A Teaching Model of Cultural and Creative Design Based on the Philosophy of the Book of Changes

Abstract

In essence, cultural and creative design features humanity and culture. The process of how to transform culture into creativity is an essential subject of design education, which, in turn, calls for a new design teaching system. In regard to combining traditional Chinese thinking with modern design experience, the question of how to apply traditional Chinese thinking to design concepts, methods, and education is systematically explored in this research. Firstly, the question of how to transform the philosophy of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness” in the Book of Changes into “design thinking” in order to establish the learning process of creative design with added value—as well as to set up the teaching model of cultural and creative design under “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness”—is discussed. After this, two cases of the Aboriginal Harvest Festival’s cultural creativity “Dancing Together” candlestick and the animation, cultural, and creative design of the “Wind Lion God” are used in order to examine the effectiveness of the specific design and to verify the feasibility of this teaching model in the development and application of cultural and creative products. The results demonstrate the feasibility of this teaching model, which provides a new systematic approach for the purposes of teaching and practice in the field of cultural and creative design.

1. Introduction

Due to the fact that the cultural and creative industry has boomed in recent years—and that cultural products have been developed in order to improve the quality of life, and also social and cultural awareness—the practice of design is thus aimed to inherit and maintain culture instead of merely pursuing high technology and nice outlooks [1]. Therefore, the diverse ethnic cultures in the world have been rich resources for the purposes of cultural design, which can, in turn, create value through design. The essence of cultural and creative design lies in humanity and culture, which requires products to be consistent with humanistic aesthetics. At present, the question on how to transform culture into creativity is a critical subject in design education.

Following the advent of the creative economy era, innovative and creative education occupies a central position in the creative economy [2]. Creative thinking comes with design practice and is defined as an analytical and creative process that includes the stages of experiment, model creation, feedback collection, and redesign [3]. Johansson-Sköldberg [4] proposed the concept of design thinking and summarized five categories for this concept, including the creation of artifacts, a reflexive practice, a problem-solving activity, a way of reasoning/making sense of things, and the creation of meaning. Certain scholars advise that design thinking can provide a creative teaching structure for educators, which is essential for the cultivation of innovative developmental skills [5,6,7]. Creativity is a peculiar phenomenon that is only possessed, as far as we know, by human beings. The mainstream of modern design is represented by research on creativity, such as creative personality, creative cognition, creative environment, and creative education [8]. Creative thinking capabilities can be developed through effective teaching or training. Some scholars have also explored teaching methods of training students’ creativity and systematically described the critical thinking of STEM education, creator education, project-based learning, and inquiry-based learning [9,10,11]. All of these studies provide a theoretical basis for the teaching model of cultural and creative design in terms of cultural innovation, design thinking, and creativity.

The teaching of cultural and creative design on the mainland is in the infancy stage. As such, it still possesses an immature teaching model, pedagogy, learning theory, and curriculum design [12,13]. Currently, there exists a gap between the curriculum of cultural and creative design in universities and the demand of industry talents. By means of innovating teaching methods, expanding teaching practice, establishing a high-quality faculty training mechanism and a creative mechanism enhancing professional diversion, some studies hope to accomplish an effective connection between university talent training and industrial demand [14]. Some other related research has also discussed the teaching model of combining “Intangible Cultural Heritage” and “Cultural Creation”. They explore the path of industry-academy cooperation between culture and applied majors in order to achieve the dual purpose of cultural heritage and artistic creativity cultivation [15]. To integrate creative teaching in universities into local culture, some researchers suggest that it can be achieved through practical activities such as building cultural heritage cultivation mechanism, constructing heritage workshops and industrial studios with cultural characteristics, and conducting cultural thematic courses [16]. Therefore, the research of cultural and creative teaching requires a new perspective and practical manner which extracts typical cultural contents for creative modification. Following that, it can satisfy the needs of technology and humanity, and adapt to the rapidly developing era of knowledge economy [17,18,19]. Transforming cultural content into cultural product design requires innovation in knowledge structures. It also needs to integrate knowledge and resources driven by ideal human demands and stimulate the creation of new knowledge [20].

In regard to the broad and profound Chinese culture, the Book of Changes is a paragon of ancient Chinese philosophy in which the laws of nature and dialectical thought contained within are representative of a crystallization of Chinese wisdom over a period of five thousand years. The core and essence of the Book of Changes’ design philosophy, “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness”, can be applied to design education, which has proved an effective strategy for creative learning [21,22,23,24]. Such fine traditional cultural concepts and cultural heritage are significant resources for innovative educational research, which is conducive to solving local problems derived from national practices.

