CULTURAL SYMBOLS APPLIED IN ICONIC PRODUCT DESIGN – CASE STUDY AT VAN LANG UNIVERSITY

Abstract

Cultural symbols are always associated with a nation's culture. This concept is very broad as cultural symbols can encompass various aspects such as nature, people, mascots, patterns, architecture, habits, and customs...etc. Cultural symbols must be recognized by the community of a particular country and become representative of its culture. In other words, cultural symbols serve as conventions and international identifiers. The article identifies the research objective of addressing the urgent need for identity and symbolic elements in product design. Therefore, adopting interdisciplinary research methods and fieldwork techniques can aid in decoding symbolic elements from a cultural perspective and applying them in design. This approach encourages learners and designers to place greater emphasis on incorporating traditional research into product design, resulting in culturally symbolic products that possess unique identity value in the mass production commercial market