Japanese Packaging Design: An Approach Through Ideogram Language

Transcription

1 Japanese Packaging Design: An Approach Through Ideogram Language Marlon Mercaldi, Ekaterina Emmanuil Inglesis Barcellos, Luiz Carlos Paschoarelli and Galdenoro Botura Abstract This article aims to demonstrate the relationship between language and thought in the eastern culture. Given this relationship, it should examine how ideogrammatic writing influences the visual identity of Japanese packaging. The objective of this research is to identify the relationship between ideographic writing and the visual identity of Japanese packaging. It also try to determine at which level and aspect, the ideogrammatic language affects favorably or prejudice the design and the visual identity of the packaging of a product. This characteristic includes concepts of emotional and affective design and the messages they can transfer to the users. Established this association, it should consider how the diagrammatic writing influences the visual identity of the Japanese packaging. Keywords Ideogram Packaging Semiotics Visual language 1 Introduction Languages such as Japanese and Chinese are written by ideograms. Dictionary defines ideogram as a sign that expresses the idea and not the word sound that represents the idea: the Egyptian characters were ideograms. According to Taniguchi, in [1], the first ideograms were thought by similarity, since the original form of writing used by the Paleolithic man was pictorial. Thus, the Japanese ideogram for river is represented by similarity throught the sign 川, which, according to Campos [1], visually refers to water threads that functions as a visual metonymy for the few laconic lines; or the character for tree 木, which refers to a tree format. M. Mercaldi (&) E.E.I. Barcellos L.C. Paschoarelli São Paulo State University, Av. Engenheiro Luiz Edmundo Carrijo Coube No , Bauru, SP , Brazil marlonmercaldi@gmail.com G. Botura São Paulo State University, Sorocaba, SP, Brazil Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 W. Chung and C.S. Shin (eds.), Advances in Affective and Pleasurable Design, Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing 483, DOI / _43 447

2 448 M. Mercaldi et al. The growing interest in ideogrammatic written in a multicultural world without frontiers in which we were inserted in since the beginning of globalization, raises a more complex relationship than we imagine between language and thought. Therefore, in its cultural and social developments they are highly differentiated between the west and the east. The aesthetic, philosophical and pictorial approach of ideograms added to the poetic and emotional character of oriental languages, instigate us to verify the different way of elaboration and communication of its product identity, particularly here, through the analysis of consumer packaging in general, seen from the perspective of cognition, thought and language. Serralvo [2] in his studies on packaging states that there are symbolic and cultural differences between the Western and Eastern societies. Both have different meanings and sometimes opposite aspects, for example, the white color represents unity or purity in Western society, while in the eastern is mourning. There are several other cultural, religious and social aspects such as this example, which can be determined, according to some authors, by the relationship between language and thought, and between language structure and behavior. Various authors as Korzybski and Hayakawa conducted studies that analyze these issues in 1933, as in [1] ( ), citing Whorf 1 : We dissect Nature following guidelines established by our native languages. The categories and types that we isolate in the world of phenomena are not find there because they look us in the face; on the contrary, the universe is presented to us in a kaleidoscopic flux of impressions that must be arranged by our intelligence which means: the linguistic systems in our minds. We scalp nature, organize it into concepts, and assign meanings to it, largely because we participated in an agreement to organize it this way agreement that impose itself throughout the community speech and is codified in language patterns. This is obviously an implicit and unformulated agreement, but its terms are absolutely required; we could not speak unless by submitting ourselves to the organization and classification data enacted by the agreement. [1, pp. 229, 230]. As we shall see, the monosyllabic and not deflectable ideographic characters provide a fascinating tool for relational reflection. According to Fields, in [1], by virtue of Oriental language structure, attention turns to the relationship between words, rather than for individual words itself. This relational thinking is reflected, for example, in Oriental cuisine. The food preparation consist in cut and cook the ingredients in the proper proportions. By the understanding of [1], cooking only one dish or prepare a menu, it is a matter of building a configurative model. Moreover, a Western meal gives the impression that it is the product of an analytical mind, like: eating flesh because of protein, potato and bread because of carbohydrates, butter by its fat and vegetables for the fibers. What we will argue is that a signal-based language (ideograms), may eventually facilitate the interpretation and elucidation of a product for immediate identification (pictorial/iconic) of the signs resulting from the language structure and ideographic thought, and can interfere 1 Benjamin Lee Whorf, Science and Linguistics, Language in Actio Hayakawa, pp , New York (1941).

