As a graphic designer one needs to face the target audience time and again during their regular working day. Needless to say, a graphic designer rarely has the opportunity to make direct contact with the audience and that means one is driven by data, and data alone. This data usually comes in the form of feedback from account or brand managers. What this data usually suggest is that people from the target audience are extremely stupid...

So, you think stupid is too strong of a word? Well, at least the marketing people don't think it is. For example, if you see something that looks like a book, do you really need to see 'Book' written underneath it to understand it is a book? Or are you just too afraid to take a wild guess and make a mistake? Anyway, the audience I'm talking about is strictly local. This may or may not apply to the global population, but here in Serbia, marketers seem to believe that most people in the general population are quite stupid and uneducated.

This in turn makes me sick, because by constantly patronizing the target audience and keeping the level of our advertising material plain dumb we are probably doing even more harm. I've come to believe that the 'stupidity' marketers are referring to is simply perpetuated by marketers themselves. I know it's a chicken and egg type of discussion, but I also know the vicious circle has to break somewhere and it can only happen by chicken giving birth to a mutated egg.

If I could help it, I'd probably create a more stimulating visual and conceptual environment and simply force people to think on a higher level. By elevating our designs (or 'evolving' it, if you want), we are in a position to make people think harder and look for the information they need. Experimental layouts (and here in Serbia, what we call 'experimental' is hardly new to the more advanced graphic design scenes abroad), and intelectually challenging copy can do a lot to help people educate themselves by simply, and passively looking at them. What we, as marketers are doing, can, thus, have an educational value, not just increase profit for our clients.

However, as usual, there are not many marketers who are willing to risk, and think outside the box. Meanwhile, you, the target audience, are kept dumb by the dumb advertising material, whith, perhaps, only a few exceptions that may or may not have been noticed...