The Aesthetic of “Edgy” and the Problem of Distressed Fonts

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.

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.

What makes design feel elevated? A Constellations visual study reveals the heritage codes, colors, textures, and forms behind elevated aesthetics.

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…

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.

When We Look at Robots, What Are We Really Seeing? Understanding the Tools-Versus-Beings Divide in Robot Perception What makes a robot seem helpful versus creepy? Using our platform Constellations, designed to capture perception through visual interaction, we asked...

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.

Fifty designers rated visual data, revealing that structure—not style—is the key driver of visual trust and credibility.

Perception Map Test: What Is Your Favorite Halloween Candy? This test asked participants a deceptively simple question: What is your favorite Halloween candy? Behind the wrappers, though, the answers revealed powerful emotional codes. From generational classics to...

Is it "Spooky" or "Scary"? A visual study of how people separate spooky from scary — and what that says about our modern relationship with fear. Halloween sits at the strange crossroads of delight and dread. Every October, our visual culture fills with ghosts,...