A Study On The Product Design Of Ramie Cloth In The Light Of Kansei Engeneering

Weaving technology of ramie cloth was listed as the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage in 2008.The hand-woven ramie cloth,with good permeability and health benefit as well as smooth and flat texture,has been widely used in clothing making and household items since the Shang Dynasty(1600-1046,BC)of and Zhou Dynasty(1046-256,BC).Pure hand-woven ramie cloth which so highly delicate can compete with the silk,and was classified as tribute to send overseas in the Tang Dynasty(618-907,AD).However,affected by the modern mechanized production and the use of man-made textile fabrics,the complex and time-consuming weaving process increased the cost of ramie cloth industry.Most enterprises mainly depend on low value-added raw fabric exports to survive.As the young people go out to work,the time-honored cloth weaving skills are maintained only by left-behind women and the elderly,which is facing the lack of successors.Ramie cloth,as a carrier of weaving skills,have the cultural,functional,and environmental-friendly advantages,as well as certain historical,economic and cultural values.In recent years,with increasingly flourishing cultural industries and growing public concepts of environmental protection and health care,the demand for research and development of new products appeared on market.In order to improve the added value of ramie cloth products and meet the needs of consumers,this paper aims at the development and design of ramie cloth product,combines with the semantic analysis method of Kansei engineering,establishes the correspondence between product image and design elements,transforms the demand of consumers into design project,and eventually guides the design practice.Designing ramie cloth products that meet consumers' expectations will be benefit for the inheritance of ramie cloth weavingtechnique.Ramie cloth products research and development need to be established on a comprehensive understanding of ramie cloth culture.First of all,based on repeated and progressive visits to Rongchang County government,Panlong town government,enterprises and workshops in Chongqing,the author learns about the process of ramie cloth weaving skills,the history of ramie cloth and current situation of ramie cloth products,collects the interview records and documents,sums up ramie cloth's involvement in the fields of craft,economy,art,folk custom and system from the aspects of material and spirit,sorts out the development process of ramie cloth products,points out its characteristics in function and form,concludes advantages and limitations of products development,and outlines its cultural connotation from the perspective of product.Combined with the semantic analysis of Kansei engineering,the survey design and analysis are carried out to effectively obtain and interpret the demand.The survey and analysis process is as follows: collect and select product pictures and Kansei vocabulary,and carry out perceptual evaluation on the representative samples and semantemes by performing semantic differential scale with 5 or 7 metrics;through quantitative and qualitative analysis on the evaluation data collected,obtain the correspondence between product image and language meaning.This paper designs the questionnaire about perceptual demand of ramie cloth,analyzes the commonness and individuality of the arts and crafts,clothing ornaments and home accessories made mainly of ramie cloth,and discusses the different image styles of different types of ramie cloth.At the same time,by analyzing the preference differences in the demand for ramie cloth products among consumers of different ages,the author finds that female groups in the elderly(36 years and older)had a greater interest in ramie cloth products.Based on the above-mentioned findings,the target group is selected from female aging from 36 to 50,the ramie cloth bag is taken as the research object,and then the questionnaire is designed and carried out.In order to obtain a wide range of design references,the author focuses on the "natural fiber" and "handmade" collecting a large number of product concepts and pictures of bags and related semantic description;according to the analysis on product attributes such as ramie cloth products,representative product images and the perceptual description words are selected out,the semantic differential scale is established,and perceptual evaluation is carried out;the spatial distribution images of the survey samples under the influence of each image are drawn,and the product attributes of the ramie cloth bag are analyzed qualitatively.To study the influence of different design elements on the bag,the orthogonal analysis method is used to assist the investigation,from which the corresponding relationship between the product image and design element is obtained.The research results are generally in agreement with the qualitative analysis results.ramie cloth should have a unique,smooth,bright and comfortable image: a unique image can be achieved by an unconventional bag body shape and embroidery etc.;a smooth image can be realized by cylindrical handles,rounded bag body and larger capacity;a bright image emphasizes color coordination,but is also influenced by short handles and rounded bag body;a comfortable image highlights large capacity and soft material,but is influenced by bottom surface shape and patterns light colors.Finally,based on the early investigation and analysis of the target people,design style of ramie cloth bags is determined to be elegant and concise.And further analysis of its detailed implementation in the shape,material,color and technology is done around the design style and people's demands.In order to add value of it,the product solutions to combine ramie cloth bags and handmade folded embriobery,weaving and barbola are discussed from the technical point of view.Then three of the best designs are chosen for final making.