BCP Social Sciences & Humanities HADC 2023 Volume 22 (2023) 105 Analyze the Study of Expressionism in the Field of Visual Communication Design -- Taking Munch's Painting "The Scream" as an Example Miao Guo *, Zidi Guo, Jing Pan, Qing Pi College of Art and Design, Wuhan Textile University, Hubei, China Abstract. Expressionism is a complex term with different meanings in different periods. When we think of Expressionism, we think of the trend of French Impressionism, or of a wave of art in Germany and Austria in the early 20th century. The term Expressionism has a wide connotation and can include many painters. The Expressionist works represented by Munch's "The Scream" in this paper have played an active role in promoting the development of Expressionism and made an important contribution to contemporary art. Today, with the diversified development of contemporary art, it is possible to analyze the field of design from the perspective of Expressionism and explore the development characteristics suitable for visual communication design. In this paper, the influence of Expressionism on visual communication design is explained, starting from the color expression and artistic characteristics of Expressionism. Keywords: Expressionism; Scream; Design. 1. Introduction In the mid to late 19th century, German thinkers and aestheticians developed theories that led to a brief flourishing of the Neo-Expressionist movement. In today's design, there are many visual effects that have their roots in a different era. Modern expression is no longer an artistic trend, but a cross- cultural one, with influences ranging from art, literature, music, theater, architecture, and more. Expressionist painters were expressing their own emotional experiences rather than real life. Here, the author tries to find a suitable method and expression for contemporary design from the representative of Expressionism, Munch's The Scream. 2. Expressionism Expressionism is an important branch of contemporary art. The term "Expressionism" is often used to describe a style of painting and drawing developed by Germans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in opposition to academic traditions, which took hold of literary and artistic production in Europe and the United States from the early 20th century to the 1930s. After the First World War, Germany and Austria became the most popular countries. It first appeared in the art world, and then made great progress in music, literature, theater, and film. Expressionism means that the painter focuses his work on expressing his feelings and neglects the form of the depicted object, thus often abstracting and distorting reality. This technique is particularly suitable for expressing horror, and thus there are few expressionist works with joyful themes [1]. In terms of creation, they are not content to imitate the objective, but to express it in its own essence; it needs to break with the description of human actions and circumstances of existence in order to expose the human mind; the request is no longer just to describe the ephemeral and accidental, but to show its permanent nature. It has had a great influence on poetry, fiction and drama. Most of his poems are about his hatred of the noise of the city, its chaos, degradation and evil, and his propaganda for a "universal humanity". They are characterized by a lack of attention to detail and a strong expression of subjective spirit and inner emotion. "Expressionism" was a trend in art that focused on expressing one's subjective feelings and personal emotions, exaggerating, deforming and even expressing one's pain in a grotesque way, considering subjectivity as the only truth, denying the objectivity of reality, and opposing the purpose of art. It was a social and cultural crisis and spiritual confusion, which was especially evident and BCP Social Sciences & Humanities HADC 2023 Volume 22 (2023) 106 strong during the years of turmoil.[2] The cultural and artistic traditions of the Nordic countries seem to have had some important elements of Expressionist culture for a long time: the Germanic barbarian art and painting of early Europe, the neo-Gothic art of medieval France, the Bautz art of Renaissance Spain and the painting during the Renaissance Bruegel, all show a clear expressionist color. German philosophy was an important and important source of Chinese expressionist culture in the 20th century, and it was first formed by the direct decision of the German philosophy of social reality, and it was gradually shaped by multiple factors such as Nietzsche's philosophy of subjective idealism, Freud's psychoanalytic philosophical theory and Steiner's mystical doctrine. German philosophers and aestheticians of the late 19th century put forward the doctrine of "Expressionism", which promoted the development of "Expression". The Norwegian-French painter Simonek had a direct and important influence on the German Abstract Expressionist style, and his oil paintings have their distinctive elements of artistic expression. All of his important exhibitions played an important and catalytic role in the continued development of German Expressionist art. One of the most representative works is Munch's solo exhibition "The Scream". 