3 Japanese Packaging Design 449 with or provide a different cognitive performance on the reading and presentation of a product. 2 Objective The study aims to identify the relationship between the ideographic writing and the Japanese visual packaging identity and determine at what level and aspect ideogrammatic language favors and/or interfere with the visual packaging identity design of a product. Established this association, it should consider how the diagrammatic writing influences the visual identity of the Japanese packaging. 3 From Chinese to Japanese s Ideogram Zhang Jian in [1] states that According to this cognitive model the ancient Chinese linguists have made their observations and knowledge of the universe to dissolve into the classificatory system of radicals [1] (p. 15). He exemplifies that during the Song dynasty, a linguist performed the division of the world of beings and objects to create signs, setting in ten classes: astronomical things, rivers and mountains, land, plants, humanity, animals and birds, fish and insects, ghosts, implements and official business. Largura in his M.Sc. research [3] reported that the Japanese ideogrammic system originated from Chinese writing. He explains that Japan did not have its own writing and it was only an oral culture until about 5 million years ago. As well as Chinese written, Japanese writing is comprised of signs, a pictograms system in which each sign corresponds to an idea and this idea results in the phonetic and semantic junction called kanji (ideogram). Iwakami [4] in his studies Routes of the ideogram: the process of language makes it clear that the formation process of Japanese ideograms, Kanji, must be analyzed from three aspects: graphic, sound and meaning. In fact, Kanji is a hieroglyph, if we consider it in its formal and figurative aspect [4]. 3.1 Ideograms and Pictograms: Icon, Index and Symbol Systems The Chinese semiotician Yu-Kuang Chu in the chapter Interaction between language and thinking in Chinese, on the Ideogram book: Logic, Poetry and Language, by Haroldo de Campos (org.), in 1994, explains that language and culture are closely related. Chinese is an uninflected language where words do not suffer

4 450 M. Mercaldi et al. changes according to the number, gender, case, time, voice or mood. Chu notes that in bilingual environment, the Chinese language, predominates on issues that deal with indirect ways of understanding and feeling, while the English language prevails in the objective and direct matters [1, pp ]. However, to what extent the structure of a language can influence the thought process of any culture? According to [3], the Chinese created their writing in order to be used throughout China and its merits would be more practical, not intellectual. Leibniz in [1] believed that the highlight of the Chinese language was purely institutional and arbitrary; invented to facilitate communication for diversity people who lived in the great empire of China. Though, for Leibniz, the ideographic writing was seen as an idealized conception of its nature, a philosophical language and compares the Egyptian hieroglyphics to Chinese writing. He defined hieroglyphics as sensitive and allegorical while the Chinese ideograms sounds to him more philosophical, built on intellectual configurations [1, p.45]. The term ideogram comes from Deograma, the Greek word idea (idea) and gramma (something drawn or painted). Ideogram is the representation of an idea. Unlike the pictogram, the ideogram represents the idea of the object, not the object itself. For example, a prehistoric drawing of a flying bird, which conveys the idea of freedom, and not the bird itself, is considered an ideogram. Eisenstein, in his essay, The cinematographic principle and the ideogram, portrays the combination of two hieroglyphs (pictograms) from the figural Japanese writing, It should not be considered as the sum of them, but as their product, that is, as a value of another dimension of another level; each separately corresponding to an object, a fact, but their combination corresponds to a concept. The combination of two sensitive elements being painted allows the representation of something that cannot be graphically portrayed [1]. For a better explanation, in Japanese the ideogram of water drawing with the drawing of an eye means cry ; drawing a knife over a heart mean, sadness ; the ear close to the drawing of a door means hear. According to Aurelio Portuguese language dictionary (and many other dictionaries), unlike ideogram, pictogram is a primitive system of writing in which ideas and objects were represented by drawings. The term pictograph originates from the Latin word pictus (pictured) and the Greek word grafos (write). The pictograms are graphisms, graphic signs that represent an object, an idea, a sound or a being, as well as in the prehistoric period when man drew a bird, he was referring to, the drawing represented by its meaning. The animals painted in the caves are pictographs. pictures or sketches that represent things (says Graphic Design History). Explains that throughout the world, from Africa to North America and the islands of New Zealand, the prehistoric people left numerous petroglyphs, which are signs or simple figures carved or scratched into the rock. Many petroglyphs are pictographs, and others, perhaps ideographs symbols to represent ideas or concepts, in [5, p. 19, 6] visions.

