How can you create a cohesive aesthetic across a product line?

The best Analogy for a design language is a family. There are brothers, sisters, cousins too but you don’t need an introduction to know they are from the same family. This is because there is a deeper connection than just visual features. Yes these products should share similarities in a few aesthetics and features, but the prime reason a design language is created is so that every user feels the same way about the entire line of products. Designing this is an iterative process with a lot of feedback from end users and early adopters alike. While the usual suspects are color combinations, logo placement, an extra fillet or chamfer, the design language traits are very much functional as much as aesthetic.

The design language for a physical product it's about connection with your audience. I usually use 3 core elements to build a language : 1.Brand DNA: Every product has a unique story. Begin by identifying the principles that make your brand distinct. What are its inherent strengths? Translate these strengths into form, colour, finish, and material. 2.Capturing Culture: Does your product align with a specific lifestyle, trend, or system? Imbue your language with elements that echo these cultural nuances. This creates a sense of familiarity and belonging for your target audience. 3.Experiential Bridge: Design language it's experiential. Consider how form, texture, and interaction with your product evoke feelings and shape the user's journey.

Concuerdo con lo que dice el artículo, pero en mi experiencia el uso de un concepto para cuálquier proyecto puede ser determinante para el éxito y entonces basado en ello se puede definir un lenguaje de dise?o. Esto permitirá que el story telling detrás de cuálquier proyecto sea reforzado y explotado al máximo.

My experience in defining new successful aesthetics for global brands in different sectors is certainly due to the application of visual brand language (VBL) strategy or experience brand language (EBL). It is very important to have information on the vision of the brand, that is, which scenario and market context I want to occupy. The keywords defined by the brand are translated into design elements and associated with images that represent our brand. Thanks to this mapping it is possible to define the design attributes that tell the aesthetic details that allow us to create our family language, there can be at least 3 that will be applied to the range, from entry level to premium.

There are endless approaches to defining a design language, especially within a organization with limitations, but one of the better, more universal way is to be able to tell a story. Designers are storytellers. By looking at the line of products you know what it is and what the brand's message is. Start by understanding what the brand wants to deliver and use ergonomics as a base to define your starting point.

This is more of a product feature than a method for defining a cohesive design language. Sure, if a you have a product that is modular it may be easier to translate common forms, textures and materials but defining a brand by modularity may also be limiting.

Thinking in terms of family relationships can help. For example, should certain products feel like siblings? If so, are they twins, or do they bear a looser resemblance? Maybe they should be even more distant, like cousins? Or perhaps one is a more mature and reserved parent and another is its more youthful and expressive offspring? If the range is large, it could resemble an extended family with clusters that have identifiably closer relationships. Of course, this shouldn't be limited to aesthetics, but should include attitude, behaviour and values too. Just make sure the resulting product line feels like a loving, harmonious family - not a dysfunctional one!

No existe un buen producto si no hay prototipos, pruebas y mejoras. No siempre es posible atinarle a la primera y lo mejor siempre será poner a prueba el producto las veces que sea necesario para que se logre tener lo mejor posible para lanzar al mercado e ir actualizando en base a su comportamiento.

La innovación se obtiene de la inspiración y no se trata de copiar, sino de obtener ideas de todo lo que vemos, olemos, comemos, etc... cualquier interacción puede llegar a ser inspiración para crear nuevos productos o actualizaciones de valor a los que ya existen. Por otro lado, entender, escuchar, interactuar y empatizar con los productos y los productos y los usuarios permitirá crear mejores productos.