3. Shout The Scream" is a series of paintings on wood panel by the Dutch painter Edvard Munch from Norway around 1893 A.D. There are four versions of the paintings published as follows: the first Dutch version of the painting, created around 1893 A.D. The first version of the painting was used as a painted egg on wood panel. The second version, painted around 1893 A.D., was first used as a colored wax wood panel; the third version, painted around 1895 B.C., was a colored pastel wood panel; and the fourth version was an oil painting on wood panel with colored eggs [3]. The initial inspiration for Munch's paintings came from the day when he was walking alone on a country road near the Oslo highway and suddenly felt a sudden burst of tension in his heart, and then he put pen to paper and conceived the idea that this must be an excellent painting that would be known for centuries to come. The four diagrams are all about a main character who is walking slowly at night to the edge of a cliff on a certain path, and when he looks up, he suddenly feels a very frightened and panicked look in his heart because he sees a sudden change back to a bright green red sky in the middle of the day, and the man in the painting suddenly opens and closes his long mouth and covers his bloody sky is like a shaking tuning fork with a ribbon. The use of bright, natural colors for the characters in "The Scream" is largely consistent with the characters' natural familiarity with this natural scene. The natural colors of the lake, the sky, the trees, the leaves and the soil are mostly exaggerated and distorted by some exaggerated techniques, resulting in a good visual representation of nature. The whole color palette seems serene and melancholy: a heavy red floating above the vast sky, foreshadowing an omen of uncertainty. At this time, the bright red color of the sky is reflecting with the deep purple-red color of the deep ocean; the color of the sea is getting darker and darker. In the shadow of the ocean, his clothes constantly appear purple, and his pale palms and head formed a strong contrast, giving a strong visual impact. In the lines of the picture, the winding curves of the blue sky and the river form a sharp contrast with the thick and straight slanting lines of the bridge in the foreground. This strong contrast makes the whole work full of rough and intense rhythm. All the forms are preparing for the mournful scream. Munch expresses sight and hearing through visual means, he turns the silent wailing and despair into tangible vibrations, and this change is the figuration of sound. The main figure in this entire painting is the face of a young man with an extremely tense and painful expression, set against a large number of blood splashes. In Munch's eyes, the fjords of Oslo are filled with shivering visions of blood-red, giving a chilling sensation. Munch's use of color in "The Scream" is consistent with the visual realism of natural color, but its expression of emotion is extremely exaggerated, forming a strong contrast with the brushwork of the bridge, and the depression, anxiety, and loneliness of Munch's works are rendered to the fullest.[4]. The Scream" is the voice of Munch's heart, and before he finished the song, he had screamed five times, each time at the top of his lungs, the original silence becoming clearer in the distorted lines BCP Social Sciences & Humanities HADC 2023 Volume 22 (2023) 107 and colors. The clear expression of the theme of "The Scream" gives the viewer an atmosphere of terror into which those who appreciate art can easily immerse themselves, experiencing Monk's inner cries, and his loneliness [5]. Munch's "The Scream" does not describe the horror in concrete terms, but rather expresses it in an abstract way. The wooden bridge crosses in the middle, dividing the picture into two different spaces, the front is the main content of the painting: the protagonist is scared like a straw, swaying in the breeze, compared with the boat above, it is a world of difference. Behind the protagonist appeared two people, although also a front and a leaning back, but the three people are like a world apart, there is no intersection. The wooden bridge not only divides the content of the bridge into two parts, but also deliberately separates the warm and cold colors of the bridge. These lines flow and spread wildly in the picture, and the various colors intertwine, giving the illusion of being sucked in. His brushwork is restless and anxious, with a hint of anxiety in its hurry, like a "wind-blown graffiti. [6] At the same time, the high saturation of the colors is a good way to express his emotions. The content of this painting is very simple, using Monk's body to express, Monk covered his ears with his hands to relieve his loneliness, walking through the crowd, Monk was scared out of his mind, he saw the small tower in the distance is very nervous, covered his ears with his hands, so as to relieve his fear, but his action made everyone chilled, even the audience was overcome by his fear. In these four paintings, Munch fully expresses his own complex thoughts and emotions, including life, death, love, and pain, and he just uses such an exaggerated way of painting to outline his true inner appearance. [7] At first glance, the man looks like a wandering ghost, it shows his fear of death. This book shows the extreme loneliness and pain of human beings, as well as the fear of the vast universe, all to the fullest. It is a window into Munch's life, and he uses his work to express his dissatisfaction with reality and his cries for life. I think he is also looking for people who are similar to him and expects them to face the reality bravely. 4. The Direction of Modern Design Drawn from The Scream In today's modern product design thinking, for some multi-functional, high-tech application of new intelligent product projects, the so-called "shape" design method is gradually no longer only refers to the "spirit and substance" of the design, but requires some new materials, new technology, some innovative design use as an innovative means to design to create the actual needs rather than completely meet the needs of society, from the appearance to the internal function of the design, The design method of "shape" is gradually no longer only refers to the design of "spirit and substance", but requires the use of some new materials and technologies as the innovative means to create the actual needs and not completely meet the needs of society, from the appearance to the internal function of the design. On this basis, attention should be paid to the design of human emotions. 