The Effect of the Transition Design of Artwork to the Purchasing Demand - A Case Study of Apparel Design

Abstract

Under the standard of mass production, how to apply different elements to the apparel in customized space is an issue concerned by the designer. The energy from the artist is inexhaustible. If it can be extended to apply to the apparel, such policy selection shall create the demand of customers. The purpose of this study is to evaluate and compare the effect of the transition design of artwork to the purchasing demand of the customers. There were thirteen apparels chosen and divided into three groups. Except for the art group, which was the test group for the artwork conversion, pop group and memorial group were selected for comparison. From the result of the study, we found that the elements coming from the artwork and converted the design on to the T-shirt having higher demand evaluation in “Artistic atmosphere”, “cultural connotation”, and “special design”. The conclusion was that art group implied more proportion in the demand factor of “souvenir”. In contrast, the basic demand factors such as “figure modification” and “product price” obtained lower evaluation levels. At last, this study offers four proposals including price-oriented mode of production, functional fabrics material value added, joint brand marketing planning and cross-border cooperation in apparel design, and wishes to popularize the art of living through apparel.

1 Introduction

Transferring the poetry with cultural thickness into artistic painting to reflect poetic feeling to people is the artistic conception through “painting” illustrated by artists who construct creative mode to transmit the situational poetry (Lin and Lin 2015). Such creative concept is that the artists, after passing inner transformation, perform the external form of aesthetics on the work. They use the characters codes of the poetry as a bridge to shorten the communication distance between the painters and the viewers. In addition, it contains the depth of the cultural creativeness. If it is transferred into art products, it must have development value with commercial mode. However, the artists take full-time in personal creation and usually they have insufficient knowledge in experiencing the art products and market transactions. The common way they use usually is selling to the customers through gallery or the manager. Therefore, they do not consider concretely how to commercialize the art commodities. And the application of the cultural creativeness is limited to traditional souvenir only (Lin et al. 2016).

Hsieh and Guan (2011) had taken the artists’ works as the subjects and proposed the design mode to transorm the artistic products. Thus, taking the artwork as a media to design the artistic products was becoming a trend of cross-boundary cooperation between the art and the design. By the value exchange between them, the market of artistic products was created. In addition, the reading people could collect artistic products which were more affordable than the original works after enjoying the exhibition of paintings. Thus, it could provide another incoming source for the artists to extend the creation of life.

At present, historical relics from museum or with local characteristic such as aboriginal culture or Hakka culture always become the major research and design objects for the cultural products of apparel. Also, there were observations and discussion (Lu 2011) for the type of apparel design which used the elements of character art and aesthetic feeling. It is seldom to use the mass-production of apparel, through the carrier of conversion work of art, as related study spindle. The purpose of this study, by discussing the art transition design applied in mass-production apparel, is to know if there is any influence of the transition design of artwork to the purchasing demand, to expect the artistic life having broader commodity options and make people dress & walk with good feeling of art.

2 Literature Review

2.1 Way of Artwork Transition Design

Henrik and Vanessa (2008) thought the artwork was not created for functionality, but expressed the human experiences and was ingenious creative work. If the painting was printed on T-shirt or the furniture was designed with artistic sense, then the art would be a kind of integrated product. Therefore, the combination of art and apparel would not damage the appreciation value of the artwork existed alone. Clever conversion and combination could make product and artwork have synergistic effect. On way the artistic aesthetics can be extended to the general public by using the propagation force commodity economy; the other way the product can continue to be innovated through the art. Then the demands of different consumer groups will be satisfied.

Artwork belongs to cultural assets. By utilizing the cultural features and characterization, the artwork could be regarded as the elements for product design. It could promote self-recognition and personalized consumer experience, which was the way (Yair et al. 2001) to highlight local culture under globalization market competition. Hsu and Lin (2014) used the multivariate ethnic and cultural characteristics in Taiwan as the source of creativeness and concept for development. Through the literature review and expert opinion, collecting scenario approach and product semantics, cultural product design program was proposed. Such program constructed three cultural spaces and levels; the factors to be considered in product design were separated as the design properties. These properties are: (1) External or physical level: including color, texture, lines and shape, surface ornamentation, process of details, and components composition; (2) Middle or behavior level: including easy for use, structure, operability of binding relationship, security and functionality; (3) Internal or psychological level: including the special meaning, story and feeling, or cultural characteristics of product, and so on. Such program is the cross-referencing among cultural space, cultural level and cultural products; and it can be referred when cultural products are designed.