5 Japanese Packaging Design 451 In order to better understanding this comparison it is important to read Peirce thoughts. For Charles Peirce the ideogrammic system is necessary to define some semiotics terms as sign, icon, index and symbol. Farias in [7, 8] defines sign in her, as A sign is a first establishing some kind of genuine relationship with a second (it is an object) in order to determine a third (it is an interpretant) [6, p. 14]. This means that any signic process implies the presence of these three elements, firstness, secondness and thirdness. According to Peirce [9 11], there are three categories, as shown in his studies entitled Collected Papers (CP , 3.422, 6202 and 8330) [11]: Firstness: chance, spontaneity, randomness, feeling. Secondness: existence, dependence, crude reaction, action. Thirdness: mentality, mediation, continuity, reason. Thus, we can infer that the sign is everything that is, it seems or indicates something. It is polysemous, and has several interpretations. These three categories are present in the definition of the three ways in which the sign can relate to itself subject (as an icon, as an index, or as a symbol). Peirce, the founder of semiotics defines three types of signs, from the relation they have with their objects. Always according to his doctrine categories, he calls: the first, whose relation is based on simple qualities that both have in common icon ; the second, whose relation is a factual correspondence, index ; and third, those whose relation is allocated based on some characteristic attributed, symbol. Therefore, the drawing of a house made by a child can be considered an icon; a footprint in the sand, or smoke in a chimney can be considered an index; and finally, a chart or cross can be considered a symbol. Also according to Peirce [8 10], the division proposed by the founder of semiotics, part of an analysis of the sign, can be translated into the following groups of questions and answers: 1. What is the sign itself? A mere quality, a qualisign A current existing, a sinsign A general law, a legisign 2. How do it relates to its object? It is related by virtue of its own characteristics, it is an icon It relates in an existential way, it is an index It relates through conventions, it is a symbol 3. How, through the interpretant, it presents its object to a possible interpreter? As a sign of possibility. As a fact sign, existing. As a sign a law, it is an argument