4.1 Contemporary Design Led by "Spiritual Needs" The Scream has features consistent with the characteristics of Expressionism. Dionysus style: bright colors, distorted figures, negligence of artistic techniques, lack of insight into images, and a preference for sensibility rather than rationality in thought. Modern design's "form follows function" is essentially the shaping of "form", but "form" is constrained by "function". But "form" is constrained by "function". At the beginning of the industrial revolution, the technology was relatively backward, and the function was relatively single, so the "form" adapted to ergonomics had both the value of "aesthetics" and "function" in itself. It has both "aesthetic" and "functional" values. However, due to the need of "function" of modern design, the demand of "form" can no longer be satisfied, and the "function" value carried by "form" disappears. "The value of "aesthetics" is also fading. Design is not only designed to meet the individual physiological needs of each person, social needs and other (functional) requirements, more attention to the individual self-realization from the whole group of people and the expression of the group's personality value, in order to ultimately meet the common personality needs of individual people and other (spiritual) requirements, and not just a formal "gas" BCP Social Sciences & Humanities HADC 2023 Volume 22 (2023) 108 expression. It is not just a formal expression of "gas". In The Scream, Munch expresses a special feeling, a special psychological state, a special psychological state, while the characters under Munch's pen do not conform to his character. Munch mainly depicts the real, dynamic, full of emotional content, vibrant life situation. For example, this issue out of the circle of the "sheep a sheep" game, really led a fire, which covers a variety of human nature system design, including gaming system, incentive mechanism and the design of the dark card, seems to deduce that the group is can be swayed by the system. Let's not discuss how the game is designed, how to market, how to spread, simply from the perspective of its design of several sets of system logic and how it balances the psychology of players, so as to "take" the players. The biggest feature of WeChat mini-games is their social attributes, for example, the "Jump" mini-game which was a big hit in 17 years, and it is a typical social-driven game in the circle of friends, and this "Sheep a Sheep" also follows a similar path. Only this time, the motive of sending out the circle changed from sharing the highest performance to spitting and discontent. What they have in common is that they both touch the bottom emotional value of users, so that more people will challenge, try and share, which is a different way to play with a similar path. At this level, the game is still a game, but it contains several attributes, including psychological construction, climbing psychology and gambler's psychology, which together drive users to try to play the game level. The game is outstanding because it knows how to accurately control the emotional value, the emotion of reluctance is built on the user's confidence emotion, each player has a set of self-consistent logic to convince themselves to bet, this set of logic is based on their own past knowledge and experience, think that they have a better than others or the system of the optimal solution, can win the game. As a result, from "practical functions" to "spiritual needs" of design, the role of practicality is increasingly marginalized, while the rise of psychological functions makes "design making" more inclined to the rise of psychological functions has made "design making" more of an "artistic creation" and less of a practical thing than a spiritual thing. In the traditional handicraft era, art and design were combined, while in modern times, there is a short gap between art and design. The study of spirituality in design psychology is far from just referring to the discipline of design alone; it actually includes the integration of cognitive-behavioral, brain science, psychological foundations and design physiological science, among other disciplines. 4.2 Contemporary Design Led by "Consumer Alienation The Scream" is a window of Munch, and he uses his works to express his dissatisfaction with reality and his cry for life. The author believes that Munch is also looking for people similar to him and expects them to face the reality bravely. But what people really want to consume is not a commodity, but a relationship (social relationship) from the beginning. Looking at the current residential design and construction situation, it is easy to see that the blind and excessive expansion of the purchasing power of consumer society has led to the increasing accentuation of the phenomenon of "alienation" of all kinds of housing, and the transformation of consumption patterns is one of the important issues. In the past, our material consumption process only emphasized the dual material value pursuit of practicality and functionality (the alienated product of labor determines consumption), but now material consumption is gradually liberated from the material value pursuit with practical and functional characteristics (consumption alienation - consumption-led production), and the contradictory relationship between consumer behavior and the actual consumption of living goods has apparently occurred quietly. The contradictory relationship between consumer behavior and actual consumer goods has apparently undergone a major fundamental historical transformation, and the alienation of the expression of consumer personality in consumer demand and the mass production have become an inherent contradiction in our social reality in China today. Standardized, quantitative product design and standards have almost deprived people of their interest in their competitors' products and their experience of individual needs, and under the domination of "one-to- BCP Social Sciences & Humanities HADC 2023 Volume 22 (2023) 109 many" commercial products, it is necessary to create a product that can satisfy individual needs (one- to-one) in order to dominate the market. 