Xia Mengyuan's Green Packaging Design Concept and Works (I)

Pretty Beauty Package Design

On the Cultural Concept of Green Packaging Design

Summary: In recent years, increasing packaging waste has brought considerable pressure on environmental protection. It has become a headache for governments in various countries. Some countries have developed green packaging because of the resource crisis and the dual pressure of prevention. Design will become the trend of future packaging design. Culture is the sum of material wealth and spiritual wealth created in the course of human history. We should treat packaging design as a form of culture. Packaging design culture is both national and contemporary. The concept of green design is closely related to humanities and science and technology.

Keywords: people-oriented green packaging design

Modern packaging design is a culturally oriented, life-based, modern-oriented design discipline. As the famous anthropologist Malinowski said: "In human social life, the needs of all living creatures have been transformed into cultural needs." Therefore, when we are carrying out a packaging design that exists in a cultural form, how to make your own design reflect the personality characteristics at the same time, to meet the requirements of the contemporary culture concept to the maximum extent becomes a must for each packaging designer. The subject of the problem.

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 satisfying these behavioral patterns, and the psychology based on these aspects? Concept. In general, there are many elements of design and culture as a whole, which can be divided into three levels. First, the cultural layer of packaging design, which is the surface layer of design culture; Second, the packaging design organization layer, which is the design culture The middle layer has a strong era and continuity. Third, the concept of packaging design, it is a state of cultural psychology, it can also be considered as a layer of consciousness 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 reflected in 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 develops and changes. It will eventually be directly or indirectly reflected in the organizational system, and thus stipulate its own development and laws. To absorb, reform, or repel foreign cultural elements, and to influence the development trend of design culture. Based on this, to study the cultural concept of contemporary Chinese packaging design, to explore the future trends and trends of China's packaging culture concept, will help the design of packaging designers. Is it now deeply rooted in people's minds and is most likely to become the mainstream of China's current packaging design culture concept for a long time now? Comprehensive multi-disciplinary theoretical research, combined with our design practices in recent years, we believe that this cultural concept should include the following aspects; based on science and technology and motivation, while adhering to the "people-oriented" concept while seeking people Harmony with nature, strive to achieve the sustainable development of human society.

I. Reinterpretation of "people-oriented"

Different peoples have different histories, and different times have different ideas. Therefore, packaging design culture is both ethnic and contemporary. After a nation is formed, the national culture will show a series of characteristics of the times in different stages of this historical process. 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 of all a historical development process. 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 the unity of opposition that is constantly abandoned. It is the unity of opposites between historicity and reality.

The packaging design culture has its time, mainly reflected in the organization system and material layer of the packaging design culture, but the design is closely related to the times and focuses on the concept. In the process of economic globalization and the 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 increasingly fierce concept of opening up, the social structure and values, and the diversification of aesthetic concepts. The frequent exchanges of people, the increasing demands of society and people, the crisis of energy, the environment, and the ecology brought about by the alienation of industrial civilization all force us to look back at the trajectory of the development of mankind itself. Changes in the "human-oriented concept" in the history of human culture and our current reinterpretation of the "people-oriented" concept.

The concept of “humanism” in the West can be traced back to ancient Greece, but at that time, the meaning of humanity was only to highlight the subjectivity of human beings and celebrate human beings and the gods (actually all things in nature) to respect and fight. Later, this humanistic idea was inherited by the ancient Roman culture. It also experienced the development and evolution of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment period. Eventually, with the expansion of the Industrial Revolution, it gradually departed from the traditional human concept of "harmony between man and nature." The ideological interval turns to “people are the masters of all things” and “human needs are the scale of existence of all things”, leading to human beings endlessly plundering and inflicting on nature the generation and practice of behavior. At this point, the human-centered concept has been misguided under the impetus of strong material power and human greed. The direct consequence is as described above. The harsh reality forces people to reinterpret and position "humanism" and its orientation.

As far as China is concerned, the "people-oriented" thinking in the true sense may have to spread gradually from the bourgeois revolutionary movement in China before the burgeoning of the bourgeois revolutionary movement. Before that, due to the consolidation of the dominant position of traditional Confucian culture for thousands of years and its companionship. The political culture has had a strong influence on people’s ideology. For a long time, Chinese people have attributed themselves to non-self-expression categories such as parents, kings, and national socialites. Even the most independent and self-reliant concepts of humanism are minimal. have. This allows modern China to experience the crisis of energy, environment, and ecology that is similar to that of the West caused by the alienation of industrial culture. At the same time, it must also bear the ideological crisis and belief crisis brought about by political alienation (such as the ten years of Cultural Revolution).

