Weihua Ge Final Report
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Sweden in the Box - Product design for promoting Swedish culture to Chinese people by Weihua Ge Name of degree: Master of Fine Art Program, institution, university and year: Design, Master Program, School of Design Linnaeus University, 2016 Supervisor: Petra Lilja, Fredrik Sandberg, Johan Vaide Opponent: Sara Hyltén-Cavallius, Ola Ståhl Examiner: Lars Dafnäs Date of examination: 17/05/2016 Abstract Project starts with the Swedish food to study the Swedish diet culture and the traditional customs. Based on the theory of the sustainable development, the project makes a deep discussion about how to introduce the Swedish culture to China, which aims to expand its influence in China, improve the Swedish popularity in China and promote the development of Swedish tourism. The project sets Embassy of Sweden in China as a project partner and ultimately provides the product solutions which can improve the economic benefits for Swedish Embassy in China. Project aims to promote Swedish culture to Chinese people. Try to promote Swedish culture by products. As a related industry chain, which help and cooperation can be used in China and achieve the sustainable development of a product in a field. As a designer, when we improve the design, we should make multi angles analysis and assessment of the ecological, economic, cultural and social fields at the same time. Creative thinking can be used to solve problem, to convey the theory of sustainable development. The design of sustainable development make the idea of sustainable development be emerged into the process of the product design, make ecological environment and economic development become a causal organic whole, which can make effective utilization of the resources and the energy to reduce the environmental pollution to a minimum. Product innovation design which is based on the product design to adapt to the current social trends is the innovative design field, which is derived from the Theory Inventive Problem Solving, it is a part of industrial design. Define the nation branding, which refers to the overall image that a country is in the minds of the citizens, it is the sum of the tangible and intangible value that the people feel of a country. Nation branding is using a powerful, attractive and distinctive way to show the image of the country. Therefore, in order to enhance the value of the nation branding, all countries attach great importance to the construction of the nation branding. Key words Sustainable design, Product innovation design, Culture promotion, Nation brand Content 1. Introduction 1.1 Brief project description and presentation of results 1.2 Personal background and motivation 1.3 Aims and purposes 1.4 Delineation of study and project field 2. Theory 2.1 Sustainable thinking 2.2 Sustainable development design 2.3 Life Cycle Assessment 2.4 Up-cycle 2.5 Product innovation design 2.5.1 Concept of Product innovation design 2.5.2 Characteristics of Product innovation design 2.6 Nation branding Case study 1 , FutureBrand 2.7 Brand Identity 2.8 Value Constructs 2.9 Design methodology 3. Context 3.1 Cultural and social-political context 3.1.1 Chinese cuisine culture 3.1.2 Swedish cuisine culture 3.2 The application of design theories in project 3.2.1 Product design Case study 2, life cycle issues in toy design 3.2.2 Packaging design 3.3 Ecological context 3.3.1 Wood characteristics 3.3.2 Wood processing and recycling 3.4 Ecological field 3.4.1 The world Exposition Shanghai China 2010, Swedish pavilion 3.4.2 Official site of Sweden (Chinese version) 3.5 Economical context 3.5.1 Swedish Institute 3.5.2 Swedish Embassy 3.5.3 IKEA company 3.6 Contemporary work 4. Project and Process 4.1 Questionnaire 4.2 Mood Board 4.3 Product Concept 4.4 Interview 4.5 Stakeholders Maps 4.6 Modeling making 4.7 How my project performs to be realistic in Swedish Embassy 5. Summary and Discussion 5.1 Discussion of learning outcomes 5.2 Analysis of the potential for future work Reference List of illustrations Appendix 1. Introduction 1.1 Brief project description and presentation of results Project starts with the Swedish food to study the Swedish diet culture and the traditional customs. Based on the theory of the sustainable development, the project makes a deep discussion about how to introduce the Swedish culture to China, which aims to expand its influence in China, improve the Swedish popularity in China and promote the development of Swedish tourism. The project sets Swedish Embassy in China as a project partner and ultimately provides the product solutions which can improve the economic benefits for Swedish Embassy in China. 