Design language
A design language also known as design language system, design vocabulary is an overarching scheme or style that guides the design of a complement of products or architectural settings.
Objectives
Designers wishing to give their suite of products a unique but consistent look and feel define a specification for it, which can describe choices for design aspects such as materials, colour schemes, shapes, patterns, textures, or layouts. They then follow the scheme in the design of each object in the suite.[1]
Usually, design languages are not rigorously defined; the designer basically makes one thing in a similar manner as another. In other cases, they are followed strictly, so that the products gain a strong thematic quality. For example, although there is a great variety of unusual chess set designs, the pieces within a set are usually thematically consistent.
Sometimes, designers encourage others to follow their design languages when decorating or accessorizing.
Industrial design
In automobiles, the design language is often in the grille design. For instance, many BMW vehicles share a design language,[1] including front-end styling consisting of a split "kidney grille" and four circular headlights. Some manufacturers have appropriated design language cues from rival firms.[2]
Software
In software architecture, design languages are related to architecture description languages. The most well known design language is Unified Modeling Language.[citation needed]
In the context of graphical user interfaces, for example, human interface guidelines can be thought of as design languages for applications.[3]
Examples
Software
Apple
Microsoft
Automotive
Cadillac
Ford
Mazda
Mitsubishi
- Dynamic Shield[5]
Subaru
- Dynamic x Solid[6]
See also
- Graphic design
- Human interface guidelines
- Industrial design
- Object-modeling language
- Pattern language
- Software engineering
- User interface design
- Visual design elements and principles
References
- ^ a b Brunner, Robert; Emery, Stewart; Hall, Russ (2009). Do You Matter?: How Great Design Will Make People Love Your Company. Pearson Education. pp. 157–72. ISBN 978-0-13-714244-6.
- ^ "Car Design News Car Design Gallery on Form Language". Archived from the original on 2012-07-07. Retrieved 2008-09-24.
- ^ Winograd, Terry (1996). "Bringing Design to Software". Stanford HCI Group. Retrieved 22 February 2014.
- ^ Patton, Phil (2011-05-20). "Mazda Designers Abandon Nagare, Embrace Kodo". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-12-22.
- ^ "Explained: Mitsubishi's Dynamic Shield Design Philosophy". The News Wheel. 2016-07-20. Retrieved 2019-12-23.
- ^ "DYNAMIC X SOLID: Subaru's Global Architecture Explained". The News Wheel. 2016-07-19. Retrieved 2019-12-23.
External links
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