What makes something look “American”?

Perception Drives How National Identity Is Recognized

We showed 57 people a mix of posters, stamps, logos, and packaging—all using familiar red, white, and blue palettes, stars, stripes, and vintage typography—and asked them to sort by what felt American and what didn’t.

Study Design and Audience

The results surprised us. The dividing line wasn’t style. Modernist and vintage designs appeared on both sides. It wasn’t color—patriotic palettes saturated the rejected images just as heavily as the accepted ones.

The difference was purpose.

Images that served civic, commemorative, or institutional functions—USPS stamps, Olympic graphics, portraits of MLK and JFK, “Made in USA” certification marks—clustered strongly positive. Images that used the same visual language to sell products or decorate surfaces clustered strongly negative. Audiences distinguished, with remarkable consistency, between symbols that stand for something and symbols that are selling something.

Below are the three constellations—what resonated, what was rejected, and where opinion split. The full analysis follows.

The test was distributed to a general audience without demographic segmentation. Respondents interacted with three APM screens, placing green (+) dots on images that looked American to them, and red (–) dots on those that did not. Based on their responses, the image set was sorted into three visual constellations: positive, negative, and neutral.

See below for the full and detailed report.

Resonance, Resistance, and Contested Constellations

Previous Studies and Results

When Client’s Say “Make It Pop”

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?

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...

Will the Most Authentic Santa Please Stand Up

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.

What Does “Visual Data” Look Like

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

Everyone’s Favorite Halloween Candy

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...

Spooky Or Scary?

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,...

Design Meets Data—Stay in the Loop

We’re just getting started. Subscribe below to get more studies, reflections, and visual data insights straight to your inbox

Mailing List

Sign up to participate in interactive visual surveys and receive exclusive analysis reports on timely, trending topics—all from a visual perception perspective. You'll also get product updates, creative case studies, and smart ways to sharpen your visual strategy.