Translated by Zhou Bo and Victor Papanek

This book was written from 1963 to 1970, originally published in Sweden, and 197 1 published in the United States.

-Design is a conscious and intuitive effort to achieve a meaningful order.

Being conscious means being rational, thinking, researching and analyzing.

We like some things in nature because they contain simple, elegant and healthy organisms. These patterns are rich, orderly, beautiful and elegant, but they are all intra-species choices (for example, pride as peacock's beauty is to attract females; The spiral growth of sunflower, pineapple and pine cone is to promote photosynthesis; The streamlined body of salmon is designed for fast swimming; The red and orange of maple leaves are the process of withering. If there is no order, it is difficult for us to see any intention.

The correctness of any design depends on the importance of our arrangement.

Designing the behavior to achieve its purpose is its function.

"Form following function" was first put forward by American sculptor HoratioGreenough in 1739. It became the battle cry of architect louis sullivan after 100 years, and was later restated by Frank Lloyd Wright as "form and function are consistent". Both expressions point out the obvious difference between "easy to use" and "good to look at". "Form obeys function" implies that as long as the function requirements are met, the form will obey it, which looks pleasing to the eye. Some people put the cart before the horse and mistakenly understand this sentence as an "ideal" form, which is always very useful.

Henry Dreyfus said in Design for the Public:

Industrial designers start by eliminating excessive decoration. When they are obsessed with product research, observe its operation and find ways to make it better and more beautiful, the real work of designers begins. They will never forget that beauty is only superficial. For many years, we have a belief in the office that what we do will be abandoned, discussed, considered, persuaded, encouraged, operated or adopted by individuals or the public in some way. If the contact point between products and people becomes a friction point, then the industrial designer will fail. On the contrary, if people become safer, more comfortable, more eager to buy things, more efficient-even happier-designers will succeed. He brought a unique analytical perspective to this work. He often consults with manufacturers, their engineers, workers and sales staff in order to understand the possible problems of the company in the commercial or industrial fields. He would compromise to some extent, but refused to change the design principles he insisted on. He may lose a customer occasionally, but he seldom loses the respect of the customer.

1849, the first industrial design organization was established in Sweden, followed by Austria, Germany, Denmark, Britain, Norway and Finland. At that time, designers paid attention to the endowment of form, and they strangely looked for "appropriate beauty" in mechanical tools and products. At this time, designers either adhere to the gorgeous and luxurious Victorian Baroque style, or become a member of an unrealistic circle that is panicked by mechanical technology.

19 19, walter gropius established the German Bauhaus School of Design, and art and machine were finally grafted together.

Thinking modes are divided into analytical thinking, judgmental thinking, conventional thinking and creative thinking.

Creative thinking seems to appear in three ways. The first is a sudden moment of inspiration. The second is to find a solution to the problem when dreaming (the signal analysis of a series of facts waits for the comprehensive reasoning of subconscious or pre-consciousness). The third is to carry out systematic and problem-oriented research in order to produce a new working method.

The resistance factors that prevent us from solving work problems in an innovative way;

1. Perceptual impairment 2. Emotional disorder 3. Association obstacle 4. Cultural barriers 5. Occupational barriers 6. Mental retardation 7. Environmental obstacle

1. Perceptual barriers: As the name implies, these restrictions exist in the field of perception.

A person who can't tell the difference between high and low will encounter perceptual obstacles when he wants to listen to music. This kind of physiological disorder is varied, such as color blindness, astigmatism, strabismus, blindness, hysterical aphasia and so on.

2. Emotional barriers: In a society that pays more attention to conformity, it is easy for people to remember the words "Don't stand out". There is a simple experiment. In a group environment, emotional pressure is great. You can ask a group of people aged 25-30 if they have a hobby of amateur bird watching. Get rid of those who are interested in bird watching, and then ask the rest, "How many of you can name 30 kinds of birds?" . There may not be many people raising their hands. But in fact, at least 60 can be listed. They dare not stick out their necks for fear of being asked about some unusual birds.

3. Association disorder

4. Cultural barriers

5. Occupational barriers

6. mental retardation

7. Environmental barriers

Remove these obstacles by:

1. Brainstorm 2. * * * The same discussion 3. Morphological analysis iv. Sliding contrast 5. Pun association 6. Three associations. Bionics and biomechanics. Force a new mode of thinking.

