On Design and Nostalgia Aalto University publication series DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS 20/2017 School of Arts, Design and Architecture Aalto ARTS Books Helsinki books.aalto.fi © Haian Xue Graphic design: Aunis Ahonen Materials: Scandia Natural 115 g/m2 and 300 g/m2 Fonts: Warnock Pro, The Sans, Arial Unicode Cover photo: Haian Xue ISBN 978-952-60-7277-7 (printed) ISBN 978-952-60-7276-0 (pdf) ISSN-L 1799-4934 ISSN 1799-4934 (printed) ISSN 1799-4942 (pdf) Printed in Unigrafia, Finland 2017 On Design and Nostalgia From the Perspectives of Culture, Experience and Design Strategy Doctoral Dissertation Haian Xue Contents Abstract 10 Acknowledgements 12 Introduction 15 Memory Issues in Design: A Broader View 16 Why Study Nostalgia? 16 A Multidisciplinary Intersection 17 A Contradictory Design Issue 17 An Ill-defined Concept in Existing Design Literature 18 A Forward-looking Topic 18 My Passion 19 Dissertation Outline: Two Parts, Three Research Directions, Seven Chapters 20 Part I – The Fundamentals 21 Part II – Nostalgia-driven Design Strategy 23 Part I – The Fundamentals Chapter 1 – Redefining Nostalgia 27 1.1 Introduction 28 1.2 What Was Nostalgia? 29 1.2.1 The Origins and Early Conceptual Evolution of Nostalgia 29 1.2.2 Demilitarisation and Further Debates on Nostalgia 31 1.3 What Is Nostalgia? – The Contemporary Concept 36 1.3.1 An Experience or a Special Preference 36 1.3.2 A Common Experience and a Sociocultural Phenomenon 38 1.3.3 Based on Idealised Memory 38 1.3.4 Diverse Stimuli 39 1.3.5 A Predominantly Positive Experience 40 1.3.6 The Functional View 40 1.3.7 The Dark Side of Nostalgia 41 1.4 Redefining Nostalgia as a Conditional Concept 41 1.4.1 Nostalgic Memory and Nostalgic Experience 42 1.4.2 Where Emotions Originate: Beliefs, Desires and Appraisals 43 1.4.3 Negative Nostalgia Vs. Positive Nostalgia: The Three Key Conditions 44 1.4.4 The Dominance of Positive Nostalgia in a Postmodern Era 48 1.5 The Typology and Scope of Nostalgia 49 1.5.1 The Classifications of Nostalgia: A Review 50 1.5.2 Defining the Scope of Nostalgia 53 1.6 Conclusion 60 Chapter 2 – Design and Nostalgia Waves 65 2.1 Introduction 66 2.2 Defining the Key Concepts 67 2.3 Models of Change 70 2.3.1 Punctuated Equilibrium 71 2.3.2 Continuous Change 72 2.4 The Current Nostalgia Waves and Their Drivers 73 2.4.1 The (Regional) Nostalgia Wave in Central and Eastern Europe 75 2.4.2 The (Regional) Nostalgia Wave in Mainland China 77 2.4.3 The Global Nostalgia Wave 81 2.5 Design in Nostalgia Waves: Three Cases 82 2.5.1 The Ampelmann and (Eastern) Germany’s Ostalgie Wave 83 2.5.2 The Nengmao Store and China’s Nostalgia Wave 87 2.5.3 C60 Redux and the Global Nostalgia Wave 91 2.6 The Role of Design in Nostalgia Waves: Creating the Synthesis 95 2.7 Accompanying Design Opportunities 97 2.7.1 From the Market Model Perspective 97 2.7.2 From the Social Model Perspective 99 2.8 Conclusion 109 Chapter 3 – Designing for Nostalgic Experience 113 3.1 Introduction 114 3.2 The Heuristic Model of Design-evoked Nostalgic Experience (DENE) 116 3.3 The Three Levels of Nostalgic Experience 118 3.3.1 Explicit Memory Retrieval and Nostalgia as an Experience of Meaning 118 3.3.2 Implicit Memory Retrieval and Nostalgia as an Aesthetic Experience 120 3.3.3 Nostalgia as an Emotional Experience 120 3.4 Influential Factors in DENE 121 3.4.1 Influential Factors of the User(s) and the Context 122 3.4.2 Designed Cues for Nostalgic Experience 126 3.5 Conclusion 134 Part II – Nostalgia-driven Design Strategy Chapter 4 –The Phenomenon Studied and Research Approach Used 139 4.1 Introduction 140 4.2 The Phoenix Brand Phenomenon 141 4.3 Brand Rebirth through Nostalgia-driven Design 144 4.4 Research Foci and Questions 145 4.5 The Paradigm of the Research 146 4.6 Case Study: Concept, Purposes and Types 148 4.7 Rationale for Choosing a Case Study Approach 150 4.8 Research Design: Single Plus Multiple Case Studies 151 4.9 The Selection of the Cases 152 4.9.1 The Initial Case Search, Selection and Classification 152 4.9.2 Criteria and Selection for the Single Case Study 155 4.9.3 Criteria and Selection for the Multiple-case Study 155 4.10 Conclusion 157 Chapter 5 – The Formation of Nostalgic Bonds 159 5.1 Introduction 160 5.2 Brand and Perceived Value 161 5.3 A Brief History of Sarvis 163 5.4 Theoretical Framework 164 5.4.1 Holbrook’s Typology of Perceived Value 164 5.4.2 Rubbish Theory 167 5.4.3 A Memory Retrieval-Nostalgic Experience Model 169 5.5 Methods 170 5.6 The Results of Analysis 173 5.6.1 The Collectors 173 5.6.2 The Collectors vs. The Non-collectors 177 5.7 