2.2 The application of the totem patterns

In terms of design，any products more or less are designed to fulfill some functional requirement. However，with the pursuit to satisfy the desire of material needs，the product may be lack of its spiritual connotation. Nowadays，the natives，on the one hand，are limited by the narrow requirements of the market，on the other hand，they follow the traditional forms of the products apart from applying the new tools or technology，changing the products from plane to three-dimension or carving some practical goods. They hardly improve from the artistic angel. In the recent year，the Canadian artists take use of totem resources to design some works combined tradition with modern.

Above those photos, we can see the refinement and improvement of the totem arts. The resources of the totem culture are various and it also possesses some unique and distinctive peculiarities. However, in terms of product design，it is worthy to carry out the further investigation.

2.3 The purpose of research

The core of totem culture is a totemic conception; has great cultural significance and connotation. Totem symbolizes a way of expressing the respect to the ancestry or guarding angels，it also originates from imagination and creation. Totem not only is the reflection of group's consciousness，but also represents the social identity，hunting warriors，chastity and honor. It mainly manifests in the totem pole，flag，residence，artifacts，base，tattoo et. the Canadian natives' totem culture is very vivid with long heritage. The research is purposed on the culture images decoration both external and internal patterns of the natives，summarized its rhythm’s changes，and explore its deeper social and cultural meaning through design innovation and transformation and giving them new forms and applications，with a more refined and mature outlook.

The major research goals as follow:

(A) An investigation to Canadian native’s totem culture and it’s significance.

(B) A discussion of the application of the Canadian native’s totem culture in the product design.

3 Methods of Converting the Cultural Significance

3.1 Investigating the connotation of cultural products

From the angle of design，the product design of all countries presents to international style，lacking their own characteristics and regional cultural features. Under the consumption lead trend in recent years，people prefer to the products with special features of the cultural. The international also expresses a representative the cultural products with special features in all countries，hence appeared German style，North Europe style etc. Therefore，the design has to relocate，The new definition of design has to return to cultural category，From the early form follows function formative principles to the development of many industrial design theory today design is no longer just the pursuit of function and the beautiful shape，but should be committed to cultural heritage.

3.2 The abstract of semiotics

Semiotics is the study of signs. The concept was proposed by the Swiss Linguist Ferdinand de Saussure(1857-1913). Saussure built the semiology，he actually saw the pision of the sign into sound image and concept as a bit ambiguous. So he refined the idea by saying it might make things clearer if we referred to the concept as the signified and the sound image as the signifier，Charles William Morris(1901-1979) proposed the concept of semiosis，that is，syntactic，semantic，and pragmatic. Syntactic rules may determine which combine of signs my function as grammatical statements. Semantic rules may determine the conditions under which signs may be applicable to objects or to situations. Pragmatic rules may determine the conditions under which sign-vehicles may function as signs.

3.3 Semiotics analysis of the system of products

Product is a form of materialized human labor，which is consisted of various materials to the structure and form combined with the corresponding functional system，Products as a carrier of human material life，not an end but a means to an end，and any one product is not isolated existence，must adopt in a particular environment and other elements with links to the existence of the system can achieve its functional significance. Products external links was established through internal elements in a certain structure containing，elements，structure and function. Function is the three factors consist of system which is the functional products of the system core. The process of achieving it is symbols of the process，The product is the use of semantics，language structure，language used to create symbols system，the achievement of the material world and the significance of the links. 产品设计中传统图腾艺术应用英文文献和中文翻译(2):http://www.youerw.com/fanyi/lunwen_54648.html