In addition to science, technology, culture, and economy, the development of cultural industry requires culturally innovative design talents. It has been a heated research topic as to how best apply design thinking in order to teach and help students, majoring in design, to represent cultural creativity in their products. Therefore, in this research, the approach on how to transform the philosophy of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness” in the Book of Changes into “design thinking” is investigated. In addition, the learning process of creative design with added value is formed. By exploring relevant design theories, the researchers aim to gradually construct a teaching model of cultural and creative product design. With the design creation practice as a supplement, the researchers also examine the effectiveness of design creation and provide theoretical references for design thinking education. The specific research purposes are as follows: (1) to construct the design thinking of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness” by recognizing and understanding the relationships among them; (2) to explore how to transform the design thinking of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness” into a teaching model of cultural and creative design; and (3) to summarize the teaching procedures of cultural and creative design through guiding design teaching cases.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Construction of the Design Thinking of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness”

The concept of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness” derives from Chapter 12 of the Survey, PartIXici of the Book of Changes, which states: “the metaphysical realm is called the Tao and the physical realm is called the vessel. The interaction between the two leads to mutual transformation and dissolution of things, which is called change, elaboration, and application of the principles of change are called comprehensiveness. In order to make these principles available for people under heaven to use is called a business”.

Indeed, the “Tao” refers to ideas, consciousness, or values, which require the “Vessel” to disseminate; the “Vessel” means a form or artifact, which is communicated though “Tao” and then becomes a symbolic carrier. The philosophy of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness” is widely adopted in ancient Chinese design. Further, the thought of “the end of any development usually gives rise to changes, changes open ways for development, continuous development can of course last long” provides a concrete way in which to solve the dilemma of design process, management, and education.

The philosophy of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness” coincides with parts of the Western view of “design thinking”, which assumes that the specific manifestation of innovative thinking in design activities encompasses the categories of understanding, observation, conception, creation, and testing [25,26,27,28]. The researchers would like to suggest that you do not have to be designers. Instead, you have to be a design thinker. Only with the capacity of design thinking can the concept-driven creative idea be implemented [29]. At this phase, the research focuses on the relationship between “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness” and its deeper intellectual connotations, which contains the interconnection between Tao–Empathy, Vessel–Define, Change–Ideate, Comprehensiveness–Prototype, and Business–Test, as shown in Figure 1.

First, “Tao” is above the physical and vessel; its essence is the laws and regulations shared by all things in the abstract or spiritual level. Additionally, “Empathy” implies understanding the actual demands of users and their inner thoughts. Both of them originate from the same spiritual experience. Secondly, “Vessel” is below the specified material above and it is a tool commonly used by people. Additionally, “Define” can be interpreted as a specific method to refine the problem via observation and analysis. Thirdly, the “Tao” and “Vessel” are mutually reduced by the interaction, forming a variation or a change from the behavioral level. Additionally, “Ideate” in design thinking also refers to processes of brainstorming and developing methods in order to solve problems. The two meanings of them are complementary to one another. Fourth, “Comprehensiveness” signifies that the guidelines are turned into general rules, which are applicable to the practice. Additionally, “Prototype” is to make innovations and creations through solutions. Lastly, the philosophy of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness” may become the core concept in which to guide the related industries, i.e., the creation of the “Business” corresponding to the perfection and realization of design.

Due to the fact that creation or management tends to evolve with the times, the design thinking of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness” should also be able to break the existing rules and laws, as well as later establish a new paradigm of thinking based on the experience of creation for practical operation and learning [30].

The “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness” analytic can be used to actually think from a human-centered perspective based on “Tao” (the first step). Then, the processes will be presented through the visible and perceptible “Vessel”, i.e., using the “Vessel” as the medium including information sharing, integration, concept optimization, and framework building (the second step). Further, the breakthrough of “Change” will be made in the whole creative process, whereby solutions from multiple dimensions are sought, similar to a high-speed coding system (the third step). “Comprehensiveness” refers to the realization of the creation (the fourth step) and the completion of target systems, which constitutes the basis of re-selection, analysis, integration, and re-creation. The entire design thinking of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness” is a cyclical process which generates creativity and updates knowledge based on repeated iterations of testing and refinement (the fifth step). Therefore, these five elements are intertwined, and on this basis, in this research, the theoretical model construction of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness” in the context of teaching cultural and creative design will be analyzed.

2.2. Theoretical Framework for the Teaching of Cultural Creativity and Design with Added Value

In Western models of creativity, MIT—for instance—divide the purpose of education into three levels, namely reason, knowledge, and wisdom, which are embodied in the teaching [31]. The strategic management ideologist Roger [32] considered that knowledge creation in humans consists of three stages: exploring the puzzle, gaining insight, and forming patterns, which are collectively called the “Knowledge Funnel”. Regarding inference-level teaching, it is supposed to help develop pure critical and reasoning abilities in a bid to flexibly use scientific tools and investigation methods. This teaching method can be regarded as collecting, evaluating, and using relevant information in order to solve complex puzzles and to explore unknown mysteries. In cultural and creative teaching, the inference-level teaching method is manifested in the transformation of raw cultural data into useful design information through analysis and comprehensive coding. This is such that the data can be endowed with meaning, i.e., “Added Value Through Information”. In terms of the knowledge-level teaching approach, it should be to cultivate systematic application capabilities and to discover the essential laws of information on the basis of comparison and analysis, as well as to gain conceptual insight. This is expressed in the approach of cultural and creative teaching serving as the further understanding and generalization of information into knowledge, i.e., the “Added Value Through Knowledge”. Regarding intelligence-level teaching, it should be to develop students’ patterned structure of knowledge that allows them to use intellectual strategies rationally in order to solve problems and thus ponder topics relevant to science, ethics, and art. In cultural and creative teaching, it is presented as the flexible application of knowledge to design and production through creative courses, thus sublimating creative cognition. Therefore, each knowledge point can be arranged as such in order to build a structured mental model of the knowledge elements, which is the formulation of “intelligent property”. Additionally, it must also be noted that this stage is called “Added Value Through Creative”. These processes may all be considered the double diamond design process model, in which data, information, knowledge, and intelligence continuously “diverge and converge” [33].

