Category

Case

Explanation

Picture

Pictographic characters and design

Bookshelf

From the perspective of Pictographic design, it is the most intuitive, with the thinking of directly expressing product modeling. The design lettered “A” is a bookshelf pattern with the Chinese character “YUE” (meaning moon). The modeling is close to the character itself.

Self-explanatory

characters and design

Bottle opener

From the perspective of Self-explanatory characters and design, it is an abstract symbol that guides the action, idea, or state of a thing, and the meaning it represents may be found after observation. The combination of the character “KAI” (meaning open) with the bottle opener meets the meaning and implication of the self-explanatory design (Zizai, 2021) .

Associative compounds and design

Cup

From the perspective of associative compounds design, products need to be of metaphorical or analogical property, which is a puzzle-like thinking mode that can combine designs to produce a product with new functions. This design is a porcelain cup transformed from the Chinese character “QIU” (meaning hill).

Pictophonetic characters and design

Pot

From the perspective of pictophonic characters and design, the combination of “pictographic” and “phonic” symbols should be considered in product design, and the senses such as hearing and smell should be identified as product semantics to stimulate emotional resonance. This design is a flute-sounding pot designed by Alessi (Ggwer, 2018) . When the water in the pot is boiled, it will make a bird-like sound, which interprets the relation between the pictophonic symbols and the design.

Synonymous characters r and design

Chair

Based on its concept, synonymous designs may be considered as products with the same function and different shapes created at different times, spaces, and backgrounds. The design is a Chinese chair designed by Hans J. Wegner and improved based on the Chinese Ming-style armchair (Hans, 2018) , which interprets the different design expressions of the same type of product at different times and spaces

Phonetic loan characters and design

Furniture

From the perspective of phonetic loan design, it borrows an already built product and applies it to the product to be designed. The design is an example of applying the radicals and radicals of Chinese characters to the design of the shelf (Nendo, 2018) .