The next three installments of Icona Design will provide you with an in-depth explanation of the definition of Prodcut Identity, how it plays a role in adding to the cultural heritage of automobiles, and how it works. Don't miss it!
What is product identity?
Product Identity, or PI for short, is the process by which a company establishes identifying features through design strategies under the guidance of its cultural philosophy, and uses the features continuously in its horizontally and vertically evolving product lineups, so as to gain users' recognition of and agreement with the company's philosophy.
To put it bluntly, PI can be seen as a language of communication between designers and users. The premise of communication is to use a language that the other party understands. To give users some hints, designers must use a language that users can understand. Users continue to grow in regional culture, users receive inculcation in traditional culture, users are attracted to and infected by trendy culture ...... designers understand and capture these specific cultural symbols, weave cultural symbols into the language of the product, and convey the brand's tone, and by purchasing the product, the user not only meets his or her own cultural needs, but at the same time can also show their cultural taste to other people, this is PI.
9 years ago, you saw Apple's design, heard the story of Steve Jobs, and could imagine the efforts and dedication of Apple designers to fully design for every insignificant habit of consumers, you purchased Apple's products, and you felt that Apple's quality could represent your taste, this is also PI.
Product How does image identity come about?
Before Product Image Identity PI, there are BI (Brand Identity) and CI (Corporate Identity), where Corporate Identity CI also includes MI (Mind Identity), BI (Behavior Identity) and VI (Corporate Behavior Identity). CI also includes MI (Mind Identity, Corporate Idea Identity), BI (Behavior Identity, Behavior Identity) and VI (Visual Identity, Corporate Visual Identity), the whole recognition system family is very large and complex.
Corporate image recognition has a long history. In ancient times, the two armies fought, the generals and soldiers were uniformly equipped, the ranks were neat, the helmets were bright, the military flag was hunting, which is the most typical "corporate" image recognition. After the corporate image recognition, the birth of the brand, a number of "old", will continue to develop their own brands and features and precipitation, well-known, widely circulated, is the most simple brand recognition.
After the industrial revolution in the 1860s, the era of machine production was ushered in. The increasing abundance of commodities and the continuous development of commerce, and the convergence of technology made the commodities increasingly homogenized with each other. Earle, the designer of General Motors, put forward the "planned obsolescence system", which prompted the rapid obsolescence of old products through the continuous innovation of functions and styles and the control of product quality, and accelerated the speed of product iteration by consumers, giving birth to the wave of consumerism. Under such pressure, the theorized and systematized PI product image recognition came into being.
What is the role of Product Image Recognition?
Product Image Recognition is a genius idea that integrates brand concepts into the design language of the product, forming a familial design style and inherited product DNA, which perfectly solves the pain points of the enterprise:
Product Image Recognition provides the idea of product differentiation and competition, and helps the enterprise to create products with brand characteristics in the diversified consumer environment;
Product Image Recognition It is the external reinforcement of commodity brand identification, making the commodity more brand characteristics, and boosting the brand communication effect;
Product identification is a bright light, illuminating the direction of the next generation of product iteration;
It is the electricity, which contains the consumption habits and consumption concepts, and fosters a group of brand iron fans;
It is the light, which enhances the value recognition and internal cohesion of the enterprise staff;
It is simply the most beautiful myth in the boss's heart.
The most intuitive effect on the users of automobile brands, is to cover the LOGO can also identify the approximate brand and model.
Automobile designers like to play a game that is a bit like blind men feeling an elephant, which simply means looking at the picture and guessing the car. For car enthusiasts, the logo is covered and the brand can be seen at once. For general designers, you can see the specific model and approximate age at once. Great designers, only reveal a small part of the car has design features, not three times, you can guess which car.
This is largely due to PI, and being able to how to achieve higher feature recognition on a smaller scale is what PI does best.
Where do automotive designers start with product identity design?
Product styling features are the most important, and at the same time the most straightforward, aspect of PI.
In addition to the overall style of the car, the characteristic front face and grille, the side waistline and curved features, every part of the car that can be directly seen and touched, are all more or less with image recognition features.
These features, horizontally extended to other models of the brand, form the brand's family language, ensuring the consistency of product image recognition; vertically inherited and developed to the next generation of products, forming the brand's genetic DNA, ensuring the continuity of product image recognition.
In some automobile companies with historical deposits, what designers like to do most is to find a classic old car with historical origin, abstract a certain characteristic and playful, interesting, functional, or able to tell the cultural background of the old car's design features, and finally apply them in the new generation of models. It's a legacy, a tribute to classic design, and a way to get inspired.
And then there's color design.
Sporting red, technological blue, and environmental green seem to be the most understandable colors to understand. When pure electric models were first widely introduced to the consumer market, some brands used eye-catching blue on logos, wheels, and trim strips in order to emphasize electric, tech, and smarts, somewhat clumsily. In contrast, Tesla didn't do that, and it didn't hurt its market position as the EV One.
From the plethora of lipstick colors, we might get a sense of how colors and textures affect the psyche and feelings. For a car's exterior finish, or even a brand's color, subtle differences in color can make all the difference in the world.
The same white, slightly yellowish, will look old; slightly blue, it is easy to produce a cheap feeling. To the white to a little bit of gold, pink purple, or other colors, the texture of the use of metallic, pearl, or a variety of other lacquer process effects, enough to produce the user can feel, but can not say why the subtle impact.
Ferrari red, Mazda Soul Red, Chevrolet Camaro yellow, Maserati blue, Audi white, Mercedes AMG silver ...... even if the mouth said that can not be distinguished, do not care, but the sales data, as well as the main color of the car running all over the street, is the best proof.
This article comes from the author of the automobile home car family number, does not represent the views of the automobile home position.