For the purpose of applying to the articles in modern life, Yeh (2014) discussed the cultural connotation of traditional and classical poetry. With the emotional demand of modern design and the angle of experiencing the beauty of poetry, she designed and built “the mode of transition design for poetry shape”. Such mode used the discussion of related conception and variations in classical poetry culture to carry out the creative conversion for industry application; and built a bridge foundation for oriental culture and arts and product design. Apparel is just like canvas. The designers can use the platform to express various elements on apparel. By means of the important theory and basis of design conversion, how to execute and practice is the aim of this study.

2.2 Purchasing Demand of Souvenirs

The artwork itself was provided with appreciation value; besides, it had implied value of souvenir when it was transformed into consumer products. Gordon (1986) thought that souvenir was “admission or the admission for getting into the memory”. It has the same function as buying the apparel which printed with artwork. For most of the people liked to recall special time or event of the memory, the souvenir had the reminded effect to express the same feeling or resonate. Littrell et al. (1993) had proposed 8 phases to investigate the truth cognitive research of crafts souvenirs for the tourists. They were (1) uniqueness and originality, (2) manufacturing method, (3) aesthetic sense, (4) functionality and usability, (5) meeting the cultural and historical meaning, (6) manufacturer and material, (7) personal shopping experience, and (8) credibility. The criteria of these phases had considerable relevance with the purchasing intention assessed by the customer. The apparel with artwork transition design had the monumental value. If the same assessment index was used, the significance found by this study might be influenced in certain degree.

2.3 Purchasing Demand of Apparel Design

The difference between the apparel and the clothes with high quality was that the latter was the clothes for one person or few people customized by a tailor. It valued fitness and particularity. However, the apparel (ready-to-wear, apparel, ready-made garments) was done quickly and pre-finished sewing or “Apparel which is done before sold” (Hsiao 1988). Apparel was one of the representatives of the popular products; and popularized by industrial mass production. It would change the design pattern by following different social culture and economic environment and fashion trends. Nowadays, apparel becomes indispensable necessities in daily life.

Le (1997) thought the following factors might influence the quality of apparel, cognitive or impression of the value: epidemic, design details, performance means, main ingredient material, accessories material, structure, work, ease, logos, brand image, after-sales service and so on. On the above factors, brand and after-sales are the business areas of marketing planning. The others are important factors considered in the phase of design and manufacturing. (Chen and Chen 2011) had researched for the demand effect assessment of customers of apparel design. They listed 23 items of demands for assessment from three phases, design expression, sewing work and consumer behavior by using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to calculate the weight. The result showed that the top five evaluated demands, the most important factors for customers, were “design taste and aesthetic sense”, “able to modify figure defect”, “applicability of commodity”, “commodity price”, and “combination offer of commodity” sequentially. For the apparel designers or marketing planning staff, such result offered the reference and basis in evaluating the customer demand factors.

3 Research Methods

To evaluate the purchase demand of the customer for the apparel after conversed the design with artwork and to further understand the difference between the original and the product without design conversed by artwork, we used the three layers of cultural product design proposed by Hsu and Lin (2011) and the top five factors for apparel demand proposed by Chen (2011) plus eight demand elements in souvenirs, the research framework of costume design conversion was integrated and displayed as shown in Fig. 1. Test and comparison research was executed to observe the influence of purchase demand of the customers.

Fig. 1.

The research framework of costume design conversion

3.1 Sample Selection

The range of apparel was complicated and multivariate in many fields such as gender, function, material, category, pattern, age and application. In order to focus on the research of design conversion, we planned to use single item of upper outer garment which was less obvious and highlights design style. In addition, to avoid the interference from style and level of apparel and the pattern and decorative accessories, T-shirt was selected as the sample of this research. Such type of commodity had the features of easy structure and not significant gender in wearing. Most important factor was that it could be easy to mass production and meets the objects and scopes discussed by this research.

This research selected 13 garments as shown in Table 1, divided into three groups. Each group was composed of 4 garments. Except that the art group was transition design of artwork; pop group and souvenirs group were selected for comparison. The commodities of artwork transition design contained four artworks of international famous artists: (A) PIET MONDRIAN, (B) JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT, (C) ANDY WARHOL and (D) PAULA SCHER. And commodities manufactured for that season and designed by general costume designer were selected for the pop group. In which, plain garment without figure or pattern was put into the pop group. Besides, T-shirt which had characteristics of intersection between art group and pop group, often seen in museums or tourist site, was chosen as the comparison group. The 13th garment, maternity dress, was selected for individual comparison due to the special purpose. All of the samples for such research were in mass-production; and they were the commodities which were public in physical store or virtual online store. Because the samples were consuming commodities, so the price would be an important index for further observation. Therefore the prices for these three groups of commodities would be displayed on the samples of the research. The principle of marked price was based on the mean value of market price for each group; consistent price would be made. If promotions or other combination offered caused the price fluctuations, it was beyond the range that this research could control.

