A Study on the Modern Design Transformation Pathway of Traditional Auspicious Motifs Based on the FCCS Framework

Against the growing emphasis on the creative transformation and innovative development of traditional Chinese culture, auspicious motifs on ceramics have been widely adopted in cultural and creative products, brand identity systems, and digital media design. However, many contemporary design practices remain limited to the direct reproduction of traditional graphic forms, often overlooking the coordinated relationships among visual form, color, composition, and cultural meaning. As a consequence, traditional motifs are frequently reduced to superficial visual symbols, weakening their cultural significance and limiting their effectiveness in contemporary design. To address this issue, this study investigates auspicious motifs on ceramics from the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong periods of the Qing Dynasty from the perspective of design semiotics. Based on theories of design semiotics and visual grammar, an FCCS analytical framework comprising Form, Color, Composition, and Semantic is developed. A total of 70 representative ceramic samples were systematically analyzed using standardized coding and comparative analysis to identify recurring patterns in the visual language of traditional auspicious motifs. The results reveal that Qing Dynasty ceramic auspicious motifs constitute an integrated visual semiotic system in which the four FCCS dimensions function collaboratively rather than independently. Although the visual characteristics of motifs vary across the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong periods, stable relationships among form, color, composition, and cultural semantics are consistently maintained. These findings demonstrate that the contemporary transformation of traditional motifs should preserve both their visual identity and cultural meaning instead of relying solely on graphic simplification or stylistic imitation. Based on these findings, this study proposes an FCCS-guided design transformation pathway consisting of four sequential stages: cultural decoding, visual extraction, structural reconstruction, and design re-encoding. The proposed framework provides a systematic analytical method for investigating traditional visual culture and offers practical guidance for the contemporary application of ceramic auspicious motifs in cultural and creative products, branding, packaging, digital media, and other design contexts.