Notice of RetractionProduct design and cultural signs a cultural semiotic approach to understanding IKEA´s design

Notice of Retraction

After careful and considered review of the content of this paper by a duly constituted expert committee, this paper has been found to be in violation of IEEE´s Publication Principles.

We hereby retract the content of this paper. Reasonable effort should be made to remove all past references to this paper.

The presenting author of this paper has the option to appeal this decision by contacting TPII@ieee.org.

IKEA is a home products corporation from Sweden that designs and sells well-designed and functional home furnishing products at prices so low that the majority of people will be able to afford them; however, after entering into Chinese market, it involuntarily becomes the identity icon of the petit bourgeoisie class, whose members are relatively affluent in the Chinese context. This paper will analysis the process that the products IKEA designed transform into consumption signs from ordinary commodities from the perspective of Baudrilliard´s theory of code consumption, and will also give interpretation on the features of IKEA´s cultural signs. The misinterpretation of Chinese consumers towards IKEA´s design is explained by two reasons in this article, on one hand, the particular cultural signs of IKEA´s design happen to coincide with the pursuit of certain temperament and interest of Chinese petit bourgeoisies, on the other hand, the consumption situations of Chinese society in transit also matters to a large degree. Such phenomenon will last in Chinese society for a certain period.