As per legendary German industrial designer Dieter Rams, good designs are innovative, aesthetic, unobtrusive, honest, environmentally friendly, long-lasting, thorough to the last detail, and useful, as well as understandable. And they should involve as little design as possible.

Finding the right balance between how a product looks (its form) and what it does (its function) is harder than it sounds. If you steer too much in either direction, you risk pushing your potential customer base away. You also need to consider how you market it. The reality is that no matter how gorgeous and efficient a product is, it also has to sell well to be considered successful. The most ‘perfect’ product is useless if it’s sitting in a warehouse, completely ignored.

If your product is beautiful to look at, you’re going to get a lot of attention. However, if it’s over-designed or overly complicated aesthetically, you might end up confusing your target audience. A product that looks more like an art piece than anything else can be difficult to use and hard to grasp in terms of function, from the very first glance

An over-the-top focus on form over function also alludes to a disconnect between the designer’s vision and the consumer. The former is important, of course! But you can’t alienate the people you hope to sell to. Unless you’re catering exclusively to the luxury market and high-end clients, you can’t rely on an approach that makes showpiece-worthy yet confusing things.

On the other side of the scale are perfectly functional products that do what they’re meant to do, but have little to no aesthetic appeal in their designs. To put it simply, human beings enjoy looking at beautiful things.

So, if your product lacks charisma and presence, it’ll end up being ignored in favor of something more stylish or ‘loud.’

Like it or not, if you want to sell well and keep your business afloat, you have to find a way to make your product visually appealing.

People often identify with the things they buy, seeing them as extensions of their personality, lifestyle, and values. Ignoring form entirely and ending up with a bland-looking product is going to hurt your company’s profits and your reputation as a designer.

Some designers think that if their invention works well, everyone should rush to buy it, regardless of how it looks. They don’t want to ‘pander’ to people’s tastes. And there’s a kernel of truth in that.

That being said, it’s not so much pandering as keeping a finger on society’s pulse and having a deeper understanding of how human and consumer psychology both work. If you’re in design, sales, and marketing, you can’t ignore what fundamentally drives people, from the desire to save time (efficiency) and money (being economical) to appreciating stylish things (love of beauty).

Designers and companies that manage to create an authentic relationship with their customers win out over the long run. Where there’s good communication, quality products, customer support, and mutual values and respect, you’ll also find profitability. Case in point, Investopedia draws attention to the Harvard Business School’s findings about how brand loyalty and profitability strongly correlate, where increasing customer retention rates by 5% leads to increased profits ranging anywhere from 25% to 95%.

Microsoft’s findings mirror a similar sentiment. The company reported that just a 7% increase in brand loyalty improved the customer lifetime value of each client by 85%—in other words, leading to higher long-term profitability and growth. On the other hand, Investopedia explains that 83% of customers would switch brands due to bad customer service, while 74% said they stay loyal to brands due to product quality.

Meanwhile, around a quarter of millennials and Generation Z are willing to spend more on a brand’s products if that company takes a strong stance on corporate social responsibility issues, such as environmental impacts, ethical and financial responsibilities, and philanthropic endeavors.

The best way to gain and keep trust is to follow through on your promises, Forbes writes. Furthermore, you want to be able to be empathetic and understand your customers' opinions, experiences, and concerns. The caveat is that you can’t fake this. All of this has to be authentic if you want to build genuine, long-lasting trust.

Which of the products featured in this list impressed you the most with their creativity? Which designs do you wish that you had come up with first? What are the most imaginative, out-of-the-box design ideas that you’ve seen firsthand?

We’re always interested in hearing your thoughts, so if you have a moment, share them in the comment section at the very bottom of this post.