We’re in an age where AI-fueled rapid prototyping and sleek direct-to-consumer startups seem to capture all the attention. But some of the most profound design disruptions didn’t start in a founder’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 joyful, affordable, and elegant. It didn’t just sit on a stove, it stood for a new idea: Good design was not a luxury, but a right. Target’s Design for All programs went on to define America’s expectation that great design should be available to everyone. Design evolved from a styling afterthought into a corporate strategy, and the democratization of design was born.
Today, democratic design ethos feels more urgent than ever. As consumers increasingly expect thoughtfulness, beauty, and accessibility from the products they buy, heritage brands have a chance to reclaim center stage. To do that, they need to go beyond nostalgia, and beyond quips like “design thinking.” They need to lean into design as disruption, using proven frameworks like participatory design, value-sensitive development, and service ecosystems to create meaningful, mass-market innovation.
Let’s break that down.
THE NEW COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: LET THE CONSUMER LEAD
The notion of democratic product design is simple: Give consumers a genuine voice in the design process. Many brands have shown that when you allow customers to vote on product features, brands send the powerful signal, “we’re building this with you,” which can shift loyalty to your brand and deter competitors from catching up. But the magic only works when the vote is real, shaping what comes next.
For legacy brands, this is a powerful opportunity. You don’t need to “reinvent” yourself to resonate; you need to open the design conversation. To us, this means engaging our community to test prototypes to evaluate proposed functional enhancements, to choose colors and finishes, and to ask customers for product categories to explore.
DESIGN WITH, NOT FOR: COCREATION AS BRAND STRATEGY
The next layer is cocreation, a participatory design methodology drawing from users lived experiences to inform what gets designed and manufactured. Consumers are hyper-attuned to authenticity. Cocreation does more than generate goodwill. It transfers creative ownership, builds emotional stakes, and cultivates a tribe, not just a customer base.
Recently, our community helped choose between different finish options for a new teakettle design. Their choice, brushed brass, wasn’t what we expected. That insight is shaping our launch and will deepen customer buy-in.
When evaluating your own product development process, think of it in four pillars:
- Dialogue: Do we invite open, two-way feedback?
- Access: Are we sharing tools and context with users?
- Transparency: Do users know how their input affects outcomes?
- Shared risk/reward: Are they more than just participants?
By deploying this framework, our community shares product ideas and their own life hacks for existing items, and this helps shape mass produced designs.
THE CASE FOR VALUE-SENSITIVE DESIGN
Design isn’t neutral. It carries implicit signals about who it’s for, what it enables, and what it assumes. That’s where value sensitive design (VSD) comes in: an ethical design approach adapted from technology design, embedding values like accessibility at every phase of development.
VSD begins with a set of human values. From there, you iterate:
- Conceptual investigation: What values are at play?
- Empirical research: What do users want or need?
- Technical exploration: How can we embed these values in the final design?
We used VSD to create a line of bathroom safety products for Pottery Barn. These product types, including grab bars, are often stigmatized and overlooked. No one necessarily wants a grab bar. VSD helped us turn these functional aids into affirming, well-crafted objects with functional enhancements, like combining them with a toilet paper or towel holder. The designs reflect other consumer fixtures, with materials, proportions, and lines reflecting style, cache, and aspiration. Customers shared that these aids don’t scream “medical.” They look like they belong in a thoughtfully designed home, not a hospital. People can finally choose to equally value safety and style. That’s VSD in action—designing dignity into daily life.
THINK ECOSYSTEM, NOT ENDCAP
Brands must recognize that products are no longer isolated SKUs, they’re part of a broader service ecosystem. A teakettle isn’t 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 that web, and intentionally designing within it, multiplies product resonance. A product lives in routines, rituals, and spaces. When we honor that, we make more than goods. We make meaning.
Legacy brands can lead hereby connecting thee dots into a more cohesive user experience.
THE PLAYBOOK: FROM LEGACY TO LOYALTY
Democratizing design isn’t a campaign, it’s a commitment. Here’s how legacy brands can turn that into a strategy:
Step 1: Run consumer-driven design sprints, votes, submissions, and A/B tests early in the product development cycle.
Step 2: Activate cocreation programs with transparency and shared creative ownership.
Step 3: Integrate values mapping and empathy interviews into the design brief generation stage.
Step 4: Position each product within a lifestyle ecosystem: rituals, routines, and cultural meaning.
Step 5: Measure not just sales, but sentiment, engagement, loyalty, and brand pride.
HERITAGE ISN’T A HURDLE, IT’S A LAUNCHPAD
The best design doesn’t demand attention, it earns it over time through usefulness, delight, and emotional clarity. Legacy brands are uniquely poised to champion that mission by doubling down on the radical idea that good design belongs to everyone.
Design isn’t the garnish, it’s the strategy. And legacy brands that democratize that strategy by inviting their customers in won’t just stay relevant, they’ll take advantage of their inherent scale to lead again.
Ben Wintner is CEO of Michael Graves Design.
