By Bob Bruno

If you ever wondered what it is that makes products from the best known brands instantly recognizable — think Apple, Audi, Nike — you must realize that it’s not just the way that the products are branded with recognizable logos. It’s much more than just a logo.

These companies have invested significant effort to develop guidelines that control everything about a product and the way consumers perceive it — not only the look, but also the quality, the feel and the impression of the product while in use. These guidelines are called “design language” by some or “visual brand language” by others.

Learn to Speak the Language

Design language is a tool that successful corporations use to differentiate their brand from the competition (and sometimes one sub-brand from another). This is a comprehensive system — a look and feel applied to a group of products based on the core brand values or brand essence. By defining a consistent and proprietary brand experience, brand owners are then able to communicate it through design.

All that goes into executing design language in products influences the way the products are perceived and experienced. Design communicates distinct attributes of the brand’s personality, performance and use, and it influences the choice of materials, colors, shapes, patterns, surface finish and textures, as well as methods of construction and assembly, installation and service, or even the relative feel of quality and durability.

Design language at its best becomes iconic but not frozen in time. Rather, it is a living entity that evolves in order to stay current with the latest design trends and socio-economic factors that drive them — what’s hot and what’s not, responding to a variety of issues from environment and sustainability, to the economy, etc., while continuing to communicate core brand values.

Consumers always want the next great thing and the latest technology, so traditional brands that fail to stay up to date by living off their laurels run the risk of becoming obsolete or out of touch.

Reaping the Benefits

The benefits of design language are surprisingly broad and far reaching. Behind the scenes, a well-defined design language eliminates the need for countless hours spent developing unique product styling for each individual product, therefore reducing development time and cost. This allows manufacturers to put more of their budget toward fostering user-friendly innovation and improving the rate of product introductions into the marketplace. And surprisingly, it has been shown to boost employee morale and pride — companies thrive on icons, they need things to rally around.

At point of sale, a good design language makes products easier to shop and easier to sell, providing a stronger brand presence in advertising media and at retail. It enhances a brand’s ability to differentiate its offering from the competition, and it helps fight the perception of products as commodities, i.e. that they are all alike and all do the same thing.

Design language communicates the qualities of a brand‘s unique product features and benefits, thereby helping the sales team differentiate from competitive products. Furthermore, for complex product offerings at multiple price points, design language can visibly delineate levels of product quality — for example, good, better, best — within each category.

For consumers, consistent use of a strong design language enhances familiarity with the brand, which in turn facilitates confidence and trust in its products. Research with consumers confirms that they believe that products by well-known brands that are consistently designed are made to higher standards of quality, will perform better, last longer, operate with fewer headaches and offer a better overall experience. Customers sense that these brands stand behind their products — all of their products.

Basic elements of design language are many and varied, depending on application, and may include:

Things that affect the look and feel of the product as an “object.”

The type of overall form and geometry, styling lines and detailing used to create a recognizable family or brand personality that communicates the brand essence to consumers and can be applied across many different product configurations.

Consistent and rigorously controlled use of materials, finishes, common molding details and assembly methods, colors and graphics to ensure that consumers recognize a common design theme throughout the family.

Things that affect the usability of the product as a “tool.”

Consistent functional detailing to features such as connection ports, venting, covers or closures, fasteners, safety features, etc.

Standardized application of common ergonomic attributes, depending on the type of product, to components such as handles and grips, dispensers, controls or other interface, display size and readability.

Robert H. Bruno is director of product/structure at Group 4. His career encompasses more than 32 years of design leadership in product and package design for consumer, medical, business and industrial products. Bob can be reached at bbruno@groupfour.com. Visit Group 4 at www.groupfour.com