The teaching procedure of cultural and creative design is divided into two aspects in this research: basic research and applied research [34]. Basic research illustrates the structuring of creative data (diverge), while applied research practices the structuring of answers: which is to transform solving problems with knowledge into a law (converge) [35]. For this reason, the abovementioned also echo the design thinking of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness”. In terms of design practice, the “metaphysical realm” refers to the abstract process. Here, the intangible but regular connotation of thoughts, which reflects wisdom and demonstrate the soft power of culture, is extracted. The “physical realm” generally denotes specific inquiries—which is a technical guideline after the summary of the creative results—and presents tangible and communicable masterly skills. Certain scholars have managed to propose solutions to the relationship between the cultural product design process, the cultural and creative design value-added process, and the cultural and creative teaching process [2,36]. In order to achieve this, they constructed a theoretical model of teaching cultural and creative design, as shown in Figure 2.

2.3. The Scenario Approach of Cultural and Creative Design

The scenario approach is a design method that is utilized in order to create a product usage scenario through an imaginary story in the development process of a product [26]. Its main purpose is to connect the relationship between user characteristics, events, products, and the environment, as well as to describe future usage scenarios through imagination in order to explore product visions and design themes. The purpose of design is not only to make it convenient for consumers to use, but also to find the best product position and levels of consumer recognition, which are the hallmarks of good design. An excellent cultural design can trigger emotional requirements and cultural introspection within consumers. Therefore, the scenario approach seeks to create a possible scenario based on the attributes, features, and connotations of a product from the designer’s standpoint of the user. It prompts users to create an empathetic effect during the operation of the product and to establish an imaginary space and atmosphere mentally, thereby finally allowing them to be immersed in the scenario [37,38,39,40].

The scenario approach incorporates the concept of product semantics and constructs the reference relationship between cultural symbols and products through rhetorical means. It emphasizes the communication between products and users and conveys the connotation and meaning of cultural symbols. Product semantics defines the product as a symbolic system, examining the symbolic qualities of the product form in the context of operation and utilization [41]. The metaphorical and symbolic logic is integrated into the product design, which is more flexible and innovative in terms of transmitting religious beliefs, historical customs, national emotions, regional characteristics, mythological stories, and other cultural connotations. This means there is a focus on the conveying of the inner meaning and emotional depth of the product through its shape and usage. The commonly used metaphorical design devices include metaphor, simile, metonymy, analogy, and allegory, which subtly transform the visual association between products and symbols [42]. This is an interpretative manner of product communication and transmission.

The process of an IDEO application in regard to a scenario approach to innovative product design can be divided into five steps: understand, observe, visualize, evaluate and refine, and implement [43]. Certain scholars have further classified the implementation procedure of the scenario approach into four stages: set a scenario, tell a story, write a script, and design a product. They have attempted to apply the scenario approach to cultural and creative design in order to verify the possibility of the approach through the rich storytelling of culture [44]. The stage of setting a scenario requires designers to make records of people, events, times, places, and substances based on their past life experiences, set them in the context for the future use of the design product, and conduct time-to-space conversion of the design use context in a descriptive metaphorical way. The stage of telling a story situates the design within an empathetic default theme, telling a story through imagination in an intertwined time and space setting. In this phase, the hypothetical scenarios and usage of the future product to be developed are gradually portrayed, and the design elements can be used to transform into materials for deeper imagination. The stage of writing a script passes through the written script description and key words of design elements, including cultural connotation, usage, operation method, usage situation, behavior pattern, etc. This concept makes further conceptual deduction and interpretation through simile, metonymy, analogy, etc., for more reasonable and logical subsequent design development. The stage of designing a product has already generated the prototype of the product ready for planning. Entering the preliminary drawing stage of product design, the product’s stereo-model design is subsequently completed via software, which also integrates modern 3D printing and traditional machining principles and operational practices. The design in each phase of the scenario approach resembles the design practice led by the design thinking of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness”, as shown in Figure 3. The scenario approach helps to provide a practical direction for design through a simulated contextual analysis, helps to implement relevant operational highlights, and lays out orderly steps for the purposes of achieving design goals.

3. Methodology

3.1. Conceptual Framework of the Teaching Model

The essence of cultural and creative design is a complex coding system. The manner of coding not only determines the establishment of the knowledge structure, but also deduces new information and migration, which indicates the formation of creative behavior. When a person’s coding system is endowed with certain information, it will be created through learning and application. From basic theory to application practice, it also means the enhancement of a personal competence from concept to practice. The process of application practice to final innovation development is one process of using knowledge strategy in order to realize knowledge creation, which is a series of spiral escalations of innovation-based teaching processes. Based on the above research explorations, in this research, several models from the literature review are combined and a teaching model of cultural and creative design under the design thinking of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness” (Figure 4) was established.

