Research Audience and Competitive Landscape Before a Project

1. Go to perplexity.ai
2. Click Sign Up and create an account with Google or email
3. You're on the free plan by default — no credit card required
4. The interface is simple: a single search/chat field

What you should see: A clean search interface with a text field. Perplexity looks like a chat interface but returns web-sourced answers with citations, unlike regular chatbots.

For any new project, start with understanding how competitors present themselves:

1. Click the search field and type your research question
2. Perplexity searches the web, reads multiple sources, and synthesizes an answer with links to the original sources

Example queries to run:

For brand identity projects:

What are the visual design conventions in the [industry] market? Who are the main brands and how do they differentiate visually?

For packaging design:

What visual design trends are dominant in [product category] packaging in 2025? Include specific brands and aesthetic approaches.

For web/digital work:

What UI design patterns and visual styles are most common for [type of company] websites in 2025?

What you should see: A 3–5 paragraph answer with specific brand names, visual characteristics, and links to sources. Much faster than Google — it synthesizes rather than just listing links.

Follow up with an audience-focused question:

Who is the target customer for [type of company/product]? What are their demographic characteristics, values, and visual preferences? What visual styles and aesthetics do they respond to?

For consumer brands, also ask:

What Instagram accounts, magazines, or visual media does [target audience description] typically follow or consume? What visual aesthetic is associated with this audience?

What you should see: A synthesis of audience characteristics that gives you useful design direction — not just demographic stats but lifestyle and aesthetic signals.

Ask about emerging or dominant trends that are relevant to the project:

What typography and color trends are influencing [industry] branding in 2025? Are there specific design movements or aesthetics gaining traction?

For specific deliverable types:

What are current best practices in [type of design — logo design, annual report design, retail packaging] for [industry type]?

Take the key findings from your Perplexity research and create a 1-slide "Competitive Landscape" summary:

1. Open Figma, Keynote, or Google Slides
2. Create a slide titled "Competitive Visual Landscape"
3. Include:

   • 3–5 competitor brand thumbnails (from their websites)
   • 2–3 bullets on visual conventions you found ("Premium players use dark backgrounds and serif headlines; challenger brands use bright color and sans-serif")
   • 1–2 trend notes ("Sustainability brands moving away from kraft paper aesthetic toward clean white")
   • Your proposed direction and how it differentiates

Include this slide at the start of every creative presentation — it anchors your recommendations in market context and makes them feel strategic rather than arbitrary.