MAKING BRANDS
BY PRODUCT DESIGN

BRAND
STORYTELLING
DESIGN
VALUES
LOGO
EXPERIENCE MENTAL IMAGE BRAND PROMISE
PRODUCTS
HERITAGE
SERVICE
LEGENDS
RITUALS
MYTHS
ENVIRONMENTS
ARCHITECTURE
PACKAGING
GRAPHICS
WEB
CONSUMER

Why use product design as
part of a branding strategy?

...because branding is not just
putting your name on the
product...

...because the wrong design can
devaluate your brand...

...because you need to engage the
consumers senses, to create an
emotional attachment
sensory branding

vision
audio

smell, touch

touch,
somato sensory system

...because Coca-Cola wouldn’t
be Coca-Cola without the iconic
Coke® bottle

...because iconic design
beats generic design in
the marketplace

...because these guys do it

...because every kind of product
can go from generic to iconic

So how to create a
brand symbol?

An artifact is a humanly constructed object that can be perceived
by the senses. It can be seen, heard, smelled, tasted, touched, or
felt. In contrast, a mentafact is a human constructed object that
can only be held in the mind. The concept of a nation or a brand, a
cause, or the idea of economic value are each mentafacts. When
artifacts and mentafacts combine, they form a symbol (in our case
a brand symbol).
A woven piece of cloth is just an artifact until it is invested with
the metafact of a cause or a nation, then it becomes a flag, and
that flag is a symbol. A stamped piece of metal is just a bit of
metal until the stamped image stands for a measure of economic
value, then it becomes a coin. The difference is in the mentafact
captured in the symbol.

+ =
The mentafact
the idea of the Coca Cola brand (values etc)
NB: The mentafact is here represented by anoth-
er Coca Cola symbol, the logo
The artefact
The brand symbol
the generic bottle
the designers interpretation

remember:
DESIGN IS INTERPRETATION

What if you need to make a
family of products - or brand
symbols?

You need to make a brand
design language...

How to start?

Make a design archetype
An archetype is an idealized design
model from which successive products are derived.
It’s a “product family mother”
Contrary to a prototype which is the mother for
just one product.

The archetype for the BMW
“flame surfacing” design
language: the X Coupé (2001)

...the results

BMW’s new archetype, the
GINA:

How can you be sure that
you have made a design
archetype?
If its:

ICONIC, UNIQUE, PREGNANT

SCALABLE

AND...

THE BRAND VALUES
ARE EXPRESSED

UNCOMPROMISING, EXTREME AND ITALIAN

For a consistent expression,
design and apply your brand
specific design themes:

A design theme is a set of design resources
that helps convey the brand values
Design resources is any kind of
“design expression” like:
Color, material, smoothness / roughness, type
of geometry, sound, smell, feature, guiding
principle etc.. etc...

resources: “NON-FEMININ” FORM, AGGRESSIVE COLORS

values: STURDY, POWERFUL

CUTE (Anthropomorph) CHARACTER, NEW MATERIALS ETC.

FRIENDLY, PERSONAL, EASY TO USE, INNOVATIVE

ICONIC SURFACE FORMING ETC.

DYNAMIC, POWERFUL, UNIQUE, INNOVATIVE

“VISIBILITY”, ANIMATED PARTS, MATERIALS ETC.

CONVENIENCE, DRAMA, EXCLUSIVE

HUMOR, CARTOON LIKE AESTHETICS ETC.

FUN, HUMANISTIC, QUIRKY ETC.

When iconic products
become design archetypes...

Brands who succeded in
making an iconic brand
product (symbol), but didnt
manage to use it as an
archetype and make it
scalable...

Examples of product
families - a good one and a
questionable one...

Portable mediaplayer Portable computer Stationary computer
Pro series
i - series
Entry level

And now...

SONY
NOKIA
CITROEN
NINTENDO
SAMSUNG
VOLKSWAGEN
FRITZ HANSEN
BANG & OLUFSEN

Choose a brand from the list:
identify brand values
identify design themes/features/resources/cues
identify different design languages in the history of the
brand
visualize your findings
design a thermo bottle for your chosen brand
ref: “It looks like a Toyota” by Toni-Matti Karjalainen

© 2008, KARL GRØNDAL