Talk about the cultivation of packaging design innovation

I. Introduction

Nowadays, China's packaging design education lags behind the practice of packaging design, which is mainly reflected in the lack of innovation in packaging design talents, imitation of instincts, and sticking to conventions. Many works are monotonous and unattractive. This situation is unsatisfactory for both industry insiders and the market. Industry insiders believe that China began to introduce modern packaging design education in the 1980s. It only has a history of more than 20 years. Due to faults in history and culture, China’s advanced packaging design education is seriously Lagging, there is no good talent training model, and it is not oriented to the training of design talents. From the market point of view, the demand for packaging designers is increasing day by day, and the packaging is good. It directly affects sales and sales, and it directly affects the rise and fall of China's economic life and death. Now the quantity and quality of packaging design talent are unsatisfactory and cannot meet the needs of the market. . To meet these needs, we must adopt new ideas and methods in packaging design education.

Second, cultural heritage is the basis for packaging design innovation

The primary reason for the backwardness of China's packaging design education today is the lack of a big culture. Today's packaging design education is only concerned with the "technique" itself, such as the skill of the technique, the form of publicity and visual satisfaction, etc., and it does not involve deep-seated problems such as cultural concepts and ideological beliefs. Culture and thought are intangible assets, the spiritual core of humanity and nation, and the fertile ground for packaging design creativity. Without these foundations, people's creative thinking will be limited, it will be detrimental to the long-term development of people, and the potential of people will be smashed in the cradle. Packaging design is a creative activity, rigid old education is impossible to cultivate innovative talent. The literacy of traditional culture and theory is the basis for inquiry, analysis and creation. Enhancing cultural heritage and creating new thinking are more important than imparting packaging techniques and packaging history, because procedural packaging techniques and past packaging works can only make people repeat. The cultural spirit and vanguard consciousness let people look forward, constantly blaze new trails and develop people's intellectual potential.

The search for a fit between traditional culture and modern values ​​is an important method of originality. In the packaging design process, the use of modern functional requirements, concepts, methods to express the traditional context of the shape and meaning, after all, is a good way to develop Chinese packaging design. The packaging works have their own social and cultural heritage. Familiar with the Chinese traditional packaging culture and to extract essence, is an important way to find context and create packaging with Chinese characteristics. The fragmented packaging is now in contact with history, rejecting the traditional culture, and it is considered unimportant, which will lead to an unthinking state of Chinese packaging. Losing the fertile soil that Chinese packaging grew, lost the roots of Chinese packaging. The analysis and exploration of packaging design using the Western aesthetics framework and the separation of the original inseparable from the traditional one are precisely a misunderstanding of our education.

The 5,000-year history of civilization of the Chinese nation also gave birth to a profound packaging culture. After a long period of accumulation and sedimentation of the packaging culture, it has a rich connotation, as long as the injection of fresh blood, maintain its vitality, will be able to re-shining. If our packaging design can demonstrate the charm of Chinese culture, then it is a successful design. Accumulation and development of national culture is the source of innovation in packaging design. On this basis, we can establish our own national brand. Without the packaging of unique cultural connotations, there is less external tension that national culture should have. At present, China's own brands are few, and many are imitating or copying Western things, that is, there is no China's own cultural heritage, too lack of innovation, too lack of innovative packaging design talents. If the company has advanced concepts, accurate positioning, excellent implementation and consistent persistence, coupled with a packaging with profound cultural heritage, it will surely establish a Chinese brand that truly affects the world.

The main function of packaging design is to protect the goods, and secondly, to convey information and beautify the goods. It is worth noting that for the modern consumer, the latter two functions have become more and more important. Moreover, consumers have also put forward higher "emotional" requirements - hope that the packaging can meet their own personality, energy, Bring comfort to yourself, satisfy your nostalgic, romantic feelings, and more. Because there are many similar products and the range of consumer choices has become more and more extensive, so is the product more and more critical. Culture is an important bargaining chip that can satisfy the emotional needs of consumers. The cultural connotation of packaging makes the feelings and experiences in the process of consumers' purchase more abundant. Fun makes the consumption process worthy of consideration and becomes warm. It is the cultural connotation of packaging that satisfies the emotional needs of consumers and becomes the basis of decision-making for purchases, so that consumers can keep this brand in mind. Here, the emotion is valuable, and consumers are willing to pay for emotions.

Most colleges and universities in the Mainland have neglected traditional culture and education. In comparison, traditional cultural education in Hong Kong and Taiwan is better. Xu Zidong, a professor at the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, said: "Hong Kong does not have a process that is eager to cut off old traditions; Taiwan has always been interested in extending China's orthodox traditions; while the Mainland is in the process of single-minded globalization, the new generation is basically a "captive of McDonald's." "The traditional culture and education have done the worst." Taiwan's core culture is still traditional culture, and children have been influenced by traditional culture since childhood. Universities also pay attention to the establishment of traditional cultural courses. For example, Professor Yang Yufu of Taiwan pays special attention to the cultivation of the traditional culture of a new generation of design talents. He believes that if he loses the influence of traditional culture, it is impossible to design excellent works of long-term succession, from his research results "cultural basis for design" and " "Culture and Space Design" and "Design Culture Code" can be seen in his great efforts in the combination of design and traditional culture. Hong Kong universities attach great importance to the education of traditional culture. Knowledge about Confucianism, aesthetics, and history in the Chinese cultural tradition is reflected in the curriculum and promotes students' understanding of the significance of traditional cultural values ​​in modern society, so that students can understand Chinese culture. The value system and its new significance in the 21st century, as well as the development of ideas and cultures, gained a more comprehensive understanding. The traditional culture in the Mainland was cut off in the era of the Cultural Revolution. Many people of insight saw the seriousness of this issue. Nowadays, there are still many ills in the Mainland in terms of the spread of traditional culture. For example, the disparity in the proportion of the ancient literature in the middle school year 2000 to the 100 years of modern and contemporary literature is shocking. Today's college students know little about the national tradition, culture, humanistic spirit, and ethics of the motherland, and have a very shallow foundation. On the other hand, due to the development of the times and social progress, they have a wide contact, strong intellectual curiosity, and great flexibility. To impart more traditional culture to them will help deepen the understanding of things and form unique personalities. It will increase its thinking, cultivation, and culture.