Firstly, at the basic theory level, the essence of the research on constructing the code of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness” is a coding principle consisting of laws at the spiritual level, tools at the material level, transformation at the behavioral level, and practices at the effect level, which all provide the writing of creative concepts with a logical scope. As a universal law, the “Tao” is the guiding principle of the whole cultural and creative design, including the discussion of the design consensus and the understanding of cultural products. The “Vessel” is a perceptible tool, consisting of the steps of establishing the target group, describing the usage context, and establishing the design plan. The “Change” is the result of the transformation, including the steps of analyzing cultural characteristics, linking product lines, and selecting appropriate concepts. “Comprehensiveness”, as the result of design coding, includes two stages of design development and finalization.

Secondly, the acquisition and utilization of knowledge are determined by learning and application capabilities. The philosophy of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness” is developed into the realization of specific capacities at the application and practice level. The “Tao” transforms into the guidance of the “classical rules and thinking paradigm”, the “Vessel” into the outcome of the “specific method and process behaviors”, the “Change” into the effect of the “deeper understanding and breakthrough changes”, and the “Comprehensiveness” transforms into the result of the “breaking rules and innovative patterns”.

Thirdly, the development of innovative ability that is reached by the transformation of the scenario approach consists of four stages. First, “Set a Scenario” is the acquisition and comprehension of information; second, “Tell a Story” is the mastery and analysis of knowledge; third, “Write a script” is the organization and application of ideas; fourth, “Design a product” is the interpretation and creation of wisdom.

Therefore, the whole system exemplifies the innovative learning process from the recognition of cultural characteristics and the formation of design concepts to creative and cultural design, which deserve to be explored through case studies.

3.2. Overview of the Case

This research adopts a case study approach in order to explore and verify the feasibility of applying this teaching model to the development of cultural and creative products. The “feasibility” mentioned in this research refers to whether the proposed teaching model can be used to guide the implementation and practice of creative practice. Its measurement criteria are whether the four stages of design planning, namely “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness”, are carried out smoothly, and whether the design concept can be finally transformed into a design product with cultural characteristics, values, and meanings. In the process of designing cultural and creative products, seeking a reasonable transformation of cultural characteristics and product presentation is a complex process. A case study approach to validate this teaching model contributes to examining the rationality of the design process and the consideration of the development of cultural products at various levels, hence designing products with cultural connotations.

In this research, two study cases of the Aboriginal Harvest Festival’s cultural creativity “Dancing Together” candlestick and the animation, cultural, and creative design of the “Wind Lion God” as examples are utilized in order to examine the effectiveness of applying the model to specific design processes. In this research, two aspects of Aboriginal culture in Taiwan and Chinese mythology as the starting point to explore the possibility of cultural transformation into creativity and specific implementation steps is employed, as shown in Figure 5. Based on the core thinking of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness”, this phase of research uses relevant design methods to transform the cultural contents and gradually complete the design of cultural and creative products. First of all, Aboriginal culture has unique cultural features which can offer abundant creative resources for the purposes of design conception. It is also able to help shape construction and to stimulate the formation of creative imagination. The “Dancing Together” candlestick transforms the nostalgia for the past of Taiwan’s Harvest Festival into a modern living situation through the creative learning method of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness”, and demonstrates the richness of Aboriginal culture through cultural and creative products. The analysis starts from the four directions of Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness, which captures the characteristics of the scenario approach. The stage of Tao and Vessel refers to the conceptual formulation, while the stage of Change and Comprehensiveness refers to the design transformation of the concept. Secondly, Chinese mythology is the essence of Chinese civilization and the crystallization of national wisdom, which provides a wide space for creative design. The “Wind Lion God” designs an animation character by combining myths and legends through the teaching model of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness”. The stage of Tao and Vessel refers to systematically analyzing cultural data and extracting its attributes, which is the stage of design conceptual formulation, while the stage of Change and Comprehensiveness refers to transforming the design vein and then realizing character design. Both cases use the same framework and design process of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness”. Among them, the case of “Wind Lion God” focuses more on the application and description of the scenario approach, as this approach can clearly present the transformation process of cultural creativity after four stages of research and development. The scenario approach inherits cultural assets and characteristics through the design process, and presents a multifaceted design interpretation process under the framework of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness”, which is more suitable for the extraction and transformation of cultural elements in mythology. Consequently, taking these two examples as research objects not only profoundly analyzes the creative transformation of different cultures, but also helps to argue for the diversity of cultural and creative design applications. Two such cases have typicality and research value; further, they are suitable for the purposes of validating this research model.

