We adopted a 2 × 2 mixed experimental design to control for form of corporate social responsibility (CSR), advertising message claims (single message vs. multiple message), and levels of advertising skepticism (high vs. low), to elucidate how these influence advertising preferences and advertising credibility. On the basis of data collected from 320 participants (152 men and 168 women), 4 significant findings were obtained: (a) The form of message claims in CSR advertisements affects advertising preference and advertising credibility, (b) levels of advertising skepticism affect advertising preference and advertising credibility, (c) consumers with high advertising skepticism exhibit advertising skepticism toward CSR advertisements with single-message claims, (d) consumers with low advertising skepticism exhibit preference for CSR advertisements with multiple-message claims. Our findings suggest that enterprises should plan advertisement content carefully when promoting their CSR activities because exaggerated or understated content triggers doubt in consumers' minds.

Visual communication design (VCD) is a form of nonverbal communication. The application of relevant linguistic or semiotic theories to VCD education renders graphic design an innovative and scientific discipline. In this study, actual teaching activities were examined to verify the feasibility of applying narrative theory to graphic design courses. Matched group design was employed to equally divide 30 participants into experimental and control groups, who participated in distinct activities over a 4-week period. The results revealed that incorporating narrative theory into graphic design courses enabled increasing students' poster design capabilities across various dimensions, including thematic concept, image creativity, and visual aesthetic. Narrative is a storytelling method. Applying narrative techniques to VCD not only facilitates the creativity of designers, but also elicits the audience's visual memory, thereby encouraging a bidirectional communication between the two entities.

Creativity can be evaluated from learners’ internal motivation and learning outcomes. Implementation of innovative teaching methods by teachers can increase students’ learning motivation. In this study, convenience sampling was employed to select 54 students from a packaging design course; they were randomly grouped into 12 creative teams. Design thinking was integrated into the packaging design course, and its influence on the students’ creative self-efficacy and flow experience was investigated through empirical research. A pretest–posttest design was adopted to perform teaching experiments. In the pretest, conventional lectures were employed, whereas in the posttest, design thinking teaching was incorporated into the course. Packaging design practice spanned 4 weeks. The experiment results revealed that in the 12 creative teams, the students’ creative self-efficacy and flow experience were superior in the posttest than in the pretest. The results also demonstrated that design thinking improved the self-efficacy of students with low creativity tendency as well as the creative flow experience of all students regardless of creativity tendency.

The rationales behind design are dissimilar to those behind art. Establishing an adequate theoretical foundation for conducting design education can facilitate scientising design methods. Thus, from the perspectives of the semiotic theories proposed by Saussure and Peirce, we investigated graphic design curricula by performing teaching experiments, verifying the adequacy of applying these theories to poster design. During the teaching experiment, a matched groups design method was used for assigning 30 students to either an experimental group or a control group. The results of the experiment revealed that compared with the control group students, the experimental group students, who applied the semiotic theories to their poster designs, performed more favourably in image creativity, picture aesthetic, typography, and total poster design score. The posters created by the students were submitted to International Triennial of Ecological Posters 'the 4th Block', and a total of 4 creations from the experimental group were accepted. The results of the teaching experiment verify that applying semiotic theories to graphic design curricula facilitates improving student ability to observe objects and cultivating their capability to design posters and reinforce the visual tension in the posters.

Although previous studies have indicated that metaphorical advertisements have high persuasiveness, consumers are frequently affected by message framing and product type that lead to varying value preferences and decisions. This study adopted a 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design to operate the two independent variables of metaphorical message framing (positive metaphor vs. negative metaphor) and advertised product type (symbolic product vs. utilitarian product) to verify the research hypotheses and test the influence of the two variables on advertising preference. Four significant results were obtained: (a) message framing affected advertising preference, and the advertising preference for positive metaphors surpassed that for negative metaphors; (b) product type affected advertising preference, and the advertising preference for symbolic products exceeded that for utilitarian products; (c) symbolic products using a negative metaphor obtained a relatively higher level of advertising preference; and (d) utilitarian products using a positive metaphor acquired a relatively higher level of advertising preference. Metaphorical advertisements are a persuasive tool for breaking consumer psychological defense. Nevertheless, optimizing the persuasiveness of metaphorical advertisements still relies on metaphorical message framing and product type. The results of this study can provide compelling and clear references for advertising practitioners to formulate message strategies and realize creativity in the future.