Chinese Elements in Packaging Design of Airport Duty Free Products (1)

With the enhancement of China’s overall national strength and the improvement of its international status, economic and trade exchanges have become more frequent. More and more people are watching the development of China. At the same time, the interest in Chinese products has become more and more strong. The world's largest retail chains, such as Wal-Mart in the United States, Metro in Germany, and Carrefour in France, have ordered a large number of Chinese products. The 2008 Olympics, the 2010 World Expo held in China, and China’s remarkable achievements after its accession to the WTO have also made foreign investors favor Chinese products and have a positive outlook on China’s development. At the same time, China's tourism industry continues to heat up every year, and the development and design of tourism products are increasingly valued by businesses. The most compelling aspect is the packaging of products. The duty-free goods at the airport also embody the local economic characteristics and comprehensive national strength of a country.

Packaging is the last stage in which products are put into the market. In the path to the market, packaging design is one of the most important factors. Packaging promotes the overall image as much as advertising. From a large perspective, the overall packaging design level and product design level of a country reflect the country's economic strength and cultural quality.

In Germany and Japan after the Second World War, continuously innovating industrial products and advanced packaging design concepts are one of the important factors that have enabled the country's economy to catch up to and surpass the world level and have maintained a leading position since the 1980s. This includes the country's attention and support for this industry. It also includes the hard work and unremitting efforts of generations of designers.

Germany is a philosopher's place. The Germans have rigorous and rigorous logical thinking. They are also the ancestors of modern design, Bauhaus Institute of Design Art. Therefore, their packaging design is more people-oriented, attaches great importance to the scientific and rational use of materials, pay attention to the composition of the point line surface, and pay attention to the bright visual effect.

Japan is deeply influenced by Chinese culture. In the design, a large number of elements of Japanese painting are used. From composition, color to the use of brushstrokes, and advanced printing techniques, the design of the product presents an elegant, fresh and simple style.

The United States is the world’s number one economic powerhouse, and fierce competition in the market for products has forced designers to adopt the latest materials, latest technology, and latest design concepts in order to achieve a certain commercial goal in sales. Therefore, packaging design presents a luxurious, elegant, even grotesque appearance.

The history of product packaging design in these countries is not difficult to see that they attach great importance to the excavation of local culture, making product packaging more national and cultural. At the same time, we can also find that they are strongly introducing their own national culture and are influencing our concept of consumption. From this, we can easily tell which products are Japanese, which are German, and which are American.

National culture must be maintained and developed. The nation is the world. The Chinese products must go out of the world and must be inseparable from China's excellent traditional culture. To establish the status of China's outstanding products in the presence of the world, we must introduce the Chinese elements into our products. This reflects the origins of our country's 5,000 years of outstanding national traditional culture and also reflects a national spirit.

Packaging design has four components, the most important of which is graphics and color. Chinese elements are the elements of Chinese traditional culture such as graphics, text, color, and morphology that are accurately and reasonably used in packaging design. First of all, we must in-depth study of Chinese traditional culture, understand the age of the consumer objects of the product, cultural levels, consumer purposes, spending habits. Only through such in-depth understanding and positioning can we accurately use Chinese elements and make product packaging appear as a “Chinese face”.

In addition to the characteristics of the product itself, the package design of duty-free goods at the airport needs to pay great attention to the love and taboo of colors and patterns in various countries and regions. Different buyers must be differentiated and focused. At the same time, the local characteristics of the producing country must be very obvious. Tourists returning to China must bring their souvenirs or gifts to fully show the characteristics of the country. In addition, small, portable, and environmental factors must also be considered.

For example, France: Eastern boys love to wear blue clothes, and girls love to wear pink clothes. The dark green will make people think of Nazi military uniforms and hate.

United Kingdom: Gold and yellow symbolize honor and loyalty, Silver and white symbolize faith and purity, Red symbolizes bravery and enthusiasm, Cyan symbolizes devotion and honesty, Green symbolizes youth and hope, Purple symbolizes kingly and high position, Orange symbolizes strength and patience, Violet Red symbolizes dedication, and black symbolizes sorrow and regret.

Pakistan: Popular colors, green and yellow are not welcome.

Iraq: Love red, blue, taboo black, olive green.

United States: Use black, yellow, blue, and gray to represent the four directions of the east, south, west, and north. Colors represent university majors: orange is theology; cyan is philosophy; white is literature; green is medicine; purple is law; golden is neo-logical; orange is engineering; pink is music; black is aesthetics and literature. The color is also used to indicate the month: January is black or gray, February is navy blue, March is white or silver, April is yellow, May is lavender, June is pink or rose, and July is sky blue Color is August, August is dark green, September is orange or gold, October is brown, November is orange, and December is red.

Hong Kong and Macau: Love red and green. Taboo ultramarine, blue, white.

India: Red represents life, vitality, vigor, and warmth. Blue represents reality. Yellow represents glorious and magnificent. Green represents peace and hope. Purple represents tranquility and sadness.

Japan: Like red and green. The northeast region loves cherry red, the southeast region is bright, yellow is immature, and blue is youth and youth. White has always been the color of Tianzi clothing. Black is used as a funeral.

Some countries and regions love and taboo patterns

1. Islamic regions: taboo pigs and panda-like pigs.

2. United Kingdom: taboos.

3. Southeast Asia: Love like.

4. North African countries: taboo dogs (unclean things).

5. Singapore: Love the double happiness pattern.

6. Italy: Taboo chrysanthemum.

7. France: Taboo spades.

8. Iran: Love lions.

9. Japan: Love ducks. Taboo lotus.

10. Switzerland: taboo owl (symbol of death).

11. Czechoslovakia: Taboo The Red Triangle (a symbol of poison).

12. Hong Kong, Macao, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Japan: There are twelve affiliations in the Lunar Calendar. People like to use lovely animal prints on the screens for product modeling and packaging. For example, this year is the Year of the Rabbit and rabbits will be popular for decorating.

(to be continued)