Research on product formal design based on style description

This paper presents a style description method for product form design. Designers, as designated `form-givers´, are expected to understand the essence of formal styles and the skill how to give sensitive, intentional style to the artifacts they design. Firstly, this paper investigates the essence of formal style, including its definition, function, structure and components. Secondly, a style description method for product form design is proposed. This method builds on the concepts of stylistic features and formal elements. Through semantic differential analysis, factor analysis, multidimensional scaling analysis, morphological analysis etc, the relationships between each style and formal element was concluded. This issue can help designers to understand different styles deeply and to design a product customer expected.