Culture as Inspiration: A Metaphorical Framework for Designing Products with Traditional Cultural Properties (TCPs)

Zhenzhen Qin and Sandy Ng
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Zhenzhen Qin: School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
Sandy Ng: School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 17, 1-16

Abstract: There is a lack of emerging methods for guiding designers in innovating cultural contents beyond superficial manifestations in the process of product design with the consideration of modern lifestyles. Grounded in metaphor theory from cognitive linguistics, this article proposes a theoretical model—as a diagrammatic tool for design practice—assisting designers and/or researchers in analyzing and integrating the elements derived from Traditional Cultural Properties (TCPs) into product functions meeting modern needs. A quasi-experiment was conducted to illustrate how this theoretical model was applied in two design cases, which aimed to blend the value of TCPs and modern lifestyles metaphorically. We argue that this theoretical model can assist designers and/or researchers in designing products, which can spur reflections on culture, enhance the user experience, and improve modern life with local identity through metaphorically blending of TCPs and modern lifestyles.

Keywords: cultural design; product metaphor; design method; cultural sustainability; sustainable design (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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