1. Brainstorm,

It was invented by Alexander Osborne. Randomly form 6-8 people, suspend judgment and emphasize quantity.

2.*** The same discussion,

Developed by WilliamJ J. Gordon is very effective in solving technical and scientific problems. Need a strong team leader, team members are permanent and carefully selected, and each person can represent at least two different fields.

3. Morphological analysis model,

A systematic approach to solving personal problems.

When useful machinery (tools, hardware solutions, PCB and manufacturing costs are fixed) and skin are separated for a shorter time, it leads to further specialization and aesthetics based only on appearance. The "epidermis" designer disdainfully alienated the "viscera" designer (engineering and research and development), and the shape and function were artificially separated. However, when the skin and internal organs are separated, no organism or product can exist for a long time.

There is also a more lasting legacy of design thinking, which regards products as a meaningful connection between people and the environment. We must regard man, his tools, environment, way of thinking and plan as a nonlinear, synchronous, comprehensive and comprehensive whole.

This method is IntegratedDesign. It deals with the expansion of professionals.

. All human functions-breathing, balance, walking, perception, consumption, making symbols and social production are interrelated and interdependent. If we want to combine the human environment with human psychology and physiology, then our goal is to re-plan and redesign the functions and structures of all human tools, products, dwellings and tribes, so that they can be integrated into a complete living environment and can grow, change, mutate, adapt and multiply according to human needs.

In order to show a complete design, show the whole design, and show a unified performance, we need designers to be able to handle the design process comprehensively.

This requires designers to be versatile, but school education and limited human energy will only make us focus on one field. But designers have to dabble in a wide range.

So a complete design team may also need experts. Such a typical team may be composed of a designer, an anthropologist, a sociologist and people engaged in a special engineering field. A biologist (or someone who is proficient in bionics and biomechanics) and several doctors and psychologists may perfect this team. Most importantly, the customers for whom the design team works must have their own representatives in the team.

Such a team focusing on design planning can not only solve problems, but also find, separate and identify those problems that need to be solved.

Schematic diagram of interdisciplinary team activities

Workflow:

1. Assemble a design team

2. Create a preliminary flow chart (only part of the triangle)

3. Research and fact-finding stage

4. Complete the first half of the flow chart

5. Establish the second half of the flow chart: What to do?

6. Personal action, partner team, or team design, development ideas.

7. Check these designs according to the objectives established in the flow chart, and revise these designs and flow charts according to these experiences.

8. Establish model, prototype, test model and working model.

9. Test through relevant user groups.

10. The inspection results are fed back to the flow chart.

1 1. Redesign and recheck to complete the design work, and at the same time write reports, communicate in plane, count supporting data or draw design drawings.

12. Summary filing.

The essence of industrial design is:

Reorganize knowledge structure and industrial chain to integrate resources, innovate industrial mechanism and guide the healthy, reasonable and sustainable survival and development needs of human society.

Science-discovering and explaining the truth;

Engineering-the technology of deconstruction and construction;

Liberal arts-right and wrong judgment and morality;

Art-a way to appreciate nature, life and society.

The purpose of design is to build the real Eden of mankind on the four pillars of human ideal, morality, emotion and tools. It is to integrate all the above factors realistically and create a more real, healthier and more reasonable lifestyle for mankind in the future.

When we say that this is a design, that is to say, we use some wisdom to organize something and give an internal model conceptually.

The opposite of design is chaos.

Gresham's law:

Public-oriented design

Insight and foresight Arthur Kossler

Creative behavior

Guide to creative behavior

"* * * Discussion Method" Bill Gordon

Innovative Practice George Prince

What positive significance does shaping some abstract industrial symbols symbolize? Abstract: Semiotics, as a new methodology, is gradually entering other disciplines. At the same time, the valuable semiotic discussion is not limited to the initially established semiotic field. For the subject of visual communication, it is a very meaningful subject to study the relationship between symbols and their referents, and the influence of the abstraction of visual symbols on information transmission and meaning expression. This can not only improve the efficiency and accuracy of information transmission, but also enrich the language of visual communication design and help meet the aesthetic requirements of modern people.

