The DESIGN SPACE.

DESIGN AND IDENTITY

The actual global market brings together competitors with quite similar products, adressing the same customer segment. These products are meanwhile close in their performance and costs. The recent efforts for improving the quality leveled further the differencies between concurent products. This development left the customer with a lot of choices , but few options. They are two main strategies for creating real difference: - the content innovation leading to new cathegories of products and - the formal innovation creating a different package for the existing content The option for one of these ways lays in the amount of technologic risc , which the producer is ready to take, the available budget, creative power and not least in the time left until the planned market introduction. Whatever option would be met, the aim is the profile on the market and a specific brand identity, which attracts the customers attention and channels his choice in the crowded market place. A high profile among competitors is an essential factor of success. Products are the multiplicator of the company values, communicating the brand policy by presence in the users environment. Therefore the design profession is the most appropriate one for creating and implementing the brand identity. In our understanding the design goal is the users satisfaction, which is the long-term base of producers success. The users satisfaction is related to a positive BRAND PERCEPTION. Pragmatic, spiritual and emotional values are converged by design into the brand perception. Pragmatic values:
- technical performances - features - dimensions - costs - fiability - availability and logistics - operability (required training) - seviceability - environment suitability

Spiritual values:
- innovation degree - know-how - solution smartness - success record - self-explanation - complexity - experience - association - conotation

Emotional values:
- brand fame - trust - attractivity - identification - acceptance - actuality

On the users side the brand perception is the result of an inductive process, ignited by the visual impact.In the second step of users reflection, the emmotion inducted by form meets the pragmatic values and the spiritual ones. Nevertheless the emotional impact is essential for the later purchase decision. The brand perception is a TIME related factor, so the repeated experience by user is eventualy building it up on long term. The visual impact of the product on the user is as such the result of the form language and product architecture meeting his personality and own visual experience. The forms are rethoric expression-tools of the conceptual contents and of technologic solutions , which transport the concept into reality and justify the product for the user. Building up a brand image is a long-term implementation process of a consequent strategy in addressing the pragmatic , spiritual and emotional values toward a targeted customers perception. A high-light approach , the focus on only one or few selected products, is a just start-promise, which must be confirmed by the following steps across the whole product mix. The brand image must be supported by the whole product mix and services of the producer, not only by one product. As a consequence, design should be an element of the corporate strategy, effective in schedule and budget planning. There is not just one design, but a variety of design procedures, which address specific goals: a. differential design b. conceptual design c. integral design These procedures correspond to specific customer-expectations and customers selfpositioning in the market. They also formulate the design tasks.
Design procedure Customer expectation formal differentiation original looks among competitors outstanding profile in problem solving unique provider for a new market Design task formal creativity, new shapes, color and texture original concepts original topics original concepts original forms Goal

Differential design

formal identity

Conceptual design

identity by solutions uniqueness, new product categories

Integral Design

Our experience shows, that more design procedures at once might be advisable for a specific customer. The selection of the appropriate procedures and their proportion is related to the design-horizon. The design-horizons are related to the product generation, which is supposed to be addressed; existing products, products of the next generation and the products beyond the next generation. Re-Design Design for R&D Advanced design adressing existing products and rejuvenating their looks. adressing next generation products exploring product architectures beyond next generation

The Design-procedures and the Design-horizons describe a matrix of Design services.

< a matrix of design services >

1.1 1.2 1.3 2.1 2.2 2.3 3.1 3.2 3.3 Laser Printing Installation Lock Laser Transfere Printing Unit Smoke Extractor Fan Stirling Pump driven Cryogenic Head Halogen Leak Detector Frequency Converter Superconductive Components Injection Molding Machine

The extent of the design implementation from Detail Design to entire Product Mix Design is confering the third axis to a 3D model of the DESIGN SPACE

< the design space > As an Integral Design company , TESIGN is covering the entire spectrum of Design services toward a comprehensive Design support for the customer. Especially in the domain of equipment, instruments, machines and installations industry where TESIGN has created a high level of expectation, the flexible and accurate design implementation is essential. The exemples illustrate the results of different combinations of procedures and horizons in the pratice of industrial goods by TESIGN. Prof. George Teodorescu Kln, June 27.th 2002