We map what people sense but can't say. Real audiences, real reactions, one clear picture.
What does high quality orange juice look like? 50 people sorted 24 images of photography, labels and packaging, placing 535 green and red dots. Dew on cut fruit took 97%. A trendy can took zero. Packaging only wins when real fruit surrounds it. One variable explains every score: distance from the tree.
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“Health” and “wellness” get used almost interchangeably — but do people picture the same thing? We asked 26 participants to sort 36 images between the two words with no definitions provided. The boundary they drew was strikingly consistent: health is what the body does; wellness is what it receives.
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Every year, brands spend fortunes on nostalgia — the polar bears, the holiday trucks, the Santa on retainer — betting that feeling is what sells the drink. So we tested it. We asked 467 people what actually makes them crave a Coke, and the results were unkind to the marketing budget: not the beloved icons, but cold, wet, in-motion liquid — condensation on glass, a bottle at the lips. People don’t crave the brand. They crave the drink.
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What makes design feel elevated? A Constellations visual study reveals the heritage codes, colors, textures, and forms behind elevated aesthetics.
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The Aesthetic of “Edgy” and the Problem of Distressed Fonts What do people mean when something feels “edgy”? It’s a word that shows up in creative direction all the time, but like most aesthetic language, it points to a vibe more than a clear set of decisions. So we set out to define it. Using […]
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We tested six dimensions of the film’s visual direction using Constellations, from character design to villain treatment to overall style, spanning every era of the franchise. Despite Breath of the Wild being the bestselling Zelda game by a wide margin, its characters, enemies, and aesthetics consistently split the audience. What participants converged on was Ocarina of Time…
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Every designer has heard it: “Can you make it pop?” It’s one of the most common pieces of creative feedback, and one of the hardest to act on, because it points to a feeling more than a specific fix. So we decided to find out what “pop” actually means. Using Constellations, we asked creative professionals to sort images by which ones pop and which ones don’t—and the results were surprisingly consistent.
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What makes a robot look helpful instead of creepy? 21 people placed green and red dots on 17 robot images. Industrial arms with no face scored 90.91% to 100% helpful. Humanoids in kitchens and living rooms scored 81.82% to 100% creepy, even while caring for the elderly. The one humanoid that won had a camera for a face.
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The images people embraced all shared one thing: they caught Santa in the middle of doing something. Reading his list by candlelight. Kneeling to feed a reindeer in falling snow. The images they rejected? Cute graphics, staged photos, and counterintuitively, some of the most beautifully rendered Santas in the set.
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Fifty designers rated visual data, revealing that structure—not style—is the key driver of visual trust and credibility.
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What is everyone’s favorite Halloween candy? 26 people sorted 24 candies on a 75% threshold. KitKat took 91.67%, M&Ms 92.86%. Jawbreakers, Laffy Taffy and York took no green dots at all. Three nougat bars were refused, Snickers split the room, candy corn landed at exactly 50%. Texture, not flavour, predicts the verdict.
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“Spooky” and “scary” are not interchangeable. 22 people sorted 36 Halloween images: 16 spooky, 13 scary, 7 neither. Spooky was warm palettes, handmade texture and friendly ghosts. Scary was cold contrast, hard geometry, masks and faceless figures. Presence within safety versus absence within power.
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For July 4th, we explored what “American” looks like in 2025—revealing shared civic values through visual perception mapping.
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