Keywords: visual symbols; Degree of abstraction; Expression of meaning

China Library Classification. : 6206 document identification code: a product code:1009-337012003105-0021-03.

Semiotics originated from linguistics, but now it has penetrated into philosophy, literature, natural science, art and many other disciplines. Today's semiotics has become "a study on semiotics, or a study on the process of semiotics, or a study on the function of semiotics". Valuable semiotic discussion is not limited to the semiotic field initially recognized, but has methodological significance. Semiotics research methods can also be applied to modern design. Visual communication design itself is a symbolic expression, and designers use it to convey their thinking process and conclusions to the audience. To achieve the purpose of guidance or persuasion, the history of using semiotics as a research methodology in modern design is not long, and it has not formed a system. Limited by space, this paper can't discuss the application system of semiotics in visual communication design, but only focuses on the relationship between visual symbols and the content they refer to.

I. Symbols and their functions

Swift, a British prisoner writer, tells a fictional story in Gulliver's Travels: several professors in a certain country put forward a plan to abolish vocabulary out of consideration for human health. They think that saying a word will do harm to the lungs more or less. Therefore, in order to make up for it, when we talk about specific things and feelings, we bring the physical objects with us to show. The consequences of this plan can be imagined. When two great scholars met in the street, they first unloaded their heavy backpacks from their broken backs, took out the contents of the backpacks and talked for more than an hour, then packed up their tools, helped each other to carry the load on their backs, and then broke up and said goodbye. This story sounds ridiculous, but it tactfully and profoundly hints at the essence of language symbols.

Simply treating things as things can't be called symbols. Only when something "represents" other things can it become a "symbol". According to the semioticist roland barthes's theory, a symbol consists of "signifier" and "signified". The signifier refers to the medium of matter, which refers to its psychological representation. The process of combining signifier with signified is called signified, and its product is symbol. In fact, all human thinking activities and information exchange depend on the existence of symbols. The process of human consciousness is essentially a symbolic process, and thinking is nothing more than the operation of combining, transforming and regenerating symbols. Symbol is the medium for human beings to know things. As an information carrier, it is a tool to store and transmit information, and at the same time it is a material means to express thoughts and feelings.

In view of the special significance of symbols, the philosopher Popper once put forward the theory of "three worlds", which is considered to be the "third world" different from the physical objective world of "nature" and the human spiritual world, especially the "world of objective contents of thoughts, especially the world of scientific thoughts, poetic thoughts and artistic works". 2 1 Using Popper's theory, we can infer two relationships between a symbol and what it refers to: First, the symbol transcends the field of "factual things", and at this time it replaces what exists in the objective physical world (that is, the first world), and the meaning of the symbol at this time is more abstract than what it replaces. Even a realistic painting, its author has been selected and organized to reflect the essence of the scene, so the abstraction of painting is still higher than the scene itself. Second, the symbol concretely reproduces the "dynamic abstract action pattern" of things, that is, 13 1, that is to say, it replaces things such as human thinking concepts from the second world, and its abstraction is just below what it replaces. At this time, symbols should be able to give a certain kind of things or a certain kind of "way of force" a specific shape, such as using a specific person to represent the whole concept of "person", or a musical melody recorded by staff and notes.

Second, the abstract problem of visual symbols

Language symbols are only one part of the whole symbol world, and another important part is visual symbols, that is, those symbols perceived by human vision. Visual symbols have many unique advantages in information transmission. It relies on graphics to express intuitively, and its symbolism is incomparable to other types of symbols in expressing human spirit and emotion. Compared with language symbols, visual symbols convey information faster and have wider connotations. Visual symbols also play a great role in the process of human cognition of the world. Human cognition of a thing is essentially his cognition of some of the most basic and prominent structural features of things, and "showing things by things" is not the most ideal and scientific way of information transmission. Therefore, human beings have been constantly establishing various visual symbols to help themselves in their cognitive activities of the world. These symbols are not mechanical copies of the original, but substitutes formed by active organization or construction and reorganization of thinking. They are the most direct expression of the essential characteristics and structure of things. They are the experience of human beings in long-term cognitive activities and rich associations.

