Is our current design and innovation systems modeled after the males mind? Are we living in a world where the consumer culture is defined by masculine standards? Manmade explores these questions and ends with an invitation to return to the origins of design and create a complimentary feminine system. We call that system Girlapproved. www.girlapproved.us

1. The design revolution
where boy and girl live
happily everafter.
GIRLAPPROVED
NEW RULE: EVERYONE WINS

2. MARKETING IS A
GAME AND SOMEONE
MADE UP THE RULES

3. ...AND THE BRAND
THAT GETS THE MOST
CUSTOMERS WINS

4. In the beginning, even before there was marketing there was
man, and man invented commercial design and consumer
culture as we know it. The game of marketing, including all
its rules, how to play, and how to win, was manmade.

5. Marketing, design, the consumer and the creative industry at
large has been established on a foundation of masculinity.
This is true for all creative industries.

6. OR MORE FORMALLY...

7. BELIEFS STANDARDS
AESTHETICS TECHNIQUES
LANGUAGE VALUES

8. Man created many beautiful things and there was great
prosperity and abundance. He even designed money, the
prize of the game itself.

10. And where were the women while all this great history was
going down? In the beginning they didn’t even have
permission to play the game (Boo!). Their first mission was to
wrangle themselves a place on the game board. But finally,
with hard work, they got to play (Yay!).

11. But here is the totally ironic part: yes, these women were
females, but their creative and intellectual contributions
were not feminine. When it came to the game of marketing,
they thought like men. This remains true even today.

12. Why? Our educational and professional instutions, even our
award systems are still manmade. And in these institutions
women are trained, habituated, and disciplined to conform
to masculine beliefs and practices. After years of subtle
conditioning, even females themselves rarely realize they
still play by manmade rules.

13. But there is a time when rules are broken. Not for the fun of
it, but because they need to be broken. A new way must be
forged because the old no longer works. And in the game of
marketing, not working means not winning customers.

14. THAT TIME IS
RIGHT NOW
THE POST88 HAS
ARRIVED AND
EVERYTHING MUST
CHANGE

15. A new female is here, and she was born after 1988. And this
little lady is different. She has been fortified in ways no other
generation of females have before. In her upbringing
something very new was nourishing and reinforcing her
inner sense of self, giving her permission to be herself.
Instead of being raised only on a strict diet of manmade,
she was also raised on a little thing called social media.

16. And as much as she loved man, she did not love all man made,
nor the way that he played his game.

17. Why? She was born female afterall, and feminine and
masculine are often not the same. As a female, her truths,
perceptions and sensibilities are different. Her values, her
drives, and her needs are different. She finds humor,
beauty, joy and inspiration in things man does not. Even
the way her mind perceives, organizes, and processes
information is often distinct from her manly counterpart.
Though some things are shared by both genders, many
things are not.

18. OR MORE FORMALLY...

19. As a result, what is sexy to him, is often not sexy to her. What
excites him, often causes no reaction whatsoever in her.
Some things that he thinks are practical, she has no use for.
And sometimes, what he believes represents progress, she
often fears will hold society back.

20. Y
=

21. Now Post88’s are happy to let man have all his beliefs, but
the trouble starts when his masculine values are defining the
direction of the entire consumer culture and marketing
world as we know it.

22. What does this all say for the game of marketing? It’s losing
strength. Manmade alone is no longer enough to win every
consumer.

23. How can marketing get it’s strength back? The masculine
foundation of design and consumer culture must be
extended to account for feminine values, beliefs and
perceptions. Just like the founding fathers of marketing
who made up the rules in the first place, a feminine system
must be invented from the ground up.

24. BELIEFS STANDARDS
AESTHETICS TECHNIQUES
LANGUAGE VALUES

25. What are females perceptions of beauty, pleasure, utility,
meaning, and value? How must manmade research and
creative measurement processes adapt to account for the
differences in the feminine mind? What are feminine
educational and business practices, and how can they be
practically implemented?

27. The genders are equal, but they are not identical.
Understanding, respecting, and accounting for these
diffences in design and marketing will unleash game-
changing innovation. The balance of masculine and femi-
nine will bring renewed growth, strength, and economic
gains across every industry.

28. +

29. The manmade game of marketing can no longer be a game of
man’s way only. Launching a battle of man versus woman is
equally unproductive. Everyone loses. The new game, a
game where masculine and feminine work in unison, is true
progress. We call that game Girlapproved.

30. Girlapproved is a way forward. It is a new set of rules, and a
new type of game, one where everyone finally wins. It is
time.

31. OR MORE FORMALLY...
+

32. THE END T TH E BEGIN
NI NG
Y... JUS
A CTUALL

33. Girlapproved was founded by Heidi Dangelmaier and collaboratively developed with over 100 Post88 females. They have
been working daily for over four years to build GA on a bedrock of rigorous research in topics as vast as engineering, archi-
tecture, psychology, gender studies, graphic design and art history. GA is a practical system of invention and design, and
has been tested and validated with several of the world’s largest brands. We believe that understanding this story is a cru-
cial stepping stone for design and innovation to progress, please pass this story on help us create a future where everyone
wins: man, woman, and yes even the economy.
212.334.3477
CONTACT@GIRLAPPROVED.US
©2010 GIRLAPPROVED WWW.GIRLAPPROVED.US