A Study on the Teaching Reform of Integrating Narrative Logic into Graphic Design: “New Meanings from Objects”—Practice and Reflection on a High-Level Professional Cluster of Visual Communication Design

Abstract

This study explores the integration of narrative logic into graphic design education to address the lack of cultural connotation, emotional depth, and narrative thinking in students’ works. A “New Meanings from Objects” teaching reform model is constructed and implemented through five steps: problem orientation, narrative practice, graphic reconstruction, semantic expression, and effectiveness evaluation. In the problem-oriented stage, students are guided to extract symbolic materials from socio-cultural contexts. In the narrative practice stage, storyline methods are used to establish emotional connections between graphics and narrative. Graphic reconstruction is then conducted based on visual semiotics to support formal innovation. Semantic expression training is used to strengthen the cultural literacy and communicative depth of design works. Finally, quantitative evaluation is carried out to assess teaching effectiveness. The teaching experiment covers 120 students. Results show that the overall average aesthetic score increases from 68.4 to 90.3, while the cultural-symbol application score increases from 59.7 to 86.4. The findings indicate that integrating narrative logic into graphic design significantly improves students’ design narrative ability and visual expression depth.