6 452 M. Mercaldi et al. Images should be understood as instanced icons immediate qualities, apparent or superficial; Diagrams in turn, can be defined as hypo icons whose resemblance to its object is based, first, in a structural similarity; Metaphors ultimately correspond to instantiated icons habits, conventions or laws. 3.2 The Basics of Language and Eastern Thought Initially thought is nonverbal and language is not intellectual. Their development paths, however, are not parallel; they cross. The language penetrates the sub consciousness to be in the thought structure in childhood, since the age of two. According to writings [9 11], the thought of the individual is not determined by congenital factors, but from a result of activities performed in accordance with the social habits of the culture in which the individual develops himself. Just like in the animal kingdom, the human thought and language have different origins as described in [9, 10]. In The empire of signs, Roland Barthes analyzes Why Japan? Because is the country of writing: from all countries Barthes might know, Japan is the one where he found the nearest sign of his convictions and his fantasies. Another avid oriental writing researcher was the historian Ernest Fenollosa in the essay The Chinese written character as a medium for poetry. He did pioneering scientific study of the nature of Chinese writing as reports [1, p. 23]. It was Fenollosa who first saw in the graphic quality, the kanji sense carrier, compared with western writing systems as the energy of the original language (hypo icon). And he adds that while Western languages would tend to anemia, the Kanji, in contrast, continues today able to absorb the poetic essence of nature, radiating exuberant glow-sense, as the thoughts of Vygotsky [12, pp ]. By Campos, other reference reinforces the main aspect of oriental language: the M. Ito dances in Noh Theater, which reflect the concrete illustrations, essence that is expressed by kanji, where everything lies in the concentration. All the elements that make up the eastern visual and oral language congregate itself in a clear, simple and unique expression. The goal is always to express a relation and a primal human emotion. The emotion is always up on the idea and not on the personality [1, p. 21] reminding the Irish poet W.B. Yeats. Fenollosa analyzed the ideographic characters, such as the pleasure of aesthetics contained in the Sino-Japanese poetry, and was quoted as saying that this pictorial method, whether the Chinese exemplifying it or not, would have been the ideal language of the world [1, p. 42]. Campos added that this would be a mythopoetic thesis of an original language, which uses metaphors, in which fantastic characters of animated substances have designed the ideas of things [1, p. 42]. Fenollosa exalts that The metaphor of nature, revealing the nature is the same substance of poetry [1, p. 43] and faces the Chinese as the mirror of nature, in picturality near the

7 Japanese Packaging Design 453 active world of things [1, p. 45]. Also in Campos a clarification: Ezra Pound, the poet-inventor, received Fenollosa s texts directly from the historian s widow, and, as the author says, he was the cultural legatee and executor of Fenollosa, translator-inventor of Chinese poetry [1, p. 41]. Ezra Pound was one of the biggest names of the modernist movement of the early twentieth century, which influenced by the renovation project of poetic language names like Joyce, Yeats and TS Eliot. Pound reaffirmed the graphic nature of poetic highlighting the importance and significance of Fenollosa aesthetics, coming from clear Eastern influences. Campos cites the designer and poet Shutaro Mukai, for whom the Chinese characters are a model consisting of a schematic system that originates from iconicity, but for the richness of its explanatory power, evolves towards symbolicity [1, pp ]. In the writings Characters That Represent, Reflect and translate Culture in the Context of The Revolution in Modern Art, Shitaro Mukai notes that the Kanji emphasizes the sense of touch. It evokes the act muscles movements memory to write, and argues that the sense of touch is what integrates all, and is the most fundamental, which creates a tendency to see it as a predominantly visual system. Mukai reconsiders a possible reassessment of rhythmic forms of life, including gestures and visual perception. [1, p. 19]. The kanji graphic quality allows us to imagine, from time to time, which it means even if we are not able to make its reading. [ ] At the same time, the Kanji are associated with the sense of touch or physical feeling. [1, p. 18]. By North [13], Diderot, in 1749 and 1751, concluded that the gestures language is more expressive and logical than verbal language. It is three-dimensional and corresponds to the reality of the world, more than other one-dimensional representations. For Diderot language distorts reality, explains [13, pp ]. The argument at the time was that the iconic signs and natural signs are semiotic representation means aesthetically superior to arbitrary signs being the most iconic and natural of signs also the most beautiful [13, p. 50]. This non-verbal superiority argument goes against the aesthetics of eighteenth century, with its theory of mimesis, the representation of iconic signs discussed by Niemayer [14] in design applications, which includes the packaging design. 3.3 The Ideogram and Package Visual Identity In general, the Japanese packaging use hypo icons work establishing existing signical relations due to some kind of similarity they have with their objects. As defined above this relationship can be directly through a drawing or may be through the diagram or metaphor. In this sense, we do not even need to understand the ideograms to know what the product is. The use of images is evident and is defined in the following examples. The example of juice packages that are instantiated icons of immediate and apparent qualities belong to the first class defined by Peirce, the firstness. The

