Product Design and Cultural Signs A cultural semiotic approach to understanding IKEA’s design
IKEA is a home products corporation from Sweden that designs and sells well-designed and functional home furnishing products at prices so low that the majority of people will be able to afford them; however, after entering into Chinese market, it involuntarily becomes the identity icon of the petit bourgeoisie class, whose members are relatively affluent in the Chinese context. This paper will analysis the process that the products IKEA designed transform into consumption signs from ordinary commodities from the perspective of Baudrilliard’s theory of code consumption, and will also give interpretation on the features of IKEA’s cultural signs. The misinterpretation of Chinese consumers towards IKEA’s design is explained by two reasons in this article, on one hand, the particular cultural signs of IKEA’s design happen to coincide with the pursuit of certain temperament and interest of Chinese petit bourgeoisies, on the other hand, the consumption situations of Chinese society in transit also matters to a large degree. Such phenomenon will last in Chinese society for a certain period.
IKEA product design cultural signs consumption petit bourgeoisie
Ying Zhan
The School of Arts and Communications Southwest Jiaotong University Chengdu, China
国际会议
浙江义乌
英文
1123-1127
2010-11-17（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）