4.3 "Dematerialization"-oriented Contemporary Design Today, we are in a network era, the development of technology, so that the development of digital technology, faster than the machine, from "standardization" to "customization", which is a traditional and future difference, refers to the "mass production "to "mobile". The main product of the modern electronic industry era is digital machinery and printing, one of the main products of the modern multimedia information era will soon be multimedia, new media, cross-media, traditional digital products are to use the changing environment as the basis for development, the new products of the new era will no longer have any "final" and other concepts, the new era of The new product is also called "system", which will change at any time with the change of the user's time and the interaction between the user and the product environment. In the era of physical to digital technology, a larger, more complex, interconnected digital world is gradually changing the social production technology and economic life of some traditional societies that we are used to today, and the "service-oriented" digital development will bring many better digital experiences to our society in the future. digital experiences. The post-modern "service-oriented" era has evolved from "material design" to "intangible design", that is, the era of "virtual world". In the era of "virtual world", its connotation can be reflected as informationization, emotion and experience. The end product of digitalization and virtualization technology is gradually moving from "tangible" to "invisible", from "hardware" to "software ", from "materialization" to "dematerialization", from "product design" to "service Design", from the virtual entity designer gradually to virtual digital, digital technology is digital with an unprecedented rapid development speed in the gradual change of our daily material life, people will really enjoy more new digital experience, more new digital human- computer interaction. The final result may be that the non-material design can only rely on the material gradually away from the material design itself, and the real core of non-material design is actually the entire cell phone APP application design and development ideas and the entire user interface interaction design. As one of the subjects of digital society, the interaction between digital products and digital services overturns the existing solid way of information interaction and makes the interaction gradually optimized. 5. Conclusion Expressionism is an expression of the anxiety and confusion caused by these social problems. Expressionism can also be used to reflect on our current lives. In this era, our confusion and worries are different, but the thoughts and feelings that life has on us are also the source of our creations. In the new social development background, visual communication design presents a diversified development path, and the concept of human-centered and human-centered emotion is the representative. Driven by the dual influence of the changing concept of human emotion, visual culture communication and design art, as one of the most important new reality trends, have been actively trying to explore and boldly innovate in many professional fields around the world, and have made some achievements, but there are still many shortcomings to improve. This also requires the visual designers themselves must always stand at a higher level of thought to re-examine the overall visual image and design, from each important visual image elements to achieve the detailed performance effect, and fully combined with the most important current design trends, to achieve a more modern culture, intelligent and more green design art. The visual expression, re-examine its creative development process, and increase the audience's understanding of the overall visual image communication and the emotional connotation of the design artwork, in order to further meet the needs of the times and the diversified emotional needs of the social audience, and promote the arrival of a harmonious cultural society in China. BCP Social Sciences & Humanities HADC 2023 Volume 22 (2023) 110 References [1] Guo Pepe. "Poetry speaks of the will" and English Romantic expression[J]. Masterpiece Appreciation, 2022(33):158-160. [2] Zhang Xiaomeng. "Pythagorean Style": An Exploration of Bloch's Aesthetic Form of Representation[J]. Chinese Literary Studies,2022(04):21-28. DOI:10.13399/j.cnki.zgwxyj.2022.04.003. [3] Li Shiqiang. A study on the development of expressionism in painting art[J]. Art Education Research, 2022 (16):13-15. [4] Liu Guangbai, Lu Dan. An analysis of the decorative language of Chinese expressionist oil painting[J]. Masterpieces,2022(14):102-104. [5] Zhao Mengyuan, Hou Yun. Emotional expression in expressionism[J]. DOI: 10.20024/j.cnki.CN42-1911/ I. 2022.32.027. [6] Jiao Bo. A study on the influence of expressionism on animation art[J]. PR World,2022(13):105-106. [7] Yan Meng. Expressionism from Munch's oil painting "The Scream" [J]. New American Field, 2022 (07): 38-40.