Branding and Product Design — An Integrated Perspective

Why do winning brands appear to be more creative and authentic than less successful ones? Despite the strong link between famous brands and the products sold under their name, there is still a gap in understanding the relationship between product design and brand-building - Monika Hestad plugs that gap. Branding and Product Design discusses key questions about the link between product and brand and about design processes and innovation. It examines these questions on both macro and micro levels and provides the reader with tools to help understand the role of products in building a brand, and how to bring the brand and the product design process together. These are based on the author's research into branding and product design, her years of teaching these topics, and her own industrial practice. Qualitative interviews delivering an 'insider' perspective on major brands bring abstract concepts to life. The book includes case studies from well-known and up-and-coming brands and will prove invaluable to design practitioners, marketers, managers and other professionals working close to designers. It will also benefit those teaching and studying, particularly if they are involved in the new higher education programmes where business schools and design schools are co-operating to reflect the intersection between design and branding.

Dr Monika Hestad is a brand and design strategist, an associate lecturer at Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design in London and heads the consultancy Brand Valley Design. She has more than a decade's experience as a designer, and has conducted branding and design work in high-tech, FMCG and service sectors, private and public, working with brands including Nokia, Yellow Pages, Thrane & Thrane, Kvaerner, NokiaSiemens Networks, Mars, Stokke, Ringnes (Carlsberg), and Procter & Gamble. In addition to regular teaching in London and at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, she lectures at other prestigious institutions and teaches entrepreneurs and designers in Beijing and Seoul. Hestad has a Masters in Industrial Design from the Oslo School of Architecture and Design and a PhD in Branding and Design from the same school.