Canadian brochures still better?

Are Canadian brochures still better overall than brochures from programs in the United States?  Looking at the LERN International Award winners for 2014, the answer appears to be ‘Yes.’
Canadian programs in Vancouver, Winnipeg and Fredericton won this year, taking half of the awards for brochures. Canadian programs are ten percent of LERN members, serving a country with a population about ten percent of the U.S.
While Canadian brochures have long been noted for their visual design and graphics, this year a Canadian program illustrated a new trend in brochure design: the influence of website design.
Here’s what the brochure judge said about the brochure from the College of Extended Studies, University
of New Brunswick,  Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada submitted by Belinda Elliott-Bielecki:
“Social Technology is changing the shape of design and culture, and impacts customer perception and expectations. One trend we observed in this year’s brochure design was the increasing similarity of print design and web design. Design is a means of communication, so this is a significant trend in our industry.
“This program’s brochure was designed with web search in mind. Not only does it have web links to key information prominently displayed throughout, but it is designed to communicate in the same way as a website, presenting information in much the same way with lots of white space and communication via icons rather than text.
“The impact has been powerful. When the document was distributed, web hits increased by more than 51 percent and enrollments have increased nearly 10 percent. “
For now, LERN and our U.S. members will continue to look north for excellence in brochure design.