An analysis of the perception of design elements in the visual identity of fashion high-street brands versus luxury fashion brands

Abstract

The study analyses how design elements in the visual identities of luxury fashion brands versus high-street fashion brands affect consumer perception. Moreover, it seeks to underline what these individual elements communicate to their target audience in order to provide a form of guideline for graphic designers. The design elements in focus here are typography, colour and imagery, space, paper and texture. The analysis focuses on the two brands’ catalogues. These catalogues are given to the customers and therefore form a clear picture as to what each brand seeks to communicate, and are, in some ways, a window into the soul of the brand. What does the brand mean? What does it seek to represent and finally and most importantly how does it show its position within the market. Two seperate focus groups gathered the perception of luxury versus high-street as well as gauged how consumers who are not within the fashion business responded to the catalogues and brands’ logos. The results showed that when asked about luxury brand identities, the participants tended to forgo the physical and thought about the visual elements like colour and type but upon seeing the catalogues the focus went instantly on the tactile, paper, texture and physical dimensions.