Analysis of Product Genes and Symbols of Wooden Furniture—A Case Study of a Brand Design

Furniture products are essential to human life, carrying cultural heritage and human history. Wooden furniture can showcase the characteristics and evolutionary processes of different eras. Although furniture continuously updates and changes, it contains genetic features similar to biological inheritance, with relationships influencing each other across different periods, making it a valuable subject for exploration. In this study, these furniture characteristics are transformed into product genes and product symbols for analysis. Using the product symbol triangle method, the triadic relationship of symbol representation, object, and interpretation is analyzed. Additionally, the genealogical and adjacent axes methods are combined to analyze design cases of well-known Taiwanese wooden furniture brands. Through these methods, the sources of product features and product genes are analyzed, explaining how these features transform into product representations and establish the sequence relationship of product forms and functions. By summarizing the design styles of products, the relationship between product symbols and product genes can be identified, providing a basis for considering product design direction for the industry when building brands.