4. Case Analysis and Discussion

4.1. The Aboriginal Harvest Festival’s Cultural Creativity “Dancing Together” Candlestick

4.1.1. Design Concept of the “Dancing Together” Candlestick

This phase adopts the Aboriginal Harvest Festival’s cultural creativity “Dancing Together” candlestick, which was designed by the creative team of the School of Design, National Taiwan University of Arts, as a case study, as shown in Figure 6. In this context, researchers conducted a study on the teaching of cultural and creative design, based on the design thinking of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness”. This study has been authorized by the creative design team in order to display the design results and to analyze the design process. Thus, in this study, we are seeking ways to transform the nostalgia for the past of Taiwan’s Harvest Festival into a modern living situation through the creative learning method of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness”. Additionally, this is also achieved by using cultural and creative products to show the richness of Aboriginal culture, as well as to enrich cultural and creative products with culture. These are the topics explored in this phase. Cohesion is the theme of the “Dancing Together” candlestick. Moreover, it subtly applies the scene of the Aboriginal people celebrating around the fire during the ceremony to the candlestick. As the candlelight sways with the air, it is as if the crowd is holding hands in a circle, dancing with the wind in celebration. The candlestick recreates the Aboriginal people’s prayers for hope and reverence for their ancestors, as well as to the heavens through the value-added design of cultural creativity, which reveals the depth of cultural connotation and the aesthetics of life.

4.1.2. Design Hierarchy of Emotional Experience for the “Dancing Together” Candlestick

The design concept of the “Dancing Together” candlestick takes the Aboriginal story as the model. The main requirements of the design are experience and memory, which aims to aid in allowing users to rediscover the touching moments from this culture at diverse levels. In terms of communication theory, they argue that successful coding by designers needs to satisfy three levels, namely the technical level, the semantic level, and the effect level [45,46,47]. The users’ emotional experience of an artistic work involves their decoding process. At the level of the body’s instinct, the users will be attracted by the external senses of an artistic work; at the level of the mind’s behavior, they will understand and feel the meaning beyond the perception of artistic works. Eventually, they will return to the level of spiritual reflection where the audience will be touched deeply in their hearts, and the artistic work will be evocative of their memories of emotion in their lives [48,49]. The candlestick is composed of four layers of meaning, which creates a context through its lighting function and forms an emotional communication between the user and the product. The first and second layers are the physical characteristics of the product. The first layer is dominated by a glass cover with a lighted lamp post in the middle. It is surrounded by embossed, hand-holding imaginary human figures that express the overall scene of Aboriginal festivals and celebrations. The second layer is composed of a hollowed-out outer plate with a variety of materials featuring hollowed-out human figures that are used in order to convey visualized affection. The third layer exhibits the functional aspect of the candlestick, with a reflection of the light of human figures. The desktop is illuminated by the candle flame, revealing the light and shadow of human figures. As the flame shakes it seems to be dancing lightly, which is similar to the Aboriginal celebration of the Harvest Festival with a heartwarming atmosphere. The fourth layer reflects the spiritual aspect of the product, i.e., emotional cohesion. When a family sits around dinner, the “Dancing Together” candlestick is similar to building a bridge of affection, in which people experience the passionate atmosphere and cohesively care for each other in their hearts.

4.1.3. Design Procedures for Creative Design of the “Dancing Together” Candlestick

• Design procedure of the “Tao” stage

In this research, the design thinking of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness” to lead the formation, development, and execution of the creative idea of the “Dancing Together” candlestick was adopted. The first stage is “Tao”, which is specifically the setting scenario. Further, it is divided into three steps: exploring design consensus, understanding cultural product, and compiling story data for analysis.

On the topic of exploring design consensus phase: this stage is to collect and analyze cultural data, as well as to understand and reflect on it with the purpose of obtaining the background content of the Harvest Festival and, thus, exploring its core spirit [1]. The core spirit of the story is fourfold: promote “faith and emotion among the community” through “an atmosphere of celebration and recreation”; achieve “a symbol of thanksgiving and blessing”; and achieve a ritual of “the effect of holding hands around the campfire”, as shown in Figure 7.

In regard to understanding cultural product phase, this stage refers to the analysis of the connotations of cultural levels, i.e., the process of deepening data further into information. Cultural space is distinguished into three levels, i.e., physical (outer-level), behavioral (mid-level), and psychological (inner-level) [29,50]. The visible physical level includes the campfire, the Aboriginal people circling, and the multi-layered effect; the intermediate behavioral level comprises hand-holding and joyful dancing; the psychological level consists of showing an atmosphere of celebration and recreation, thereby promoting the group beliefs and cultural rituals that symbolize gratitude and blessing, as shown in Figure 8.

Regarding compiling the story data for analysis phase: this stage is a way to use information to add value. First, the researchers should organize and analyze the data of cultural stories systematically. Then, the original stories should be grouped into relevant information. Lastly, the researchers should analyze each of these stories according to the attributes as per the three levels of culture, and consider the suitable genre for the envisioned product [51]. The design connotation contains ethnic group, title, genre, image code, material use, color structure, shape characteristics, operation usage, pattern type, shape constitution, composition form, deeper meaning, cultural significance, and story context [44], as well as exploring the attribute vocabulary, commodity context, and category of the designed goods, as shown in Figure 9.

2.

