Modern Gift Packaging Design Viewed from Traditional Gift-giving Behavior (I)

A German philosopher Cassirer even more in the ontological sense: People are the animals of symbols. Humans need to communicate with each other and understand each other in their activities. Then, what is the medium of communication and understanding? In a word, symbols. Symbols in our lives are everywhere - the concepts behind language, painting, music, text, and words, and even the various life forms and activities of people, and so on. Various concepts involving people's inheritance and exchange of knowledge can be attributed to symbols. In the category, every thing in the real world is reflected in the spiritual world of human beings and may be symbolized.

1 Symbolism of traditional gift giving

A gift behavior is a kind of behavior symbol. It is an expression of the symbol itself. The actor uses the gift to convey the thought process and conclusion to the audience and achieve the communication of the social relationship; in other words, the audience is also through the action of the actor and Gifts, as evidenced by their own experience, ultimately understand the thoughts and feelings that the actor wishes to express. It can be said that symbols are tools for expressing thoughts and feelings.

As a kind of behavior symbol, the gift behavior has a certain breadth and depth in daily life, especially in the traditional life behavior. It has a structural connection with all life content. In Chinese society, taking a person's life as an example, his life will be connected with the social level and the family level. There is a geographical and occupational relationship in the society, and there is a kinship and kinship in the family. Every kind of life occasion, each year of the season, each social class is directed at each different social object gifts are accompanied by different forms of gifts, content, numbers, colors, auspicious symbols and even greetings and Behavior rules, etc. From birth to the end of his life, he spent all his life with gifts. It can be seen that donation is not an accidental and individual phenomenon, but a stable, universal and widespread social life phenomenon, and it is also a dynamic symbol.

2 The performance of traditional gift giving in daily life

In Chinese customs, gifts and rites form a fairly complete system of behavior, which has continued to be accompanied by the daily life of all walks of life. The most common ones are gifts when you are old, gifts of life and customs, gifts for people, etc.

(1) Gift at the age of

In spring, summer, autumn, and old age, there are different gifts for different seasons. During the Ching Ming, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Chung Yeung, and New Year's Eve, people gave gifts of various age-old gifts such as spring plates, clever clams, moon cakes, chongyang cakes, and pepper and wine, and the annual season became a gift distributed throughout the four seasons of the year.

(2) Life etiquette gifts

Births, marriages, children, all year round have become four dense areas of ritual gifts. People use various kinds of “painful rituals” and “promotional rituals” to give red eggs to express good news, brown sugar and hens to congratulate children; there are set parents to give gifts when setting up relatives, and various kinds of tokens to give gifts when lovers exchange their love; The jujube, peanuts, longan and other things presented him with joy and wished the couple a good old age. When the life is getting older, when they reach the birthday of Gao Shou, the children and grandchildren of the younger generation will give gifts and congratulations; when the old man comes to an end, there are gifts of gifts and gifts to the deceased. Pray for the bereaved.

(3) Interpersonal gifts

Gifts Between Neighbors: Gifts Between Classmates: Gifts Between Teachers And Students; Employers' Gifts In Business Activities: Gifts Between Colleagues. All these years of age gifts, gifts of life rituals, and interpersonal gifts constitute a complete gift system and become a behavioral symbol.

3 Inheritance of Modern Gift Packaging and Gifting

3.1 Current status of modern gift packaging

In the process of people choosing commodities, there is an increasing emphasis on the products that are developed according to people's needs. That is gift packaging. As one of the important media for modern interpersonal communication, the social value of gifts is playing a subtle change and has its social psychology foundation. In contemporary urban life, the relationship between people is greatly indifferent, and the center of social interaction between people and people shifts from bloodlines to geopolitical borders or occupational relationships. Under such a psychological background, the need for gift exchanges has greatly increased.

With the large amount of gifts for people, gift packaging design has also been correspondingly developed, including the development of the technical direction of processing technology, packaging materials, transportation means, etc., as well as the social psychology and social and viewpoints of people on gifts. Development, gift packaging in the concept of people "wasting, cumbersome packaging," the impression is gradually changing.

The development of the gift industry on the one hand led to the specialization of gift packaging and on the other hand, gift packaging became part of the gift itself. People not only use their physical functions to express their emotions, but also use gift packages to strengthen their emotions. At this time, the gift package has been directly integrated with the purpose of the gift itself. It is not an accessory of the gift, but has become an important part of the gift. From its original function of first nature, it is translated into “communication and interpersonal relations” as its first purpose, that is, its first purpose. China has an old saying: “a thousand miles of sending goose feathers and ritual lightness and affection.” Explain profoundly the two There is a relationship between the two who are in contact and different from each other.

3.2 The relationship between traditional gifts and modern gift packaging

Courtesy gifts have a very regular pattern of social behavior, with unwritten conventions. Different social strata, the mode of giving gifts and the gifts are also different. Due to these rituals and customs caused a large number of modern social life needs of gifts, the formation of a consumer culture. Traditional gift giving is the historical condition for the development of modern gifts, and it is also the cultural basis for gift packaging design.

In modern social communication activities, different gifts and rituals are accompanied at all times. These behaviors cause people to have a large demand for objects and gifts, and according to different modes of gift behavior, the requirements for the gifts themselves and the packaging of gifts are also different. . Under the premise of modern gift packaging's first “communication and interpersonal relationship”, we study the characteristics and structure of the gift behavior symbol, the existing convention system in the social life, and the psychology of the gifter and the gifted person. And physiological needs to consider the form of gift packaging design. The traditional gift-giving behavior provides a platform for modern gift packaging design to meet the psychological needs of gift consumers.