BRAND or TRADEMARK is a complex of elements composed of physical and material components such as the logotype, the product, the communication and by a set of factors such as the performance and the choices of the firm that are immaterial, but no less capable of determining a precise personality. The Brand identifies a specific supply, guarantees a standard of quality and has an emotive and social value that all justify the purchase and the use of that specific product. In general the client chooses a product of a certain brand not only because he recognizes a certain standard of quality but also because it helps him to communicate in the social context in which he lives and with which he interacts: the personality, the taste and, at times, also the level of his economic well-being.

As such, a Trademark or Brand must have an identity first of all, it must be recognizable, since it cannot generate value if its identity is not perceived. In practice, imagining a group of consumers with specific socio-economic characteristics, the combination of trademark and product works to increase the production cost, therefore an article which is recognizable as belonging to a specific brand assumes a greater value in the eyes of those who see it, so it has a greater social content for those who possess it. In this mechanism, closely tied to perception, the DESIGN plays a role of prime importance since it has the function of creating the identity of the product. When the designer creates a new collection or a new line of products for a specific company he has to consider both the needs of the potential consumers and the system of aesthetic values of the company at the same time. The capacity to reconcile these two factors that must communicate with each other to give an identity to the new product comes into play, since the brand, without products, has no economic or social meaning. It is indeed true that the client buys the brand but since he pays for a product the brand must have form, texture and usefulness. In essence one is dealing with an activity in which talent, competence and method are united: on one hand it is necessary to have a deep understanding of the consumer as an individual, but at the same time to understand the mechanisms of social interaction. On the other hand one needs to understand the competitive context in which the business operates but also to have the ability to give aesthetic form to the values of the purchasing firm.

Good DESIGN is not stylism, which is the application to any product, of any business, of the style of the designer, but it is the ability to give to any business its own unique style which gives physical form to the brand. Also different is the intervention of the designer when he needs to work on a brand that already has its own history. Indeed, in such a case his task is that of evaluating how to adapt the language of the evolving competitive context to the consumer, who responds to a growing number of brands every day and continues to have fewer material needs. This is a job that is no less delicate than the one mentioned before. Indeed one needs to identify the formal elements that have given life and character to the brand over time, to evaluate them critically, to adapt them to the specific time period and then to link them using a more contemporary language, to generate a new perceived positioning that is useful and coherent, eliminating that which is obsolete or has lost value. In short, to speak of a brand without considering the topic of the design and its ability to give it a form is only a partial way of approaching the subject. Increasingly the boundaries between the two most common approaches to design, those relating to the world of industrial design and to that of fashion, are crossed through a process of contamination that combines the functionality of the first with the symbolic and expressive nature of the second. The aim is to create an increasingly clear distinction from the competitors and, as a result, an increasingly greater perceived value.