Design procedure of the “Vessel” stage

The second stage is “Vessel”, specifically the process of telling the story, which is an approach of using knowledge to add value. It is separated into two steps: first, conceive the consumers’ identity background and operational interaction context; second, compile the information of the contextual simulation and design solutions.

In regard to conceiving the consumers’ identity background and operational interaction context phase, this stage is based on the above design attributes and product requirements; moreover. In this stage, the characteristics of consumers who purchase such cultural and creative products from the viewpoints of the economy, social environment, and technological development are set [52]. The economic level helps to determine the life proposition, taste, and shape of the target customers; the social environment level aids in defining the target customers’ comprehension and empathy for cultural meaning and stories; the technological development level helps with deciding the target customers’ choice of product types and characteristics [53,54]. Secondly, the interaction situation between the target customers and the product in life is envisioned in this stage, mainly in regard to involving people, events, time, place, things, and usage. Additionally, its purpose is allowing designers to understand the background qualities and usage of the consumers when corresponding with the cultural and creative products, as shown in Figure 10.

Regarding the compile information of the contextual simulation and design solutions phase, this stage means converting the contextual information into the design requirements of the product. The researchers should compile the simulated information in the form of life and start from the products’ image requirements, application characteristics, and functional guidelines in order to design the cultural product [55,56]. In regard to the economic level, this stage helps with exploring the image requirements in life patterns, which can be storytelling, sensual, pretty, pleasant, and a moody or moving atmosphere. In regard to the social level, the notion on how to reflect on the culture of life and contextual stories in order to demonstrate the application characteristics of its goods, such as daily necessities, decorative effects, and contextual lighting, should be investigated. In regard to the technological level, the possibility of the shape, skill, and meaning of the product, as well as identifying the functionalities corresponding to the cultural level (such as assembly effects, applicable situations, and usage methods), is considered, as shown in Figure 11.

3.

Design procedure of the “Change” stage

The third stage is “Change”, which is understood to be specifically writing a script. This is the process of using creativity in order to add value. It is divided into two phases: first, when the conversion attribute factors and cultural traits are determined; second, when selecting suitable concepts and products.

In regard to determining the conversion attribute factors and cultural traits phase, this stage is mainly for the purposes of determining the cultural traits, commodity context, and product category depending on the guidelines [57]. First, in this stage, the cultural traits from the story, such as the celebration and recreational atmosphere; the promotion of a sense of collective belief and emotion; the symbol of thanksgiving and blessing, as well as the harmonious scene of holding hands around the fire, are all summarized. Then, there is some correspondence to the context of product attributes, e.g., the campfire corresponds to the thinking of a dim environment, people holding hands corresponds to the harmonious atmosphere of thanksgiving and blessing, and lighting corresponds to the presentation of the situation. Finally, with regard to the type of goods, the researchers envision style goods, lighting effects, or special atmosphere in this stage, as shown in Figure 12.

Regarding the select suitable concepts and products phase, the type of products that meet these attributes and characteristics are conceived based on the three aspects of cultural traits, product context, and product genre, as mentioned above. By conducting this, ideas are combined with diversity. For instance, the properties of luminous lights are playfulness, environmental embellishment, night glow, context creation, etc. Another example is that the properties of luminous collection boxes have the effect of representing identity symbols, high artistic value, creative modeling, and display effects. Again, for example, the commodity imagery of interesting table lighting products includes irregular graphics, the effect of holding hands, and human-shaped flashing lights, which can enhance the emotional atmosphere, as shown in Figure 13.

4.

Design procedure of the “Comprehensiveness” stage

The fourth stage refers to “Comprehensiveness”, i.e., specifically designing the product, which is the process of using wisdom to add value. It is composed of two steps: first, convert the attribute elements into the selected existing products; second, the conversion process of the product design.

Regarding the convert attribute elements into selected existing products phase, in this stage, based on the above envisioned products and the attribute factors to be converted, the researchers should find the most suitable type of product. After compilation, this phase will select the circular surround, hand-holding dance ceremony, campfire lighting effect, and the display of enthusiasm and vitality as the elements of the whole story conversion.

Regarding the conversion process of product design phase, this step is to correspond the selected product categories and conversion attribute elements together to the three levels of culture [29]. After sorting these, the ultimate design sketch is formulated. The products related to interesting table lighting are chosen. The imagery characteristics of the merchandise include geometric circular composition, the holding hands effect, the flickering of the human-shaped lights, and the promotion of the emotions and topics among friends and relatives at dinner, etc. Additionally, the transformation elements of the story theme consist of a circular surrounding, holding hands and dancing rituals, campfire lighting effects, and the display of enthusiasm and vitality. These correspond to the three levels of cultural attributes, namely the tangible and visible external levels, the interactive behavioral intermediate level, and the invisible spiritual internal level, as shown in Figure 14.

5.

Design procedure of the “Business” stage

The fifth stage is “Business”, specifically the design assessment step. The results of this stage influence the industrial design and consumer orientation. In this step, the design reflection, optimized product, illustration of the iteration, and renewal of the product are conducted. Moreover, the researchers should select and integrate semantically feasible specific shapes. For the purposes of future development and production, the researchers should also focus on the feasibility of production and technology when evaluating design to examine the maturity and rationality of the design concept through evaluation. In this way, the product is evaluated based on two criteria, which are the expectations of product design that consumers emphasize when purchasing cultural and creative products, as well as the standard of general products in design competitions [58,59]. The purpose of these practices is to achieve design reflection, as shown in Figure 15.

