Try experiential graphic design if you want your brand to tell a story and evoke particular emotions. Experiential graphic design is more than business logos, marketing materials, signboards, and artwork. It allows brands to connect with their target audiences through spatial storytelling. Since graphic design is an imperative and essential part of a brand’s journey, every entrepreneur and marketer must explore experiential graphic design for more interactive and immersive experiences. Read on as we dig deeper into what experiential graphic design is and how to apply it in marketing.
What is experiential graphic design?
Also known as environmental graphic design, experiential graphic design refers to designing a built environment that elicits a response from people. It’s a multidisciplinary field that combines architecture, interior design, industrial design, traditional graphic design, and other relevant disciplines to engage people within the built environment. It focuses on enhancing a user’s perception and interaction with a space. EGD creates meaningful and memorable experiences.
Experiential graphic design aims to ignite the senses and communicate with users through graphic design. It involves selecting 2D visual components, such as murals, artwork, signs, wayfinders, or other displays in an indoor or outdoor space. Like traditional graphic design, EGD also uses proper structure, typography, and color palettes that enhance the overall effect of the space.
Experiential graphic design is under the umbrella of environmental graphic design. In environmental graphic design, designers shape a space to achieve specific goals. The space must inspire a feeling, elicit a response, and convey the right message through design.
The history of experiential graphic design goes back to wayfinding in subway stations, airports, hospitals, museums, highways, and city streets. Today, brands use EGD to enhance employee productivity, increase brand awareness, and garner affinity from target audiences.
Here’s an example of an experiential graphic design during the Magic of Lights holiday event, which American Family Insurance sponsored in Wisconsin. It creates an immersive experience for visitors with an interactive augmented reality, a majestic ice throne, custom lighting design, and giant screens.
Where can you see experiential graphic design?
You’ll find experiential graphic design in these areas:
- Wayfinding systems
- Signages
- Sign programs
- Exhibitions
- Retail design
- Architectural projects
- Themed spaces
- Corporate offices
- Public buildings
- Outdoor spaces
- Location-based entertainment venues
- Branded events
- City-wide events or conferences
- Education centers
- Malls
- Entertainment centers
What are the fundamental principles and aspects of experiential graphic design?
Here are the key aspects and principles of EGD:
- Multi-sensory experience: EGD must consider not only visual elements. However, it must also ignite auditory, tactile, and olfactory aspects.
- Spatial design integration: Incorporates graphic elements into a space’s architectural and environmental features, integrating them seamlessly with the overall design.
- Branding and identity: Involves creating a cohesive and consistent brand image within the built environment, reinforcing a brand’s identity through visuals and experiences.
- Narrative and storytelling: Often tells a story or conveys a message through visuals, enhancing the emotional connection between the user and the space.
- Interactive and digital elements: Incorporates interactive and digital technologies to engage and interact with users, offering dynamic and evolving experiences.
- Cultural and social context: Considers a space’s cultural and social context, tailoring designs to resonate with the specific audience and community.
- Human-centered design: Places the user at the center, focusing on understanding their needs, behaviors, and preferences to design spaces that meet their requirements and provide positive experiences.
- Aesthetics and visual language: Utilizes various design elements, color schemes, typography, imagery, and graphic styles to create visually appealing and impactful environments.
- Adaptability and flexibility: Designs often adapt to changes, growth, or modifications within a space, ensuring longevity and relevance over time.
How is experiential graphic design applied in marketing?
Experiential graphic design is integrated into marketing these days. Brands prefer to provide more interactive experiences for their target audiences. Whether they design branded events, company spaces, or online assets, experiential marketing is an effective way for users to recognize and remember brands.
An example of experiential marketing would be how Amazon incorporated AR, VR, and mobile apps for its Egg Hack campaign. Consumers would be able to scan any egg via their phones and unlock a coupon consisting a free Jimmy Dean sausage roll.
Here’s how experiential graphic design is applied in marketing:
- Event branding and trade shows: Experiential graphic design creates visually appealing booths, displays, and signage at events and trade shows. Eye-catching designs attract visitors and effectively communicate the brand’s message and offerings.
- Pop-up stores and retail spaces: Brands use experiential design to transform physical spaces into immersive brand experiences, enhancing the customer’s journey and increasing brand affinity. Engaging visuals, interactive displays, and captivating installations leave a lasting impression.
- Retail window displays: Creative graphic designs on storefront windows entice passersby, pique curiosity, and draw them into the store. These designs align with the brand’s identity and current campaigns, generating interest and foot traffic.
- Digital marketing and social media: Experiential graphic design is adapted for online platforms to create visually striking and engaging digital content. Infographics, interactive visuals, animated graphics, and social media posts effectively convey brand messages and engage the online audience.
- Brand activations and installations: Brands use experiential graphic design in interactive installations and brand activations. Creative designs encourage user participation, interaction, and social sharing, amplifying the brand’s reach and creating a buzz.
- Interactive kiosks and displays: Experiential designs are used in interactive kiosks and displays that provide information, collect user data, or facilitate transactions. These designs enhance user engagement and make the interaction more enjoyable and informative.
- Experiential marketing campaigns: Brands create immersive marketing campaigns using experiential graphic design elements like augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), or interactive displays. These campaigns offer the target audience a unique, engaging, and memorable experience.
- Product launches and showrooms: Experiential graphic design is applied to product launches and showrooms to showcase products in an engaging and visually appealing manner. Creative displays and graphics enhance the overall brand experience for potential customers.
- Digital signage and outdoor advertising: Various outdoor advertising strategies use dynamic and interactive digital signage with visually appealing designs to grab attention, convey brand messages, and enhance brand visibility.
- Brand storytelling through environments: Experiential graphic design helps tell a compelling brand story through the environment. Graphics, imagery, and narratives are strategically placed to guide customers through a journey that conveys the brand’s values, history, and mission.
- Sensory branding: Beyond visual design, experiential graphic design may incorporate other sensory elements such as sound, scent, or touch to create a multi-dimensional and memorable brand experience.
Conclusion
By integrating experiential graphic design in marketing strategies, brands can create immersive, memorable, and engaging experiences that resonate with their target audience. And this will ultimately lead to customer connections, brand awareness, loyalty, and conversions.
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