From Pictographs to Stickers: A Study on the Visual Translation of Oracle Bone Script Characters in the Context of Contemporary Sticker Packs

Abstract

This study focuses on the visual translation pathways of Oracle Bone Script (OBS) characters in contemporary sticker pack design, aiming to explore the mechanisms and possibilities of integrating traditional cultural symbols into the context of digital visual communication. As the early form of Chinese characters, Oracle Bone Script contains rich visual genes. However, in the context of contemporary digital sticker pack dissemination, it lacks systematic visual translation pathways and methodological references. To address this, the study first reviews the configurational features of Oracle Bone Script and the contextual characteristics of sticker packs to clarify the adaptation conditions for translation. Taking 15 sticker packs from the “Oracle Bone People’s Daily Life” series as design practice cases, the study explores specific visual translation methods through the workflow of “corpus positioning — ancient character verification — strategic translation — dynamic realization,” and preliminarily verifies the design effectiveness through multi-dimensional evaluations by 50 users. The research finds that the visual components of Oracle Bone Script possess a certain degree of adaptability in modern semantic expression. Through multi-level translation strategies, the meaning reconstruction of ancient script symbols in contemporary contexts can be achieved. The methodological pathway developed in this study provides reference value for the modern translation of other traditional visual resources. The significance of the research lies in providing an operable design approach and theoretical reference for the digital innovative dissemination of traditional cultural elements.