The Connotation Of Graphic Symbols In The Character Design

As the basis of Chinese culture, characters reflect the lifestyle, national mentality, aesthetic taste, social value and ideology of Chinese nation, and originally contain the visual elements of graphical symbols, by which characters can convey the information and emotion. In the modern time, the idea of art design is changing all the way. The art design of characters lays stress not only on the style but also the diversified expressions, by going into the perception and analysis on the conception level to visually express the spiritual meanings. The graphical symbols of characters combine the character typeface with the graphical symbols, conveying the characters'connotation through the visualized manifestation. Characters'graphical symbol becomes the resource of visual graphics, elucidating the cultural meaning and internalizing themselves into the nation's spiritual orientation.From the stand of art design, this thesis observes the design of characters merged with the changes on the visual patterns of the graphic symbols, focusing on the relations of the symbols which function as the media for expression and the objects which are expressed from the perspectives of space, time and materials. This thesis researches into the various implications of the character design via the analysis of the visual forms. The graphical symbols of characters identify themselves with culture instead of the graphics or symbols. First, on the foundations of Chinese traditional philosophy ---Image, which bring about image-thought (as xiang-thought is called), and"the shapes of Chinese characters) and"artistic conception of characters"in art design, which make up the aesthetic standard of the character design all together, embodying the intrinsic context, spiritual value, and life transcendence. Second, by using the analysis methods of both Chinese and western semiotics, the author explores the internal relationship of the forms of symbol design and the structure of meaning represented, searching for the manner how the signifier and the signified of the graphic symbols are related. Finally, the author integrates the theme of the design, the materials, conception and thought in a whole, seeking for the felt formal languages and the emotions.This research aims at finding the impact of characters on the china modern design, better conveying the spiritual meanings of characters and the emotional quality of character design. I hope the characters'cultural features can be immerged into the design at large, and put forward some viewpoints for the development of graphic symbol design both practically and theoretically.