The path of designing: An analytic approach to product and brand with a case study of Turkish Raki bottles

In recent times; every aspect of our lives seems to be changing rapidly, and it is getting even faster by every step. To supply that demand of rapid change; professional designers need to work in a quick and precise pace. Due to the fact that the need is heavy, specialized design fields have emerged in a short amount of time, although their working mechanisms are similar to some degree. In this thesis work; at first, an understanding about how designing came to be what it is today is formed, and then two of the factions of it -namely branding and industrial product design- are analyzed. After conducting a historical and qualitative analysis upon those subjects, an intersection field between them is put into crosshairs; packaging design. The selected group for the case studies; Turkish rakı bottles are inspected by pointing out visual features of them and interviewing their designers. How and why the products are designed, their design processes are put on crosshairs to point out what made them successful in given market conditions, what made them stand out. As a final act, a speculation about design processes in general with the gathered information so far to come up with a general formula that would be followed in order to design efficiently. Understanding design processes in an inductive manner in such a way should be useful for every professional of today and future associated with designing in any measure.