Design Principles = North Star
A mood board can tell you how a product should feel, but it doesn't always help you make decisions.
One thing we've found incredibly useful at the beginning of a project is establishing a simple design framework, or a set of design principles, with the brand.
Not a giant document. And not a rigid set of rules.
More like a handful of agreed-upon guardrails that we can keep coming back to as the product develops.
For example, one could be “Purposeful”. Prompting questions like:
- Does this feature have a reason to be here?
- Does it make the product easier or better to use?
- Would the customer understand its purpose?
Another brand might have completely different guardrails: expressive, intuitive, refined, adaptable, familiar, unexpected.
Aligning on what they mean is important.
At Form Space, we like to establish these alongside the overall concept, mood and visual direction at the beginning of a project - or working through a category expansion.
It helps us understand what the brand is seeing. It helps the brand understand what we heard. And it gives everyone something to come back to once we're deep in the details and making hundreds of small decisions.
The framework isn't permanent. It can evolve as the product does.
But having that anchor at the beginning can make the path forward a whole lot clearer.
Need help developing a luggage, bag, or travel accessory?
Form Space helps brands expand into new product categories through end-to-end product design and development.
