Defining Karma’s luxury strategy, brand, and product direction
Defining a luxury strategy for Karma that guided brand, product development, and the delivery of value to customers.
Karma Automotive was entering the luxury electric vehicle market with a product that combined advanced technology and handcrafted design. While the vehicle embodied many qualities associated with luxury, the organization lacked a clearly articulated strategy defining what luxury meant for the brand and how that philosophy should guide future decisions.
Leadership sought to establish a cohesive framework that could inform brand storytelling, product development, and the broader experience delivered to customers. The goal was to move beyond isolated design decisions and define a consistent approach to luxury that could guide the company’s value creation across multiple disciplines.
Research and exploration focused on identifying cultural and aesthetic principles that could translate Karma’s ambitions into tangible experiences. These principles informed both strategic thinking and design direction across the organization.
Diamond Digital became the first major project to apply this strategy, translating the luxury framework into a distinctive digital interface language for the vehicle.
Following several successful collaborations with Karma Automotive’s product and marketing teams, a strategic challenge emerged at the executive level. Marketing leadership was approaching the brand through a premium product strategy, while design and engineering were developing Karma around the principles of luxury culture and experience. The conflicting perspectives created uncertainty around product direction, brand positioning, and long-term market identity.
To resolve this misalignment, OSD initiated a strategic research effort to examine the fundamental principles that distinguish luxury from premium products. The work explored the cultural, economic, and behavioral dimensions of luxury consumption, drawing from brand theory, art history, sociology, and contemporary luxury markets.
The research culminated in a comprehensive strategic primer presented to Karma’s executive leadership. The study articulated the philosophical foundations of luxury, clarified the differences between premium and luxury market positioning, and proposed a set of guiding principles to inform Karma’s product development and brand narrative.
These insights helped align leadership around a shared vision for Karma’s future, positioning the company as a modern luxury automotive brand rooted in design, craftsmanship, and cultural aspiration.
Karma Automotive sought to establish a distinctive identity within the emerging luxury electric vehicle market. While engineering and marketing teams were aligned around the idea of a premium product, the organization lacked a shared cultural definition of what luxury meant for the brand.
OSD conducted research across luxury industries, cultural history, and behavioral psychology to identify archetypal patterns that shape how luxury brands communicate aspiration and identity.
Through this work, a framework of brand archetypes was developed to guide Karma’s narrative, product philosophy, and customer experience.
The resulting strategy was compiled into a comprehensive brand archetypes brand book presented to leadership and product teams. The document provided cultural references, behavioral traits, and experiential cues intended to inform design decisions, storytelling, and long-term brand development.
For the launch of the Karma Revero, Karma Automotive needed a distinctive digital interface that reflected the brand’s luxury positioning and design philosophy. Rather than simply designing screens, the challenge was to establish a cohesive visual system that could embody Karma’s values: timeless beauty, craftsmanship, and inspiration from nature.
Working with Karma’s team, the project explored the metaphor of the diamond as a foundational design language. Just as light refracts through the facets of a diamond, information in the interface would emerge through layered geometric structures that reveal and recede based on context.
Early explorations focused on translating diamond lattice structures into a flexible UI framework.
These studies led to two primary directions: a structured Art Deco–inspired grid and a more expressive radial lattice system that emphasized motion, light, and spatial hierarchy.
The final production interface combined these explorations into a refined instrument cluster and infotainment system for the Karma Revero. The resulting design created a visually distinctive digital experience that aligned with the vehicle’s craftsmanship while presenting information in a clear, elegant hierarchy.
The Karma Diamond Digital platform launched with the Karma Revero and established a visual foundation for future Karma vehicle interfaces.
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