From my experience as a marketer, visual communication within an industry usually follows similar “macro” patterns. Brands may differ in execution, but they often move within the same overall visual trends. However, there is no correct design or perfect way to communicate; if there were, every company would be successful. Human beings are complex, and the way we understand information, process it, and interpret an idea is also complex. As Thales Teixeira explains, there is no universally best advertising execution because effectiveness depends on the context and the audience.
In luxury, the way brands communicate is especially interesting because sophistication, exclusivity, and elegance are often expressed through minimalism, visual restraint, spacing, typography, and other small design elements. Miyazaki explains that elements such as symmetry, texture, alignment, and color can influence how audiences interpret a marketing message. Bottega Veneta, for example, may communicate luxury through subtle branding, texture, and restraint, while Louis Vuitton uses highly recognizable visual codes such as its monogram and heritage symbols. Both communicate luxury, but they do so through different interpretations of what luxury should look like.
However, there is no single recipe. The same design choices can create different reactions across consumer segments, which is why understanding the unicorn persona, the ideal buyer for that specific product, is crucial. What one consumer interprets as elegant and exclusive, another may interpret as distant or empty.
In luxury, simplicity only works when the audience reads it as value rather than absence.
For marketers, this means design decisions should not be based only on what looks premium internally, but on how the intended audience is actually likely to interpret those elements.
Bibliography
Teixeira, T. S. (2015). When People Pay Attention to Video Ads and Why. Harvard Business Review.
Miyazaki, A. (2023). 1 An Introduction to Deconstructing Marketing Communications: Modes, Platforms, Formats, and Elements.