An Introduction to the Development of a Product Brand: An Evidence-Based Template for Use with First Year Undergraduate Industrial Designers

The manipulation of colour, form and texture within a commercial design activity is a core competency for an industrial designer. The job of the Industrial designer is to use colour, form, texture, temperature and movement to deliver a sensory experience that evokes a desired response. The core deliverables of an industrial designer are embedded within an evidence-based and user-centred approach to product design. Social functionality may often be most easily seen through the delivery of Brand. The aim of this paper is to provide education practitioners with a template to facilitate the introduction of Brand construction to undergraduate industrial design students through the visual and physical embodiment of a product. The objectives of this paper are to: provide signposting to the underpinning theories of the template; describe the template; show examples of student work that demonstrate the outcomes of template application; and, highlight where students have used the template within brand related design competitions to produce successful design outcomes.