4.2. Animation, Cultural, and Creative Design of the “Wind Lion God”

The main purpose of this phase of research is to combine mythology and legends in order to transform the classic mythological images into animation-based cultural and creative works. These transformations should possess new vitality and artistic value through the creative design teaching under the design thinking of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness”. We took the mythical character “Wind Lion God” as the research object and conducted the design research in four steps: from the systematic analysis of cultural data to the extraction of attributes, to the exploration of the design cycle, and finally to the formulation of the design concept. As such, a process encompassing how to extract cultural elements, turning them into cultural symbols, and presenting the product shape was completed [41,60].

4.2.1. “Tao”—Set a Scenario

At the beginning of the discussion regarding design objectives, students and faculty jointly discussed and clarified the positioning of the cultural product, and formulated the emphasis of initial design requirements. A questionnaire survey was set up to investigate the cultural characteristics and product types of this mythological image. From the survey results, the researchers learned that this content in regards to special connotations, cultural traits, texture, shape, storytelling, color, and other factors, is an important attribute for the audience to appreciate animation-based cultural and creative design.

Subsequently, the researchers explored the presentation of the attributes of product culture from the level of cultural space [29,61]. First, the researchers understood and analyzed the context of the mythology of the “Wind Lion God” from the literal level and inspected it from its sources in the ancient literature. Secondly, the researchers further analyzed and summarized the deeper special implications of the myth of the “Wind Lion God” from the meaning level. Thirdly, the researchers extracted and summarized the core mythological features of the incarnation of the “Wind Lion God”, i.e., the mythological warrior Chiyou from the intangible level. Its features include the brave and warlike image, as well as the mythological function of exorcising evil spirits, as shown in Figure 16.

4.2.2. “Vessel”—Tell a Story

In combining the textual data analyzed above, within this stage the picture data of the “Wind Lion God”, which was collected from various places such as southern Fujian, eastern Guangdong, Anping, Taiwan, and the Ryukyu Islands, was classified and sorted. The basic features of the Wind Lion God are outlined in terms of mythological characteristics, mythological function, physical features, face shape, facial expression, decorative details, and color style, as shown in Figure 17.

4.2.3. “Change”—Write a Script

In this phase, exploring the style and shape of the “Wind Lion God” design and incorporating attributes such as color, texture, structure, surface ornamentation, detailing, composition, structural relationships, special implications, storytelling, character personality, cultural traits, functionality into the design, and drawing creative drafts were all developed [60]. Moreover, in this stage, consideration to product semantics and corresponding the attributes to the character characteristics context individually through creative devices, in the design, such as metaphor, simile, and symbol, was conducted [42]. Finally, we formed creative ideas from the analysis of many cultural features, complete concept sketches, and found a better conversion context to meet the initial audience appreciation requirements [62]. For instance, at the level of the mythological characteristics, the armor implies brave and warlike traits; at the level of the mythological function, the texture of gourds and bells on the clothes connote its function of exorcising evil spirits; at the level of character personality, the grinning reveals the warm and friendly character, but the hard teeth on both sides imply the mighty and fierce aspect of the mythological warrior Chiyou; at the level of color style, the red cloth ties the body and the emerald green armor reflects the character’s function of keeping peace and wealth, as shown in Figure 18.

4.2.4. “Comprehensiveness”—Design a Product

This phase is mainly for designing products, thinking about design conversion and design presentation. It is a process through which the design concept is visualized through text and draft descriptions, as shown in Figure 19. Before the design is finalized, the researchers explore new possibilities of the product based on the conversion of design thinking, as well as the diversified handling of angle, style, and detail [63]. Further, the researchers use modern technology in order to model and render the “Wind Lion God”. In this process, the researchers make diversified attempts, such as single-line flat painting, vector style, ink style, and other abstract processing, which brings cultural vitality into the product. Finally, in this case, the image of the “Wind Lion God” was selected. It was dressed in red–green armor, with a grinning face. This was in addition to the design possessing cloud stripes, gourds, bells, and other accessory elements. These characteristics of the design entail that the role of the product is flexible and versatile, brave and warlike. Its open mouth implies the function of summoning wind and the calling for rain. Further, its traditional pattern elements comply with the characteristics of the Chinese art modeling. These endow the viewer with the aesthetic experience of Chinese aesthetics. The research finally takes three-dimensional shape in presenting the role of the “Wind Lion God”, thereby providing new possibilities for the subsequent development of product functionality.

5. Conclusions

As the core of this research, the teaching model of cultural and creative design under “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness” illustrates the implementation of the design teaching procedure. This model starts from the four steps of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness” and completes the integration of teaching cultural and creative design to the industry through teaching methods, which includes presentation, discovery, practice, reinforcement, and reflection, as shown in Figure 20. With the above practices and exercises, the feasibility of this design process is discussed.

