Understanding the 2.5th dimension: modelling the graphic language of products

Recognizing a product of a specific brand without seeing the logo is difficult. But for companies it is important to distinguish themselves from competitors with a consistent portfolio, which will be easily recognized by their target consumers. The recognition of brands and their associated brand values can take place in different ways. In this paper a framework is discussed to analyze a brand at different levels of graphical dimensions. The proposed framework distinguishes the difference between graphics (2D), such as a logo or a text; form and shape elements (3D); and everything in-between (2,5D), which we will call ‘graphical elements’. Examples of such graphical elements are the protruding letters on a beer bottle of Grolsch, the characteristic grill of a car or the illuminated apple in a Mac Book. The framework, based on the work of Karjalainen & Warell, was developed further within an educational setting. In an elective master course, students developed a product for a specific brand using the most remarkable design features of the brand. The results of the course showed that modelling the 2.5th dimension of the products actually had a great impact on the translation of the brand values of the analyzed brands into new designs. The integration of these ‘graphical elements’ is often underexposed, but this paper shows that they can play an important role in the recognition of a brand and its brand values

Sketching is more than making correct drawings

Sketching in the context of a design process is not a goal in itself, but can be considered as a tool to\ud make better designs. Sketching as a design tool has several useful effects as: ordering your thoughts,\ud better understanding of difficult shapes, functioning as a communication tool, and providing an\ud iterative way of developing shapes. In our bachelor-curriculum Industrial Design Engineering we\ud developed a series of courses that addresses these effects in particular.\ud The courses are Sketching and concept drawing (SCT), Product Presentation Drawing (PPT) and\ud Applied sketching skills (TTV). This line of courses is built on three pillars:\ud - Learning to sketch; Theory, speed and control of the materials.\ud - Learning from sketching; Develop a better insight in complex 3D shapes (Figure 1).\ud - Sketching as a design tool; Communication, ordering your thoughts, iterative working.\ud As a result we see that students who have finished the courses instinctively start sketching in an\ud iterative manner, use sketching as a source of inspiration and learn that the whole process of iterative\ud sketching helps in structuring, developing and communicating the design process. In this way the\ud students become better sketchers and better designer

Unravelling the secret of successful brand extensions: a case study to explore consumer response

In this paper we try to disentangle the design of successful brand extensions and test this with two case studies. Earlier research revealed that typicality and novelty are related to the aesthetic preference of products. Despite the fact these two predictors are also each other’s suppressors, the equilibrium of both will determine aesthetically preferred products. When dealing with brand extensions we assume this effect is even bigger. We discern two approaches to explain this process. On the one hand the new product category with respect to the known brand can be seen as the novel experience of the design. On the other hand, the consumer can be familiar with the archetypical forms of a product category (typicality) and consider the branded product design as the novel experience. The outcomes show that typicality and novelty are jointly effective in explaining the aesthetic preferences of consumers for some product categories and that the appreciation of novelty for less typical designs is reinforced by the context they are presented in

A sustainable ecosystem: building a learning community to facilitate transdisciplinary collaboration in packaging development

Sustainability-related developments become a differentiating factor in development processes. An area with a strong focus on sustainability-related issues is packaging. In current packaging development processes, stakeholders focus on solving sustainability issues within their own boundaries. However, the complexities surrounding circular packaging can only be overcome by transdisciplinary collaboration. ‘Traditional’ collaboration shows to be incapable of overcoming packaging-specific complexities. Therefore, we launch Packalicious, a research initiative aiming to establish transdisciplinary innovation as a collaborative learning ecosystem.In the initial research phase, a core stakeholder group developed the framework in which Packalicious operates. In the second (current) phase, the developed Packalicious framework is tested and improved. This design iteration builds on a transdisciplinary group-based case study, where real-life packaging challenges are tackled by diverse stakeholders.In this paper, we define and measure the efficacy of collaborative learning within Packalicious by means of three innovation indicators. The first results indicate that the approach yields more diverse solutions, and a positive connotation with on-the-spot transdisciplinary collaboration. However, it also exposes the differences in discipline-related language and jargon. This paper contributes to academic insights by the establishment of a self-sustaining transdisciplinary learning ecosystem, and the ways in which this bridges gaps between disciplines and stakeholders

The Influence of Packaging Design Features on Consumers' Purchasing & Recycling Behaviour

This paper describes an empirical study to determine the influence of specific design elements of sustainable packaging on consumer behaviour during purchase and recycling. Existing studies show that the visual appearance of packaging design influences the behaviour of consumers. The results of this study show that decisions made by consumers regarding the packaging are mostly based on graphics and to a lesser extent on information and form. Furthermore, a sustainable form and information regarding sustainability also have the highest utility, which indicates that these cues are able to trigger a higher buying intention. According the results on recycling behaviour, it is unclear if recycling logos and a stimulating text have an impact on recycling intention of consumers

Bridging the gap between design and behavioral research: (Re)searching the optimum design strategy for brands and new product innovations

Innovation, branding, and design are known to affect corporate success, but their interplay is not yet well understood. Companies need to take risks in developing new product innovations, whereas an established brand can serve as a familiar base to create recognition. However, designers are facing a serious challenge. Researchers in both fields study the existing world through abstract theories and “rules”, instead of showing how to use these theories in practice. This study focuses on the relation between brands and innovations from a design perspective to create successful brand extensions. Gaining knowledge about the level of newness (novelty), level of familiarity (typicality), fit with the parent brand (brand fit), and expected market success (EM success), will support designers to create successful brand extensions. The study discusses 81 designs of snow scooters designed by students and evaluated by 47 experts by means of a quantitative and qualitative analysis. A multiple linear regression analysis is performed to show if brand fit, typicality, novelty, and (typicality × novelty) has an impact on the expected market success. The analyses demonstrate a significantly positive effect of brand fit on the expected market success (p <.01). While the single effects of typicality and novelty were non-significant, the interaction between typicality and novelty showed a significant linear relationship on the expected market success (p <.05). The results show the importance of the much-investigated balance between typicality and novelty, where brand fit seems to act as the suppressor for novelty and may be called brand typicality