A one-sided understanding of the "people-oriented" concept has often evolved to meet the short-term needs of the minority and to sacrifice the long-term development of all humanity. In fact, this concept of “living” with the realization of the interests of a small number of individuals (including certain businesses and consumers) has deliberately erased the boundaries between humans and the human population, long-term and current.

In contemporary China, how should we reinterpret and define the "people-oriented" cultural concept? We know that in the Spring and Autumn Period, Lao Tzu once put forward the idea of ​​“Heaven and Man together”, although his intention is to hope that people will be ashamed and innocent and be able to integrate into heaven and earth as much as the primitive society in the early days, but the negative aspects of their thoughts will be removed. Apart from the ingredients, this concept of harmony with nature is still a great reference for us today; it is only that we have put our eyes on more long-term perspectives and put our mentality more aggressive and will The "original" of this principle is placed on the sustainable development of human society. Then, in the face of the crisis caused by many alienations, how can we set things in order to seek the sustainable development of human society? I believe that to achieve sustainable development, we must always rely on scientific and technological advancement and always uphold the banner of "green, humanities, and science and technology."

II: "Green Packaging Design"

The multiple connotations of green packaging design are attributed to the concept of “green design” on the concept of packaging design culture, covering many aspects: the protection of the ecology, the awareness of environmental protection, the consciousness of human health and safety, the design concept of sustainable development, and the nature Comfortable and simple design concept. Starting from environmental protection, it aims to create an ecological environment that is pollution-free, beneficial to human health, and conducive to human survival and reproduction. Therefore, green design is not only a technical consideration, but more importantly, it is an ideological change. It requires designers to give up the excessive emphasis on product appearance design innovation and focus on the real sense Innovation above, in a more responsible attitude and method to create a product form, with a more simple, lasting shape to make the product extend its life as much as possible, while conveying the green, humanistic spirit of the idea, so in the material and spiritual Two levels make their own contribution to the development of society.

On the one hand: Green packaging design can boldly alleviate the dual pressure of resource crisis and pollution prevention and control. For example, the standards of department store packaging formulated by the Japan Department Stores Association Committee: packaging raw materials or devices must not endanger human health, and should minimize the use of packaging materials that are difficult to degrade after being discarded; try to reduce the packaging volume; the free volume inside the container should not exceed the product Two percent of the volume. The committee also insisted on adopting the simplest packaging method and even required zero packaging efforts. From the above points of environmental protection, we can see that the focus of green packaging design should be on the beneficial to human health, prevention and control of pollution, and the close relationship between the reuse of resources, and its end result is still on the sustainable development of human society. on.

On the other hand, the impact of green packaging design is reflected in the ideas it contains, and on the impact of people's concepts, the concept of green constantly conveys the concept of “caring for the environment and caring for health” and leads people to abandon the life that is harmful to their physical and mental health. Ways to explore more meaningful living spaces for individuals and groups of life. As a result, the concept of green design resonates with humanism and humanistic spirit in the survival and the difficulty of life.

We often say that the packaging design culture of each ethnic group forms a design culture system, and each packaging design culture of a certain era also forms its own cultural system. Different packaging design culture systems contain some common cultures. The factors also include a number of different cultural factors. The former represents the universality of the packaging design culture and the latter represents the particularity of the packaging design. Every ethnic packaging design culture has its own human part. The human nature of packaging design lies in the nationality, while the eternality lies in the times. In this case, the dialectical unity of the packaging design culture. Well, when we put the concept of green design into consideration in this dialectical unity of cultural outlook, we find that its implication is to a large extent tend to be common, and of course, in a sense, to express this commonality It is the personality of the current design concept, namely the humanity in the nationality, the eternality in the era, and the universality in the particularity. As a result, it also gives us more confidence in confirming the correctness of the green design concept. Because, in a sense, green, humanities, and science and technology are inherently unified. Green not only means environmental protection, but also includes the pursuit of natural tranquility away from embarrassment and filth. The humanities are not only humanitarian in the traditional sense. It includes not only human love, grief, etc., but also life and life. With love and respect, the humanities have become an intrinsic pursuit of culture and civilization, expressing a hope for peace in the world and harmony of all things, thereby demonstrating that mankind’s clear understanding of foreign objects and self-responsiveness and calm response; as far as technology, As the primary productivity that promotes social development,