Table 1. Commodity research samples

3.2 Questionnaire Design and Testee

The questionnaire contained basic information, description and test questions with the figure of commodities. It was scored by five rating scales. The testees evaluated subjectively the fitting degree of the eight purchasing demands according to thirteen images of garments; one score for Strongly Disagree; five scores for Strongly Agree. Choose three types of commodities that the testees wanted to buy most in sequence. In this research, the testees were divided into two parts: (1) there were 18 experts in design field and web questionnaire was chosen; (2) there were 57 general students from college who finished the questionnaire in the classroom in school. First the testees would be informed about the purpose of the questionnaire. The images and description of the commodities with price marked would be displayed by brief report. Later, the students should fill the questionnaire to evaluate the eight assessment attributes of the commodities. The valid questionnaires included 74, in which 23 for males and 51 for females.

4 Results and Discussion

Table 2 listed the mean value, between 2.91 and 3.52, for eight demand assessment for the whole testees. The mean value was 3.20. The standard deviation for all items was smaller than 1, which meaned the opinion of the testees under such structure was consistent.

Table 2. Results of the customers demand

4.1 Comparison for the Demand Items in Purchasing Apparel

Figure 2 was drawn by using different line sections for comparison according to the related information from Table 3. The difference among three groups was made through the analysis and comparison. From Fig. 2, it was obviously that except the item of “wear and use it frequently” had closer differences, the remaining items had significant differences. Table 3 listed relevant information of comparing apparel categories with three different design conversions, briefly introduced below:

Fig. 2.

Comparison of demand assessment for three groups of commodities

Table 3. Relevant information for three groups of commodities

• 1. The mean value for artistic atmosphere for art group was 3.53. It met that artwork, after converted to apply in apparel design, still kept the advantage of art vision. The second was 3.33 (memorial group) and the last was 2.99 (pop group). From here, we found that the reputation of the artist and the artwork with expensive price converted on T-shirt definitely could establish the vision of art appreciation for the customers. If cross-matching for “artistic atmosphere” and “price” with these three groups, the order of “price acceptance” for them would be pop group (3.96), memorial group (3.02) and art group (2.12) sequentially. The interesting thing was that the testee generally did not agree with T-shirt with high price. Though “artistic atmosphere” for art group obtained high rating, yet the high price of the artwork would not reflect on the price of the apparel equally. It also explained the customers understood the price of T-shirt. No big difference occurred due to the converted design with artwork or other figure. From the view point of complete competition market, no matter website online shopping or purchasing via traditional channel, the design value of the T-shirt added by brand business would be never stopped. High quality with low price became the normality of the market. Therefore, under the multi-choice of the customer, the high acceptance of price of the pop group was the inevitable result in competition.

• 2. If viewing the point of “design is tasteful”, the mean value for “Art group” (3.32) equaled to the “Memorial group” (3.33), which was higher than the “Pop group” (3.11). The definition of design taste might be changed due to trend or preference of customers and it was subjective assessment. From the evaluation in terms of scores, the “Art group” expressed personal style of the artist; the “Memorial group” must fit the subject of tourism or sightseeing. Topics for both groups might have consistency. If the material of the design came from artwork or landscape feature, the reputation of the material might influence the judge of the testee on the design taste. That the evaluation for both groups would be the same and be higher than the “Pop group”.

• 3. If viewing the point of “cultural connotation”, the mean value for three groups would be “Memorial group” (3.70), “Art group” (3.44) and “Pop group” (3.07) in sequence. If classified by commodity function, the products of memorial group had the concept of souvenir. The design idea was based on landscape feature which was used to express the local culture or popular culture to satisfy the request of the customer. However, art group expressed the unique style of the artist. It implied cultural and historical background. It was an age of painting, also is the model of art. The cultural thickness is undoubtedly. Therefore the evaluation for memorial group and art group would be higher.

• 4. If viewing the point of “increase aesthetic sense”, the mean value for “Pop group” (3.10) was higher than “Art group” (3.02) and “Memorial group” (2.95). The biggest function of the apparel was to let the people have characteristics such as young, vivid, thin, handsome, beautiful, and so on. They were important factors of apparel that people chose to purchase. Therefore, the products of pop group would ingratiate the market demand. To the supplier of apparel, the proportion for “wearing to increase aesthetic feeling” must be higher than other groups. In addition, due to the limitation of material in design, the evaluation of aesthetic feeling for the memorial group was low.

