The characteristics of modern design in the scope of consumer culture

With the development of economic and in-depth process of globalization and modernization, China is meeting the social change from the center of traditional ¿manufacturing products¿ to the center of ¿consumption¿ and consumer services. As one main social activity of modern society, consumption is playing an important and significant role in Chinese socio-economic and cultural life increasingly. In the spread of consumerism, design is mainly reflecting the aesthetic forms of consumer culture. It plays a very important role of training the public as consumers, creating the demand for consumption and the consumer environment. But once humans pay more homage to material, we will loss ourselves in the process of enjoying material. This paper analyses the unique features of design in the scope of consumer culture as follows. Design is a means to make goods symbolic, and it should service for commodities¿ image as a kind of applied commodity aesthetics. Through the analysis of characteristics we can lead the development of modern design direction and guide the design to play a positive function in consumer culture.