Smart Brands and Identities: building friendly bridges between Design and Smartness

When adapting an environment toward making it smarter than it is, every user is expected to develop a certain degree of design literacy to effectively contribute with and make use of relevant data. Little research has been done regarding both the expected level of users’ design literacy in smart environments and the developmental tactics for these essential skills to be acquired. Simultaneously, there is little acknowledgement of the relevance of these environments’ brands as important assets in supporting design literacy. This paper speculates on the relevance of investing in “smart visual identities”, which configure as a meaningful and holistic branding resource. Hermeneutics informed the qualitative analysis of content in this research. Two essential dimensions of smart visual identities were identified, and a definition of “smart brand” is proposed, suggesting that highly relatable brand identities allow individuals develop their design literacy while users of a smart learning environment.