• 5. If viewing the point of “wear and use it frequently”, the mean value for three groups would be “Pop group” (3.11), “Art group” (2.90) and “Memorial group” (2.75) in sequence. Sample selected in this research was the single product of T-Shirt. The style of such product was simple structured without big change. It would be suitable for artwork or other totem printed on it. Hence, on the market, many museums and tourist places would make T-shirt as the souvenir. As a result, it had high memorial nature but not be put on frequently. So the evaluation for Art group and Memorial group was the lowest. Apparel popular in season must accept the high test in the market and focus on the demands of the customer in changing and innovating. Thus, it would focus on applicability requirements.

4.2 Comparison for the Commodities that You Most Want to Purchase

From thirteen products, selected three of products based on purchasing intention. After classified and added up, they could be distributed and shown as Table 4. Overall, F(15.3 %), D(14.0 %), I(10.8 %) and J(10.8 %) were the ones that people would like to purchase. If classified by gender, D(16.9 %), I(20.0 %) and L(10.8 %) were the ones that men wanted; F(17.9 %), D(12.8 %) and J(12.8 %) were the ones that women wanted. The only one that men and women liked was D. The product design of PAULA SCHER was conversed by painter and art educator. The sequence for these three commodities counted in accordance with purchase intention would be art group, memorial group and pop group. The most popular commodity was F(15.3 %) for the pop group of Disney product. The least popular commodity was K(1.8 %) for the memorial group of auspicious product released by Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing. Both were designed with traditional totem. It could be inferred that the design of F style tends to be cute and lovable, with famous figure on the product of T-shirt. Additionally, it was relevant that the majority of testees were female.

Table 4. Products that people most want to buy

5 Conclusions and Suggestions

In recent years, influenced by large and international apparel chain brand set such as ZARA, H&M, UNIQLO, GAP, and the competition of low-priced apparel from China, the apparel industry in Taiwan was facing the severe test. Observing from the consumer’s point of view, if people could have high-quality and diversity of choice, then such challenge would be healthy competition for promoting the customer’s value. The purpose of this research, by using the direction of multi-material, expected to create customer’s demand and discussed the demand assessment influence of the customer due to the apparel with design conversed with artwork. The research structure basis was made according to the literature document; then built the customer assessment index to meet the apparel demand index. Thirteen items were selected and divided into three apparel commodities with different design and materials. The purpose of this research shall be analyzed and confirmed via questionnaire.

The result showed that the element coming from the artwork was converted as a design in T-shirt. The demand assessment for “I think it has artistic atmosphere”, “I think it has cultural connotation”, and “I think the design is special” was higher. It could be inferred that such kind of commodity implied proportion of “souvenir” with more demand factors. But, the level of demand assessment for the basic apparel of “Wearing can modify the figure” and “ I can accept the price” was lower. Therefore in addition to satisfying the economies scale and price problem in manufacturing, the design plan was more important if we wanted to make artistic life popularly via apparel. Below listed some observations and proposals:

• 1. Price-oriented mode of production: Though machines were helpful for manufacturing apparel, yet the sewing work still could not replace human processing. So, labor-intensive still could not be broken away. To effectively reduce the cost and the selling price, in the field of apparel technology, the manufacturing of T-shirt was easy and suitable for mass-production. Due to less change in style, the transferred printing for applying the artwork design on the apparel played the key role. Combining modern technology, the printing technique expressed the art of the culture and the beauty of the apparel. As said by Lin (2014), it reflected “considering the tradition and ancient time; transferring into modern elegance”.

• 2. Functional fabrics material value added: For the style change in T-Shirt is less, it might be better if value can be added onto the material of the cloth and embraced with artwork topic. For example, artwork with environmental awareness could match with yarn recycled from styrofoam. Artwork with natural water and mountain could join with cool feeling yarn or warm yarn. Even the apparel series with pure cotton also could be made by using organic cotton. Under the policy of value added but price not increased, the purchasing intention for people would be increased.

• 3. Joint brand marketing planning: The brand factor was excluded in this research for everyone knew it would influence the purchase intention in various fields of commodities. The cooperation of apparel brand and the artist was just like the combination of culture and the industry. At present, the international famous brand, e.g., Uniquo, had similar commodity plan and that was worthy to learn

• 4. Cross-border cooperation in apparel design: Trend of fashion and the textile technology were the important factors to be referred in apparel design plan. But the cooperation of artwork and the artist was few. If art and culture could be integrated into the apparel industry, such kind of apparel business might become one of new creative industries due to the art authorized.

If apparel, just like canvas, can make artist enjoy playing, and beautiful patterns or harmonious colors can be expressed while people wear and move, then the target of artistic life or life art can be spread through the perfect combination of apparel with high usage and exposure. This is the largest motivation of this study. The age of making quantity instead of quality in the market of apparel in Taiwan had gone for a long time. If brand business is fabulous to many SMEs, then original intention of exploring customer needs shall be the unchanged strategy.