8 454 M. Mercaldi et al. Fig. 1 Juice packaging created by award-winning Designer Naoto Fukasawa, examples of Firstness icons, Japanese industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa has created a series of creative fruit juices packing which have the appearance of the fruit it contain. A juice-packing box is supposed to be more appealing to the eye, imitating the real fruit it contain. How Naoto puts it: I figured that if the surface of the package mimicked the color and texture of the fruit peel, then the object would replicate the feeling of the peel, the real skin, as shows Fig. 1. We can understand the use of a hypo icon in a class diagram, as this packaging establishes a structural link between the hair and the cookie curly texture, Fig. 2; the sign relates to its object through secondness. In the case of Ajinomoto (food seasoning trademark), which makes use of a representative convention, using the agreed representation of the face of a panda (with eyes changed to the panda s eye shape). The Panda seasoning glass is shown next to the Japanese Geisha image of delivery food, totally formed by triangles, with the hashi used as a hair clip. These are signs related to the object through the thirdness. The food packaging was designed by Swedish design student Helen Maria Bäckström, with the Geishas inspiration (Fig. 3). One more detail, this project comes into focus joining the traditional chopsticks, complementing the Geisha look they are made to hold the geisha hair. Fun and luxurious design allows easy and comfortable transportation of the food. Another kind of packaging focused on well-being, nature and lightness presents a clear and clean aesthetic; or elements that integrate the visual transparency and product vision conceived in interaction with the packaging. In this case, in Fig. 4, Japanese Design Studio: Rise Office Design created a minimalist and fresh packaging for the brand of Forest Milk that sends the message of a natural product that seems handmade, ecofriendly engaged and

9 Japanese Packaging Design 455 Fig. 2 Biscuit with structural relationship to the hair curly. In: blog.naver.com, www. designer-daily.com/afro-cookie Fig. 3 Anthropomorphic Packaging Mascots spice Panda Ajinomoto (Monosodium glutamate) and, NOO-DEL: Asian meal type takeaway that imitates a Japanese Geisha with Hashi ; Ajinomoto Panda in: ; Japanese with Hashi www. huaban.com/boards/ / and photoweibo.com (2013) fresh. It looks like produced by cows that inhabit the forest freely according to the rule: happy cow, better milk! Sometimes are applied other details, as face, eyes and smiles on products to make it more simple ones and cute. Alternatively, it is applied the emotional effect of cute = the Kawaii product, which means graceful, dainty, cute. About the conception of image and design, the poetry, the clean look without excesses, a characteristic of Japanese culture and art, are present in these simple packages projects presented. The visual purity, symbology, iconicity and index undergo a language thought even in the way to close the bottle, simple and devoid of technology. These packaging in its design have presented hypo icon languages, in various stages of firstness, secondness and thirdness, through its visual cleaning.

10 456 M. Mercaldi et al. Fig. 4 Forest Milk package created by Japanese design studio Rise Office Design. www. 1stwebdesigner.com/inspiration/japanese-product-packaging-design.ImagebyVizeer (2011) 4 Conclusions The Japanese Packaging is created not only to contain the product; it contains a single soul, a representative iconic identity. The Products enchants through a differentiated and value-added language since there is an idea that relates to the user, in his memory, emotion and poetry. There is a significant comparative difference between a Western and an Eastern product packaging design. Independent from writing and text, the visual identity and product understanding of Japanese packaging is done without the need to speak the language, or read what is written. This aspect resumes the issue already mentioned of Chinese writing system. The Japanese mentor system, created thousands of years ago, for a complete understanding of all peoples, where the hypo icon, either in first, second or third level, reveals the meaning automatically. We can see then that the Japanese design uses much of hypo icon in all its ratings, thus having an amount of energy and life conveyed by the product design, which is perceived by the receiver. Western packaging in general looks more limited, contained in the presentation or labeling, and, with a somewhat tiresome text amount that often do not communicate the qualities of the product displayed. It is also relevant the aspect of the Japanese design may seem animated when it comes to a focused product for the children s market and even when you can convey emotion and satisfaction in the sense of joy, fun or mood. The impact is immediate by either the aesthetics, the humor, or the Kawii (cuteness). The packaging color and its shape and the interrelation of both the content and all the nature of iconic references, makes the Japanese packaging, a singular form of expression. Apart from all the features mentioned, another part of