First, the phase of “Tao” aims at sorting cultural data into information, discussing design consensus, understanding cultural products, and reflecting on the design requirements. Specifically, at the beginning of the design process, the researchers understand the real needs of the target product and focus on the generalization of cultural characteristics. At the same time, the researchers envision the cultural attributes suitable for conversion into product design, inspect the genre of products with cultural characteristics, and focus on cultural product requirements in terms of form, function, and spirit.

Secondly, the stage of “Vessel” focuses on analyzing and summarizing information in order to form knowledge. It regards three aspects as the teaching content. These are formulating target groups, describing usage situations, and establishing the design specifications. Specifically, this stage is regarding the extraction of core issues during the design process. The process starts from the analysis of cultural characteristics and the description of cultural attributes. Next, the categories and context of the designed product are explored, as well as the characteristics that may be developed in the semantics of the product. Then, the cultural attributes and characteristics in the form of list are also explored.

Thirdly, the phase of “Change” mainly transforms knowledge into creativity. It entails the conducting of an analysis of cultural characteristics, the connection of the product context, and the selection of suitable concepts, such as contents. Then, the practical teaching creation by means of metaphor, allusion, metonymy, and simulation is conducted. Specifically, this phase provides actionable specific models for practice. It takes the application of product semantics as a method to link the cultural messages conveyed by the product in order to visualize the design concept with attributes.

Fourth, the stage of “Comprehensiveness” mainly entails converting creativity into intelligent value. Here, the execution of the design and the proposal of the design finalization as content, the conducting of culture transformation, structuring transformation, and connotation conversion are all completed. The cultural characteristics are expressed using color, texture, surface ornamentation, lines, details, composition of components, modeling, etc. The design concept includes the handling of functionality, structure, safety, operation, and bonding relationships, as well as where the design incorporates connotation, storytelling, and emotion into appropriate products in order to reinforce the creative design process. Ultimately, the design embraces the depth and breadth of the culture it originates from.

Finally, the evaluation and reflection stage of the industry applies the teaching achievements to the consideration of industry so as to deepen the integration of industry and education. This stage is an evaluation survey of the cultural product design from the consumer’s side, as well as a preliminary assessment of the possibility of product improvement and mass production. In addition, the basis for evaluation may refer to the communication model proposed by linguist Jakobson [47], which summarizes six factors that make up the communication process and describe the flow of messages between distributors and recipients.

Specifically, this research discusses the issue of modern art education by drawing on the eastern philosophical thinking of the “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness” in the Book of Changes. This provides a new methodological guidance for solving the problem, which is valuable for guiding the theory and practice of contemporary cultural and creative design education. Second, by recognizing and understanding the dialectical relationship between “Tao”, “Vessel”, “Change”, and “Comprehensiveness”, this research brings this concept into creative design teaching as a consensus. Likewise, it guides contemporary talents in design practices, allowing them to form innovative ideas and design methods with philosophical connotations based on Chinese philosophical thinking. Additionally, this research constructs a teaching model of cultural and creative design with Chinese philosophical outlook, forming a design teaching concept unique to Chinese, thus promoting the inheritance and development of Chinese culture in design, enhancing the soft power of cultural communication, and gradually developing the aesthetic cultural economy.

In this research, traditional Chinese thinking with modern design experience was subtly combined. The intrinsic thoughts of Chinese civilization was explored and were applied innovatively, especially in regard to the systematic research of design education, methods, and concepts, which are required when seeking new ideas and directions for the purposes of modern design teaching. The constructed teaching model not only allows the designer to create design application serving as a basis for cultural product design, but also helps them develop diverse modes of thinking and potential creativity in practice. The design thinking of “Tao, Vessel, Change and Comprehensiveness” highlights the subtle wisdom of the ancients. The design thinking model constructed in this research not only conforms to the traditional view of design, but also innovatively transforms it, with a view to forming an influential Chinese design by combining aspects of Chinese culture and thought. This research provides a scientific basis and systematic method for the purposes of teaching and practice in the field of design. Additionally, it advocates an educational approach combining theory and practice, of which the research findings are expected to bring a new practical guidance significance to the cultivation of talents in regard to cultural and creative design.

6. Limitations and Prospects

In the future, the researchers plan to promote the teaching model constructed in this research to the cultural and creative design teaching. The effectiveness of the model will be examined through the diversity of design applications, and its rationality and operability will be verified through multiple design practices. However, there are still weaknesses in this research, and the current research only cites two case studies for exploration and verification, which is somewhat limited. The researchers will use the model in subsequent courses to conduct design transformations of other cultural assets, such as poetry, Chinese characters, and regional intangible cultural heritage, and verify the effectiveness of the model. Moreover, the researchers will conduct a further in-depth study, taking the teaching process and outcomes of the instructed students as a case study. The purpose is to explore the effectiveness of this teaching method, the cognitive experience of students’ learning, and to summarize the problems that arise in teaching as well as new possibilities for implementing this teaching method. In addition, subsequent research can analyze the marketization of the designed products so as to understand the relevant factors of the audience’s preference and emotional experience for them, and then improve the product design and explore new possibilities of design methods.