The relationship between Chinese character elements and logo design

In modern logo design, the use of Latin characters can be said to be overwhelming. But Chinese characters, which are the elements of logo design, have been "coldly treated" in modern logo design. As modern designers, we should keep the distinctive national characteristics, and combine the national tradition with the spirit of the times, inherit the wisdom of our ancestors, and create logo works with both national characteristics and the spirit of the times.

I. The Concept and Origin of Logo

Modern logo design is a kind of mass communication symbol composed of special words or images, and its basic function is to convey the information with graphics, express its inner quality and characteristics, and use it as a medium of communication. It draws on and utilizes the original symbols and gives them a higher artistic height. Modern logo design is the carrier of high capacity of human civilization and the epitome of human culture. Throughout history, from the primitive society's mark to the totem, from the Shang and Zhou hieroglyphic symbols to the Qin and Han seals, and from the Tang and Song fronts to the westernized symbols of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, these changes in the logo have reflected the historical and cultural conditions of the whole society at that time.

Primitive symbols are a kind of visual language created for the need of communication and record keeping since the beginning of human records. Tribal totems in primitive society, symbols and marks on handicrafts can be said to be the germ of modern logo design. These signs, marks and symbols are not purely decorative patterns, but full of tribal beliefs and traditional concepts, condensing certain motives and purposes of primitive people, reflecting the content and various meanings of social history. Philosopher E. Cassirer said that the reason why man is the "spirit of all things" is that he creates "symbols". The famous American artist Walter Malles once said: "When an object is first made for the purpose of survival, it is created to fulfill a practical function, and decoration is secondary and dispensable. But at a later stage, when one has more leisure for refinement, he feels the need to perfect the object, and to add his personal stamp to give it a personal character."

The Formation of Graphic Characteristics of Chinese Characters

Characters, as the written symbols of language, are an effective means of transmitting information and exchanging emotions. It is the crystallization of national wisdom, and it is only after a long period of evolution and evolution that it has taken the mature form it has today. At present, there are two major types of characters that are still in use in the world: ideographic characters and alphabetic characters. Chinese characters are the representative of ideographic characters, and Latin characters are the representative of phonetic characters. However, only Chinese characters, while possessing the basic elements of writing, have been endowed with the function of decorative symbols, i.e., the aesthetic function, which is beyond their utility. This is especially true of the ancient hieroglyphic characters and folk combinations. Chinese characters have been characterized by graphic features from the very beginning of their creation. At the beginning of ignorance, human beings did not know how to use language and writing, and when they wanted to express their feelings, record the course of events and communicate with each other, they could only resort to auxiliary means, such as physical objects, knotted ropes, chiseled carvings and drawings, and so on. In terms of its role and the effect produced, the picture is the most perfect of all forms. It is a copy of the objective thing, with a considerable degree of self-explanatory ability, can leave the human memory and interpretation, and independently convey some kind of information. Pictures temporarily became an effective means of communication, but also set the starting point and trajectory of early human writing, that is, the form of writing with pictures as the basic symbols.

Third, the application of Chinese characters in modern design

Graphic design is a visual art, and Chinese characters are one of the important elements of graphic design, which have the role of indication and description of identification. The graphic character of Chinese characters further expands its function so that it can also serve as a graphic element. Mere graphics are greatly enriched by the addition of Chinese characters to the language of design.

Chinese characters as graphic elements have a dual nature, which is more expressive and visually impactful than simple graphics. Firstly, the meaning of the character itself is the most clear and persuasive, which has the characteristics of accuracy and directness of information transmission; secondly, the graphic characteristics of Chinese characters make it possible for Chinese characters to be conveyed from the meaning of the character to the graphic communication, and they have strong plasticity. For example, in graphic design, it is possible to arrange Chinese characters in various ways: either as a surface, spreading out the whole article; or as a shape, changing with the outer contour of the graphic; or as a line, flowing freely.

Chinese characters, while having all the characteristics of graphics, also have something that graphics cannot replace and express. This is especially prominent in logo design. Logo is a symbolic, conceptualized visual symbol, the most concise and abstract language, which can express complex and profound connotations. The deep cultural heritage of Chinese characters itself has been purified and simplified in the process of evolution. Both of them have the same point of **** (i.e. they are both highly abstract conceptual symbols), which makes Chinese characters the most suitable design element for logo design except for graphics.

In life, the graphic features of Chinese characters are more and more emphasized and explored, and widely used in logo design. For example, the logo design of "Bank of China": first of all, the author used the unique ancient Chinese coins as the main body of the logo. Seeing such a round coin with a square hole, one would naturally associate it with China. The character "中" also represents the meaning of China, and the vertical pen breaks off in the middle of the character "口", surrounded by a square circle, forming an ancient round square-hole coin, which alludes to the meaning of currency circulation, and is concise and highly recognizable. Similarly, the logo of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) is also similar, the logo of the word "work" is designed as a hollow character, traced around the outline of the font, disconnected at both ends and the background color into a whole, reflecting the meaning of circulation. Formally symmetrical but not dull, virtual and real, rich in contrast, both Chinese characters and graphics.