11 Japanese Packaging Design 457 the Japanese packaging design prize for harmony, subtlety, poetry and elegance and has relationships with nature, aesthetics and beauty, and, in line with the architecture of Peirce s thought provides the basis for three normative sciences: Aesthetics (ideal), ethics (conduct) and critical logic or semiotics (the truth). It is a fact and it is a conclusion that there are differences of language and effects between the transmitted message from the Japanese packaging (Eastern) and messages of packaging from Western countries. However, all the different forms of world culture understand messages of Oriental products, in a very positive way. Acknowledgments The authors want to thank the support for this research afforded by the Foundation for Support of Research of the State of São Paulo FAPESP by process 2014/ , and Coordination of Improvement of Higher Level Personnel CAPES, who provided conditions to assist the research, although they may not agree with all of the interpretations or conclusions of this paper. References 1. Campos, H. (org.). Ideogram: Logic, Poetry, Language. (Ideograma: Lógica, Poesia, Linguagem). EdUSP, 3ª ed., São Paulo (1994) 2. Serralvo, F.: Management of Brands and Products (Gestão de Marcos e Produtos). IESDE Brasil, Curitiba (2009) 3. Largura, F.A.: The Acquisition Process of Japanese Ideogrammatic Writing. (O Processo de Aquisição da Escrita Ideogramática Japonesa). Dissertação de Mestrado (M.Sc. Dissertation). UECE, Ceará, Fortaleza (2006) 4. Iwakami, L.: Routes of the Ideogram: the Process of a Language (Percursos do Ideograma: o Processo de uma Linguagem). Dissertação de Mestrado (M.Sc. Dissertation), UFRGS, Porto Alegre (1992) 5. Meggs, P.: The History of Graphic Design (História do Design Gráfico). Editora Cosac Naify, p. 19, São Paulo (2013) 6. Busato, S.: Vision and perception research of cognitive models. A neurobiological approach in design and emotion (Visão e Percepção, Investigação dos Modelos Cognitivos. Uma abordagem Neurobiológica em Design e Emoção). Tese de Doutorado (D.Sc.Thesis) UNESP/FAAC, Bauru (2013) 7. Farias, P.: The concept of diagram in the semiotics of Charles S. Peirce (O conceito de Diagrama na Semiótica de Charles S. Peirce). Tríades em Revista 1, pp. 1 13, PUC-Rio, Rio de Janeiro ( ) 8. Farias, P.: Images, Diagrams And Metaphors: One Semiotic Contribution to the Information Design (2002) 9. Peirce, C.S.: Study: the collected papers of Charles S. Peirce. Vols. I-VI [Ed. Hartshorne, C. & Weiss, P., Cambridge.Harvard University, ], Vols. VII-VIII [Ed. Burks, A. W., Cambridge.Harvard University, 1958]. Charlottesville, Intelex Corporation, 1994 [ ] 10. Peirce, C.S.: The Essential Writings. Prometheus Books, New York (1998) 11. Peirce, C.S.: Semiotics (Semiótica). Ed. Perspectiva, 3. ed., São Paulo (2000) 12. Vygotsky, L.: Pensamento e Linguagem. Martins Fontes, São Paulo (1998) 13. North, W.: Panorama da Semiótica de Platão a Peirce. Annablume, 4ªed, São Paulo (1995) 14. Niemayer, L.: Elements of semiotics applied to design (Elementos de Semiótica Aplicados ao Design). Ed 2AB, Rio de Janeiro (2007)