We’re in an age where AI-fueled rapid prototyping and brilliantly consumer startups are getting all the attention. But some of the most profound design breakthroughs didn’t start in the creator’s garage or in the algorithms of artificial intelligence; They were born in the aisles of mainstream consumer stores like Target. In the late 1990s, my company, Michael Graves Design, changed the conversation around design with a teakettle that was cheerful, affordable and elegant. It didn’t just sit in an oven, it stood for a new idea: Good design was not a luxury, but a right. Target design for all programs continued to set the American expectation that great design should be available to all. Design became a post-style corporate strategy and the democratization of design was born.
Today, the democratic design ethos is more relevant than ever. As consumers become increasingly thoughtful, beauty and the products they buy, heritage brands get a chance to take back center stage. To do this, it is necessary to go beyond such waves as nostalgia and “design thinking”. They must emerge from disruption, using proven frameworks such as participatory design, value-sensitive development, and service ecosystems to create meaningful, mass-market innovations.
Let’s break this down.
A new competitive advantage: Let the consumer lead
The concept of democratic product design is simple: Give consumers an authentic voice in the design process. Many brands, when you let customers vote on product features, brands send a strong signal, “We’re building this with You are loyal to the brand and deter competitors from catching up. But the magic only works when the vote is real, shaping what’s next.
For legacy brands, this is a powerful opportunity. You don’t need to reinvent yourself to resonate; You should open the design conversation. For us, this means testing our community prototypes to evaluate the functional accessories offered, asking our customers to explore the color and finish.
Design, not for: cranseation as brand strategy
The next layer, Cocreation, is a participatory design methodology drawing from users, lived to inform what is designed and produced. Consumers are hyper-identified. Cocreation does more than create goodwill. It transfers creative ownership, builds emotional stakes, and cultivates a tribe, not just a customer base.
Recently, our community helped us choose between different finish options for a new Teaketle design. Their selection, brushed brass, was not what we expected. This idea shapes how we start and the customer buys in.
When evaluating your own product development process, think about it in four pillars:
- Dialogue: Do we invite open, two-way feedback?
- Access: Do we share tools and context with users?
- Transparency: Do users not know how their input affects their results?
- Shared risk/reward: are they more than just participants?
By deploying this framework, our community shares product ideas and their life hacks for existing ingredients, helping shape mass production designs.
The case for value-sensitive design
Design is not neutral. It carries hidden signals about who is doing what and for whom it is being paid for. Includes value-sensitive design (VSD): an ethical design approach adapted from technology design that embeds values such as accessibility at every stage of development.
VSD begins with a set of human values. From there, you sterilize:
- Conceptual Research: What values are at play?
- Empirical research: What do users want or need?
- Technical intelligence: How can we incorporate these values into the final design?
We used VSD to create bathroom safety products for Pottery Warehouse. These types of products, including grab bars, are often tarnished and overlooked. No one really wants a grab bar. VSD has helped transform these functional aids into well-designed objects that validate these functional aids with functional accessories, such as combining them with a toilet paper or towel holder. The designs mirror other consumer devices, reflecting style, cachet, and desire through materials, proportions, and lines. Customers have shared that these aids do not scream “medical.” They look like they are in a mental home, not a hospital. People may eventually choose to value safety and style equally. There is a VSD in the dignity of functioning in everyday life.
Thinking, Ecosystem, not Endcap
Brands need to recognize that products are no longer isolated skus, but part of a wider ecosystem of services. Teaketle is not just a tool. It starts your morning ritual, fills your kitchen with sound and steam, and maybe even appears in your next Instagram story. Understanding the intentional design of and within the web increases product resonance. A product lives in routine, ritual, and spaces. So when we respect, we do more than goods. We give meaning.
Legacy brands can lead the way here by connecting the dots for a greater user experience.
PlayBook: from legacy to loyalty
Democratic design is a commitment, not a campaign. Here’s how brands can turn this into a strategy:
Step 1: Run consumer-driven design sprints, pitches, presentations, and b/b tests early in the product development cycle.
Step 2: Enable Cocreation programs with transparency and shared creative ownership.
Step 3: Integrate values mapping and empathy interviews into a brief generation phase of the design.
Step 4: Place each product within a lifestyle ecosystem: rituals, routines and cultural meaning.
Step 5: Measure not just sales, but consideration, engagement, loyalty and brand pride.
Heritage is not an obstacle, but a launchpad
The best design doesn’t require attention, it gains over time through utility, flavor and emotional clarity. Legacy brands uniquely champion a mission that doubles down on the radical idea that good design belongs to everyone.
Design is a strategy, not a side dish. Brands that democratize strategy by inviting their customers in will benefit from their unique scale to not just be relevant, but to lead again.
Ben Wintner is the CEO of Michael Graves Design.