Gender design

Gender is the designation for the social gender and gender culture, which differ fundamentally from biological gender. Gender design examines the different design features that should be considered when designing gender-specific products.

The importance of design

colour

According to surveys, the sexes agree: their favorite color is blue . According to social clichés, blue is the color of men and pink is that of women. These color stereotypes are also often used for product design in order to classify articles into gender categories. Higher-priced products, on the other hand, deliberately do without bright colors and work with a minimalist design that gives them a high-quality look.

Design means expression for masculine or feminine gestalt characters

Masculine figure character	Feminine character
Black and gray Earth colors unmixed, rich colors little color accents Contrasts	White and light gray light and fresh colors Pastel colors Color accents Tone-on-tone harmonies

shape

The appearance of the shape is also an important aspect of the gender-specific design. These factors cannot be generalized, but the following can be seen:

Masculine figure character	Feminine character
Geometrically simple, horizontally emphasized shapes phallic heavy, massive angular, angular contour big	Clear forms with an emphasis on vertical lightness round light, petite, curved, organic small

font

Differences in relation to the sexes can also be identified in the advertising and addressing of products. While with women's products the focus is on the aesthetics and emotionality of the content, with products for men the rational use comes to the fore. The linguistic style and formatting differ here.

Masculine figure character	Feminine character
Sans serif Capital letters Big font technical, abstract, symmetrical, geometric No ornament or decoration	Antiqua, script italic Small writing artistic, figural, floral, organic extensive, small-scale ornamentation

The importance of communication

Men and women are addressed in different ways in advertising . Men tend to have rational views, which is why they are often addressed in advertising by factual and clear statements. Women, on the other hand, are more emotionally inclined and are therefore usually addressed through sensitive and emotional advertising. Products that deliberately do not want to be classified in gender categories and thus avoid gender-specific clichés rely on a harmonious balance of rationality and emotionality. Brands like Apple and American Apparel are good examples of this.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Eva Kreienkamp : Gender Marketing: impetus for market research, products, advertising and human resources development. Landsberg am Lech 2007, ISBN 978-3-636-03108-2 .
2. ↑ Eva Heller: How colors work. Rowohlt Verlag, Hamburg 1989, ISBN 3-498-02885-5 .
3. ↑ H. Hase: Design of impression characters. In: U. Koppelmann (Ed.): Contributions to product marketing. Volume 15, Cologne 1989, table 7.