1.2 Personal background and motivation Sweden is a highly developed capitalist country, with the tendency of social liberalism, the pursuit of equality and the establishment of a number of social welfare system. According to the data of Human Development Index published in United Nations Development Program in 2014, Sweden ranked twelfth in the world, while China ranked ninety-first(Hdr.undp.org, 2014). The gap between Sweden and China is self-evident, as an overseas student from China. As an international student from China, I have studied in Sweden for two years so I can always feel the charm of Swedish culture. I hope that from the design field, from my point of view, through my influence, it will let Chinese know more about Sweden and pass the theory of sustainable development of innovation in Sweden to more Chinese. I appreciate Swedish positive attitude towards life. And this can be felt from their dinning-tables. At their tables, we can always find traces of carefully arranged. The selection of napkin and the combination of dishes are arranged according to different celebrating themes, which makes people feel warm. In my point of view, their attitude towards festivals can be named as the sense of ritual. Add some sense of ritual to lives can make dull tables more interesting. Therefore, I hope that I can transfer this idea to every Chinese family through my project. Moreover, I will return to China soon when I graduated from here. When I talk with my Chinese friends who also study in Sweden, we believe that we will miss semla, glögg and other Swedish food very much. Furthermore, we will miss the lazy time to pika with friends and go to Christmas market together. I hope that when I go back to China, I can find more information, places and restaurants to know about Sweden. And then, I can share my experience with my friends and families so that they can know what Sweden is. 1.3 Aims and purposes Project aims use product design to promote Swedish culture to Chinese people. Sweden has a leading position in science, technology, literature, economics and other areas in the world. Since the nineteenth century, with the growth of the capitalist economy, with the addition of keeping the political neutrality of the world, the economic development of Sweden has gradually accelerated. By the middle of the twentieth century, Swedish economy developed more rapidly, and Sweden became a developed capitalist country. In the 1970s, Sweden implemented a new industrial restructuring strategy, further increased the intensity of scientific research and its investment, and actively developed modern high-tech industries, Sweden became a modern welfare society. (Liang, 2007) While China belongs to the developing countries since 1949. As a Chinese student, I hope I can introduce Sweden’s advanced technology and information to China so that more and more Chinese people can understand Sweden. However, promoting Sweden’s advanced concepts is a challenge for me. Followings are my elementary thoughts about how to achieve that. First of all, I hope that the concept of sustainable development can be expressed in a concrete way, making the concept become a more specific and more easily understood and accepted product. During the university and graduate, I mainly study the field of product design, which is also the field I am good at. Sweden's most attention is the theory of sustainable development, how to combine it with the product design and transport this idea to the Chinese people is a big challenge for this project. Secondly, the Swedish government is also committed to promoting their culture to foreign countries over the years. The focus is what efforts they have done in nowadays and how they do that. In connection with Chinese national conditions and the market, whether the Swedish government should make some adjustments or not; what if there are some challenges; and what kind of way can be more efficient and effective to spread the theory and culture of Sweden in China. Thirdly, try to promote Swedish culture by products. As a related industry chain, which help and cooperation can be used in China and achieve the sustainable development of a product in a field. 1.4 Delineation of study and project field I chose Swedish traditional food as my project clue and starting point, because it is an easy way to be accepted by Chinese people. The project will cover traditional stories and traditional activities so that it can guide Chinese to pay attention to Sweden and Swedish culture and improve their interests in Swedish culture. Therefore, it can promote culture industrial within Sweden and China and create the Swedish cuisine culture identity in China. The final outcome of my project will be concluded with product design,packaging design and graphic design, which combines tableware and visualization. The key point of this part is about product functionality and visual information transfer. I will focus on the use, reuse and recycling fields.