Alessandro Pascoli

The biggest challenge in creating design systems is not developing them but getting all stakeholders, teams, and partners to adopt them. A Design System has a double-faced ambition. Externally, an obvious user-led purpose is to create unified branded experiences. Internally, to ease brand development, governance, and collaborations. Instead of static guidelines, create a Brand Center as the unique platform to collaborate, increase adoption, and manage design at scale, reducing redundancy and creating a shared language and visual consistency across all physical, experiential, and digital channels and touchpoints.

Forget the old and sterile models like mood boards, 3x routes, 1x final concept to please the CEO's ego, a few basic assets, and tons of fake animated mock-ups. Instead, new ideas relevant to customers and impactful for businesses can be generated via iterative co-creation with stakeholders and end users. Prototype solutions to ground concepts in reality, not in assumptions or opinions. Embrace interdisciplinary, actual agile development, incremental approach, and the ability to change direction based on feedback. All in sprint loops to keep the teams focused.

Designing for one specific device or input type is no longer enough; we must think more about how we want people to interact with brands. Many technologies are expanding customer journeys, multiplying channels and touchpoints, and creating multimodal branded experiences: smartphones and smart speakers, wearables, AR, VR devices, game consoles, etc. Some have 2D touchscreens, some are 3D immersive, and some are screenless. So, be sure to design multimodal identity systems to express brands, products, and services in physical, digital, and immersive environments like AR, VR, 3D, Voice UI, Generative AI interfaces, gaming platforms, metaverse, etc.

It is only partially possible to develop and control the brand personality. After all, the C-suite, executives, employees, testimonials, and the actual quality of products and services are indeed the brand personality. That's even true when considering associations like Jobs-Apple, Musk-X, Jordan-Nike, etc. However, creating a brand ecosystem that conveys specific meanings, feelings, and values is entirely possible. Use behavioural design, cultural aesthetics, established trends and styles in the given industry to follow or disrupt.

Many methodologies and tools, often ignored by executives, are available to understand the audience. Contemporary branding is a dialogue that requires businesses to carefully listen to their customers, who are moving faster than corporate business plans. Know your audience, be one of them, be where they are, and know what they want. Targets, segments, and personas are only marginally important after the rise and mass adoption of the internet, tech, and AI in the past two decades. What is crucial is to identify human needs, self-expression, communities, sense of belonging, and values. Once done, the business must authentically and ethically align with them to create a safe space for people-brand relationships.

One thing never changes: brands exist to make money. Nothing is wrong with that; we all know and accept it as customers. The key is creating the ground for a well-balanced people-business relationship that lets people trust the brand while selling what people want. So, a brand's purpose is defined by: The insight to meet current/future people's needs and motivations. The Product/Service that satisfies the customers' needs — the relationship is brought to life through physical and digital interactions. The impact on the world and people: socio-cultural, environmental, and financial.