Abstract: The research is devoted to the issue of changing the understanding of design and its current state. Although design originated in the West, today the East is beginning to play an increasingly important role in its development. As a product of modernist culture, design initially followed the principle of "form follows function", but after a "semantic turn" it began to be understood as meaning-making, and form followed meaning. However, today the understanding of meanings only through the prism of "language" has exhausted itself, the understanding today is that design not only intellectually generated meanings, but also senses–sensations, therefore Western design theorists and practitioners began to look for alternative ways of developing design, which turned out to be consonant with the path that is being followed in the East today. The purpose of the article is to summarize some of the results of the alternative "linguistic" understanding of design in the West and in the East. The subject of the study is the change in the ways of meaning formation in modern design. Research methods used in the article are:
- methods of synchronous and asynchronous analysis, that allowed us to analyze transformations in the understanding of design, both historical and regional;
- the method of generalization, including comparative analysis, allows to understand the difference in approaches to design and shaping in different regions. The article presents modern design as a multicultural process, where different regions contribute to the general "theory" of design. However, the current eastern way of design is heterogeneous. Here we can highlight the Japanese vision of design – the "meditative approach", which involves reflection of sensations, reliance on personal experience, as well as the Chinese vision of design that is just taking shape today. We see China's potential contribution to the development of design in the inclusion of "embodied mind" in the design process, when the correctness of the chosen solution is determined not only by speculative calculations, but "resonates" with the feelings of the designer and the customer, as well as in the concept of "living form", when not only compositional or functional connections between elements are seen, but also the coherence of their movements. The Chinese approach can be called "vitalizing".

Abstract: This article is dedicated to the question of understanding of “melancholic” beauty in different cultures. The object of this research is the influence of the idea of melancholy upon comprehension of beauty in the Russian and Korean cultures. Having defined and compared “melancholy” and beauty in Korea and Russia, the author attempts to determine the specificity of “melancholic beauty” in both cultures, primarily, in Russian. Methodological foundation is the methods of comparison and ethnolinguistics that allow viewing culture based on “keywords”. First, the article provides definition to “melancholy”. If Russian melancholy is the feeling of “narrowness of the expanse” and “feeling abandoned by God”, the Korean Han is an “unrealized desire” that appears as a result of constraints or misery. Both, Russian melancholy and Korean Han contain the sense of hope; they are also similar in overcoming through creation. Then, the article explores the impact of the sense of “melancholy” upon the perception of beauty in both cultures. The conclusion is made that in Russian “melancholic” beauty, the “sadness of blank background” is usually balanced with the ornamental images that serve as a “pillar in the blankness”. The Korean “improper beauty” of meot – is the beauty of flow, rhythm and its disturbance (therefore, traditionally it is not associated with color). The feeling of Han in beauty of meot is balanced by joy of Jeong. Thus, the meot objects contain senses of both, irony and melancholy.

Abstract: Although there are many researches concerning the Beauty, as known in Europe as well as Russia aesthetic categories are traditionally abstract and consequently not applicable in practical use for example in design. Therefore, the author of this research offers to find concrete categories of traditional aesthetics and then incarnate it in objects. As an example of this approach, he takes a work of Japanese philosopher Shuzo Kuki (1888–1941) “The Structure of Iki [Beauty]” and basing on it, he offers concrete incarnation of such Russian aesthetics category as Toska [Melancholy]. Using interpretation of Toska by Nikolay Berdyaev (1874–1948) the author formulates “Structure of Toska” and extends Toska to arts defining melancholic beauty of Toska in ornaments and colors. The author concludes that melancholic beauty of Toska in our culture is connected not only with the visible void but also with an ornament, which expresses our spiritual aspirations and therefore becomes an essential part of the Beauty in Russia.