There's a renaissance happening in transportation design. In the past several years we've seen an explosion in tech design methods being applied to the way that we move through the world. Tesla should get a lot of the credit for kicking this off in cars specifically, followed by self-driving cars like Cruise.

I find that transportation really benefits, more than other industries, from very intentional use of metaphor. For instance, a lot of transportation-associated design is really some form of wayfinding. How can we instantly create metaphors that help people navigate the world around them?

One key way that's happening is through brand-associated color:

I adore how Polestar has taken a hallmark of premium cars—color accents—and used it as a brand signifier. What's more, the yellow is introduced in places associated with the car's safety—their responsibility to care for you, the user.

I went to a great event several years ago hosted by AIGA NY; it featured Peter Markatos (ECD at Uber) and Forest Young (then a principal at Wolff Olins and now, appropriately, Global Head of Brand at Rivian, an EV upstart). It made a real impression on me.

He was talking about the Uber rebrand they did—you know, the one that walked back from the square-peg-round-circle motif (it's really incredibly ironic that this literally didn't fit). In particular, he was talking about the Uber blue, an accent color they introduced to show care for the user. It's the "Safety Check" icon, the seatbelt, the user navigation arrow and route, etc.—everything where Uber's hospitality and commitment to safety touches you.

I can't help but feel like Polestar may have been inspired here with their incredible use of color, too.