The content a symbol refers to may be more abstract or less abstract than itself, depending on the nature of the content it refers to, and so does the visual symbol. On the other hand, as a visual symbol, the abstraction of graphics itself will also affect the transmission of information. If this symbol is quite realistic, on the one hand, it gives the structural skeleton of a concept flesh and blood, and conveys meaning with vivid images, on the other hand, it may get the opposite situation. For a painter or sculptor's work, the more similar it is to the real thing, the more difficult it is for the author to express his ideas with it. This is because the more specific a graphic image is, the more features it displays, and the harder it is for people to know which feature is the most important. At this time, the essence of this symbol, or the symbolic meaning it contains, may be ignored by the viewer. Old traffic signs in some western countries remind drivers to slow down with the vivid image of a snake. This way really attracts the driver's attention more than the words "slow down". However, the image of the snake itself is not a "full-time" visual symbol for traffic signals. People can see other features (such as slender bending and fear) from it, or people think it is a sign to remind people to protect wild animals.

It can be seen that concrete visual symbols can make viewers quickly identify what a poster or a signal board shows, but it is not easy to see the deeper abstract meaning from it. In this case, it is quite necessary to abstract the image of visual symbols, which can help us extract some special attributes accurately, but it does not mean that the more abstract the image of visual symbols, the more conducive it is to the expression of meaning and the transmission of information. A highly abstract visual symbol, if there is little or no similarity between its image and the marked thing, its symbolic function is quite limited, and sometimes it even hinders the transmission of information. The most obvious example is Duan, which means "auspicious place" in Sanskrit, but after Hitler used Duan in the opposite direction as Nazi party emblem, these two different symbols were often confused because of their high visual similarity.

When using symbols with such a high degree of abstraction, because the symbols themselves do not directly reflect the typical visual characteristics of the expressed content, the referential relationship between the signified and the signified is often artificially specified. In this case, its environmental background plays a very important role in transmitting information. The designer must attach some descriptive context or background information for the viewer to understand, otherwise it will cause serious ambiguity. The author's intention is a question worthy of further discussion. The following will take logo design as an example to discuss this problem.

Trademark or logo design I in modern visual communication design often takes a highly concise graphic as a visual symbol, which enables viewers to identify a company, a brand, an organization or a certain concept. As a symbol, trademarks and signs should solidify and express abstract concepts such as the company's business philosophy, product quality and organization.

Third, the expression of the meaning of visual symbols

With the advent of the information age, human beings have gradually entered a high-speed and almost disorderly state of life. Human beings urgently demand that information transmission can be carried out in the simplest, fastest and most efficient way. In the field of visual communication design, it is required that those visual symbols as information carriers can convey the meaning they represent to the audience in an instant. As mentioned above, as a visual symbol, the image of a graphic is too abstract or too specific, which directly affects the efficiency of information transmission. Therefore, as a designer, how to grasp this "degree", how to explore the greatest potential of visual symbols, and let them convey the design in the most intuitive, accurate and rapid way.

Tu 1 is the trademark of a dairy company. The basic element is the nature of its products-milk drops. After abstraction, graphics become a visual symbol to replace its actual product. The author simplifies the object he wants to describe into a very simple and clear model, which makes it easy for us to understand what the company's products are. But because it is only an abstract water drop pattern, we can't learn more about this company through this symbol, such as product characteristics or business philosophy. As a trademark or symbol, if the visual symbol is only abstracted from the objective object (product), it can only be a substitute for the object at best, which is not helpful for people to understand the content of the spiritual field. A week is a sign that there is no love in 2000. Wansai is a public welfare activity that can help the disabled. The author's task is how to solidify the abstract concept of "love" and express it in the form of visual symbols so that the audience will naturally think of "love" when they see this symbol. The audience can easily see the abstract figure of a hand from the overall pattern, and people familiar with sign language will soon see that this gesture represents the word "love". As a symbol, it first conveyed the metaphor of "caring" to me.