How to enhance students' cultural heritage and thinking ability? There are many ways to reposition the packaging design education. It should not be too technical. It should add some cultural and ideological courses and emphasize the exchange of various types of knowledge. For example, communication between various arts, exchanges between art and craftsmanship, design and literature, economics, politics, and legal exchanges, and exchanges between China and the West. Cultures and ideas only collide in exchanges, rubbing in collisions. Sparks, inspired by sparks, creative design can be produced. Today's teaching seldom teaches students ideas. Cultural courses are also very few. Some colleges don't even have them. Therefore, they do not teach students the ability to think about art and design. As a result, many students use the existing design methods instead. There is no wonderful idea. It is only for students to cultivate a big culture concept that allows students not only to understand the knowledge in the packaging field and the dynamics of the industry, but also to understand the current knowledge of the economy, culture, art, policies and regulations, to establish a large cultural background, and then to pass packaging. The training of design thinking ability, packaging design methods and basic training of design skills will enable them to have the basic qualities of the professional innovative design. The students thus cultivated have both hands-on abilities and high theoretical qualities.

Practice has proved that traditional culture has entered the campus and the essence of the humanistic spirit in traditional culture has been rooted in the depths of students' hearts and become the nutrient for their healthy growth. For example, the knowledge of Yi Culture, Confucianism and Taoist philosophy, poetry and poetry, classical art, etc. have a tremendous influence on packaging design and are an indispensable foundation for designers’ creativity. We should add more courses in this area and increase this. The teaching intensity in the aspect fully reflects the weight of this aspect in design education. When imparting such knowledge, the focus should be on the ideological and profound artistic conception that they embody and demonstrate, while allowing students to fully appreciate the language and form beauty of traditional culture and art. Such people as Qiang Qiang, Chen Youjian, and Chen Hanmin cannot design such elegant and moving works without Chinese traditional culture. A designer without traditional cultural connotation, without the foundation of culture, even if there is a greater ability, after all, must be able to become the top packaging innovation design talents. The world-famous packaging design masters are deeply rooted in the culture of the nation and have brilliant packaging design achievements. Packaging design, the use of the joint force of art and science, to create, beautify and facilitate people's lives, in this process, reflects a culture. If packaging designers have little or no knowledge of traditional culture and ideas, it is impossible to create excellent works, and it is even less likely to create far-reaching works.

3. Contacting society and participating in practice are important conditions for cultivating innovative talents for packaging design

The reason behind the backwardness of packaging design education lies in its decoupling from society. Now in the era of information society and knowledge economy, the renewal of computer technology, the development of new media, changes in packaging technology laws and regulations, advances in the science of packaging materials, improvement in anti-counterfeit packaging requirements, and the ever-changing packaging and decorating trends are all in demand. With the times, keep up with society. However, the current situation is that teaching materials are outdated, teaching methods and content are seriously lagging behind. Students thus trained are completely helpless in society and must continue to study for several years to meet their needs. The market has clear requirements for packaging design talents. The current education does not meet the market standards. The education completed by the school should be completed by the enterprise instead of the school. China's modern packaging design is still not perfect, so we need to change the way of thinking as soon as possible to adapt to the social requirements of modern packaging design under the new situation. In the packaging design education, there is a revolution in thinking. It integrates packaging education with social production and market economy. It links students' design practices directly to companies, and introduces students’ products directly to the general public and the industrial community. The business community establishes lasting bonds. France has done a particularly good job in this area. For example, ESAD, a high-level art and design school in Reims, is a 250-year-old professional college. It requires students to perform functional analysis of what they are designing and do everything they can to develop their own. Thinking, building a mind map, obtaining initial ideas, then writing out the design concepts of each idea in detail, and finally choosing a concept to be represented in kind. All students must put their ideas into full discussion and put them into practice. They must make products, classmates and teachers, and then organize exhibitions in stores or other places to promote products and ideas. In the third year, the students are basically internships in the society and are engaged in practical work. In the fourth year, they return to school with their problems to continue their education and do graduation projects. After graduation, students do not have the problem of adapting to the society. They can immediately solve practical problems for enterprises and are welcomed by enterprises. This necessary practical course is very necessary for packaging design, which has a strong application nature.

In the age of knowledge-based economy, science and technology and education are no longer merely service-oriented and subordinate. Technology and education have moved from the edge of society to the center of society, and play an important role in the transition from industrial economy to knowledge-based economy. Package Design