Discussion 180 5.7.1 Memory Formation 180 5.7.2 Memory Retrieval and Nostalgia 181 5.7.3 The Change in the Hierarchical Structure of Perceived Value 183 5.8 Conclusion 184 Chapter 6 – Rebirth through Nostalgia-driven Design: Case-oriented Analyses 187 6.1 Introduction 188 6.2 Methods 189 6.3 Case 1: Forever-C (China) 194 6.3.1 From Dominant to Dormant 194 6.3.2 The Initiation of the Forever-C Project 196 6.3.3 Inspired and Encouraged by the Cultural Nostalgic Memory 198 6.3.4 Target Segmentation: ‘Wenyi Qingnian’ 199 6.3.5 The Design Process: Retaining and Altering 200 6.3.6 Launch and Market Communication 202 6.4 Case 2: Jopo (Finland) 203 6.4.1 From Dominant to Dormant 204 6.4.2 Seeking a Second Life for Jopo 206 6.4.3 A Simple but Clear Design Brief 207 6.4.4 The Design Process: Retaining and Altering 209 6.4.5 Launch and Market Communications 212 6.4.6 ‘Target’ Segmentation: From the Urban Creative Class to Youths 214 6.5 Case 3: TDK Life on Record (US + Japan/global) 216 6.5.1 From Dominant to Dormant 216 6.5.2 Reviving TDK 218 6.5.3 Inspired by the Cultural Nostalgic Memory 219 6.5.4 Digi-Log: Balancing Digital and Analogue 221 6.5.5 Target Segmentation: Music Prophets 227 6.5.6 Launch and Market Communication 228 6.6 Conclusion 230 Chapter 7 – Rebirth through Nostalgia-driven Design: Variable-oriented Analyses 231 7.1 Introduction 232 7.2 The Characteristics of Potential Phoenix Brands 233 7.3 A Design Process Led by Passion and Intuition 236 7.4 Transferring the Nostalgic Bond by Crafting Authenticity 239 7.5 Deconstructing Authenticity Contextually 241 7.5.1 The Genuineness of the Artefacts 241 7.5.2 The Sincerity of the Revitalisers 243 7.6 Crafting Iconic Authenticity in the Design Process 244 7.6.1 Fit 244 7.6.2 Boldness 249 7.7 Crafting Iconic and Indexical Authenticity in the Production Process 251 7.7.1 Commitment to Quality 251 7.7.2 Made in the Place of Origin 252 7.7.3 Handcrafted 253 7.8 Crafting Authenticity in the Communication Process 254 7.8.1 The Brand Message 255 7.8.2 The Channels 258 7.9 Sustaining Revitalised Phoenix Brands 261 7.10 Conclusion 263 Conclusion and Discussion 267 Contributions of the Dissertation 269 A Redefined Concept of Nostalgia 269 A Dynamic and Forward-looking Perspective on Nostalgia and Design 270 A More Diverse View on Designing for Nostalgic Experience 271 A Multiple-layered Understanding of the Formation of Nostalgic Bonds 272 The Common Characteristics of Potential Phoenix Brands 273 A Design-led Integrated Strategy for Phoenix Brand Rebirth 274 Discussions and Future Research 275 Cultural Nostalgia and Social Design 275 Nostalgia through Bodily Interaction 276 Methodological Reflection: Introspection 276 Driven by Authentic Experience: A Post-industrial Approach to Traditional Design Practices 279 References 291 About the author 318 Abstract This dissertation takes a dynamic, forward-looking and experiential perspective to examine the multifaceted relationship between design and nostalgia for two pur- poses: 1) to serve as a ground-clearing work for analytical discussions about nos- talgia in the design field, and 2) to study the viability of nostalgia-driven design as a strategy for brand revitalisation. The investigation is developed from three design- related angles: 1) nostalgia as a sociocultural phenomenon, 2) as a subjective expe- rience, and 3) as the basis of a design strategy. As the existing definitions are unsatisfactory, the dissertation redefines nostal- gia as the combination of emotional reactions engendered by the recall of nostalgic memory, based on the differentiation between remembered and immediate experi- ence. To define the scope of nostalgia, it proposes a new typology in which differ- ent types of nostalgia and similar experiences are not seen as isolated entities, but form a spectrum with blurred boundaries. Moreover, it is argued that individuality and collectiveness are two essential attributes co-existing interdependently in nos- talgic experience, rather than two opposing types of nostalgia as the previous lit- erature suggests. The first research strand examines nostalgia (wave) as a design-related socio- cultural phenomenon. Drawn from multidisciplinary literature and cross-cultural observations, it establishes a dialectical relationship between (radical and rapid) changes, the increasing collective need for nostalgia, and creative nostalgia-driven design efforts. Through examining cross-cultural design cases, it critiques the out- dated view of considering nostalgia merely backward looking, which prevents active design explorations on this topic.