At the same time, after the abstract figure, it is not the hand itself that interests the viewer, but the content of the gesture. The audience can also recognize the shape of the Chinese character "heart" and see the image of a pigeon, thus connecting it with the well-known meaning. Finally, three powerful fingers let us see the valuable spirit of indomitable and tenacious struggle of the disabled. What the author wants to express is a rather abstract concept. However, these concepts are conveyed to us through graphics. These graphics themselves are visual symbols, and then they are combined to form a new visual symbol, that is, the logo itself, which fully expresses the main spirit of this public welfare activity-caring and self-improvement.

It can be seen that the visual symbols with profound figurative significance often refer to the contents from the human spiritual world (Popper's so-called "second world"), and their images come from the objective material world ("first world"). The purpose of visual symbols is to solidify the abstract concepts produced in the designer's thinking activities through concrete graphics, so as to convey them to the audience through visual language. In order to make this spiritual communication and information transmission faster and more effective, the choice of visual symbols and graphics must be based on the recognition of both designers and audiences. Therefore, designers must choose familiar things as the source of visual symbols, simplify the abstraction and meaning of visual symbols into graphics with appropriate abstraction, and serve as the carrier of concepts to build bridges in people's spiritual communication. Only in this way can Rudolph arnheim's theory of "formal complexity" needed to express abstract concepts and his theory of visual perception that realistic images are close to "pure form" be embodied at the same time.

Visual communication design is a means to convey information by visual language and communicate people's spiritual world by material means. With the progress of science and technology, the development of the times and the continuous improvement of living standards, people's aesthetic concepts are also changing, so the task left to designers is becoming more and more arduous. The richness of visual language depends on the exploration of more visual symbols, which are hidden in the boundless nature and human spiritual world, waiting for us to explore. Although this search is a long and endless process, it is also a powerful driving force to promote the continuous development and progress of design.

References:

[1] Introduction to Li Semiotics [M]. Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press, 1999, p. 2.

[2] Li Bocong. The symbolic world in the high-tech era [[M] Tianjin: Tianjin Science and Technology Press, 200 1, p. 6.

[3] "America" Rudolf arnheim. Teng Shouyao translated Visual Thinking-Aesthetic Intuitive Psychology [M]. Chongqing: Sichuan People's Publishing House, 1998, p. 178.

[4] Yin Dingbang. Illustrated with pictures and texts! m】。 Changsha: Hunan Science and Technology Press, 200 1.

[s] Wang Shouzhi World Graphic Design History {M]. Beijing: China Youth Publishing House, 1.

Do you know which color is suitable for industrial style walls? Among many elements involved in interior design, the color of paint used in space will affect many elements in design, and also reflect the overall home style and atmosphere. If you want to build an industrial home, what color should you choose for the wall?

1, a large area of white walls creates a bright and fresh industrial style.

Is it suitable for industrial style to just paint the wall white? For those who want to create a bright and spacious space, white will be an ideal choice! If you don't like pure white walls, cream or beige is also suitable; If you think the clean and tidy white wall is too boring, or want to bring some retro texture, expose the brick wall at the bottom in the space. With white paint brush mottled rough surface, the visual effect is good.

2、

grey scale

Paint explains the unmodified style.

Cement materials and exposed foggy gray pipes are often indispensable elements in industrial style. Therefore, the walls are matched with gray paint, which echoes the original appearance of the building. Among them, it is best to choose hand-painted special paint and imitation.

Clear water concrete

Textured paint.

3. Dark or blue dark walls create a cool sense of space.

Black is also one of the most common colors in modern industrial style, which is very suitable for presenting a somewhat cold or mysterious industrial tone. However, it is not necessary to paint every wall black to prevent the space from appearing too dark. It is recommended to choose the key wall. If you think black is too heavy, you can change it.

dark blue

, dark blue, dark blue, this can create a quiet and exquisite atmosphere, and can also be easily matched with industrial style furniture and decorations.

4. Warm colors balance space and cool colors, and color jumps to create visual focus.

Using warm and neutral paint colors, or boldly matching bright and bright paint, is also a popular choice for industrial wind colors. For example, brown,

Khaki

Earth tones such as camel color can make your industrial home look warmer; If you want to create a bright focus in a low-key and restrained tone, you can use vibrant colors, such as goose yellow, bright orange or

brilliant blue

, let the color jump!