Embrace polarity & celebrate duality.
Style is one element of product design. Its stimulation of the senses - visual, auditory, taste, olfactory, tactile - often makes it the most prominent feature. Its importance, however, is relative.
In product design & communication, the metaphorical colors we choose and their luminosity determine the sensory positioning. The best palette is found by questioning what matters most to the specific target audience and what appropriately fits your brand. But does the product/service absolutely need to be strongly positioned in one direction or another?
The answer is No. Effective differentiation simply implies holding a unique position with the perceiver’s mind.
Style can be fluid and multi-faceted. When considering the emotions we want the product to evoke, one can look at a variety of themes, their opposites, and ways they can be combined together. Perhaps the product is destined to have a particular sensory experience, based on a defined company image and set of values. Perhaps fashion and trends drive the product line, or the industry product category. In either case, style serves a single purpose, but its strategy and execution is dynamic.
The goal in ideation is to quickly generate a variety of competitive product concepts aligned with your brand values, portfolio fit, and product innovation strategy. While these are the criteria we’ll use for screening concepts later, a strong cognizance of them during ideation can inhibit the process activity: Exploration.
Consider polarities and their potentially combined layering & blending. After some recent creative brainstorming, here are some contrasting styles, emotions, and patterns that I’ve put together.
|
Antique, Historic |
Modern, Contemporary |
|
Humility; Courage; Happy; Joyous |
Pride; Fear; Angry; Sad |
|
Dark; Opaque; Rough; Sharp |
Light; Translucent; Smooth; Rounded |
|
Fast; Continuous |
Slow; Intermittent |
|
Accumulation; Indulgent; Embellished |
Reduction; Modest; Simplistic |
|
Strong; Hard; Heavy; Dense; Loud |
Weak; Soft; Light; Loose; Faint |
|
Spicy; Hot; Bitter |
Bland; Mild; Sweet |
|
Conservative; Conformed; Commodity |
Liberal, Customized; Unique |
|
Industrious, Productive |
Relaxed, Lazy |
|
Individualist |
Collectivist |
|
Technical; Scientific; Objective |
Artistic; Experiential; Subjective |
|
Deep; Low; Near |
Shallow; High; Far |
…
What additional methods of comparing & contrasting do you use?
Hello Reader! If you’re new here (and like my writing!), you may want to subscribe in order to get the freshest doses of business & design. Choose from either the RSS feed or get an email subscription (daily or weekly option). Thanks for visiting!
