The Threat of Democratic Brochure Design

Without boring you by a long walk down the history of democracy in this country, I will say that democratic brochure design, in the way it is known today, was invented in 2006 by post-Facebook blogging heads.The Threat of Democratic Brochure Design

It started out as a fun idea: Once brochure designs went live on various websites, users would critique and offer their suggestions. Much like a wiki. Of course anyone can share an opinion, and that is only the first phase of this process.

So what does it all mean? Let’s take an example from last year. The “Motrin Moms” brochure design involved a hard-hitting ad campaign pointed directly at women. The marketing people over there figured out a vast majority of their customers were women. So they came out with a long campaign that featured women describing how much pain they were in. Their brochures and ads were all very blatantly targeted this way.

Only problem was that everyone who read these brochures or saw the ads, whether man or woman, found them incredibly offensive. They were just too blunt and it was incredibly presumptuous to assume a woman would need or want a different brochure design than a man.

What do you prefer? Traditional or democratic brochure design? Let us know in the comments section.

A more comprehensive definition is “The practice of everyday individuals accessing, manipulating, and evaluating a given brochure via web-based channels.”

THE LESSON

So what is it? The strictest definition is “a form of brochure design that organizes along democratic lines rather than commercial or ideological lines.”

The Threat of Democratic Brochure Design

That my friends, is the magic of democratic brochure design at work.

http://mindflashad.com/branding-concept-quiz/

THE HISTORY

It soon became apparent to a number of people, that creating in a democratic model had some distinct advantages. For one, it engaged customers and helped improve their rights. Meaning, you couldn’t just write whatever you wanted in a brochure anymore if it was subject to public scrutiny.

Of course…that’s using the word to define the sentence, which is a big no-no.

Now what if they just put that brochure design up on their site, next to some other ideas, and had the people vote on it…DEMOCRATICALLY? They would have sourced millions of users to the site in order to critique, design, and play around with the brochures. That would have engaged the customers and made everyone happy.

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Kirill Storch

Smaller businesses saw it as a way to compete with the big names in their fields. Vast firms would spend millions in ad costs, whereas underdogs would get comparably good results by using the democratic model.

THE DEFINITION

Odds are that if you are reading this article, you have never heard of democratic brochure design. Yet it is one of the most revolutionary media concepts of our time and has been used to devastating effect by a number of national brands. You should be aware of the impact of this design on corporate identity and the world.

And yet another definition…and our personal favorite is: “A form of art that is not controlled by you but will make you money.”