CMF, which stands for Color, Material & Finish, is an area of specialty within the greater industrial design discipline. At large, design-centric hardware companies, CMF designers work alongside industrial designers and product design engineers to make sure that the chromatic and tactile identities of the product are on brand and in vogue. On smaller teams, a lone industrial designer might take on this role.During the design phase, CMF is often communicated with stakeholders via renderings and descriptive language. However, when an appearance model or production units need to be made, CMF needs to be communicated more precisely so that there’s no room for misinterpretation. In this article, we’ll introduce some terms you can use for lean, effective CMF communication.