as thinking methods, value judgment methods, and social organization methods, will continue to be absorbed and updated in many aspects as the times progress, in order to establish a sound national character, There is also an era of new packaging design culture system, which is the requirements of the times, the inevitable history, is the key to China's packaging design level among the world's advanced forest.

Source: One of the Excellent Papers of the 7th Plenary Session of China Packaging Society