Creative For A Cause
Last week I came across a magnificent online resource and initiative dedicated to socially conscious design, its name Creativeforacause.org. I am pleased to have now contributed to the resource. Founded and set up by Denver based Graphic Designer Heidi Cies, Creative For A Cause (A Resource for Visual Communications Educators) aims to assist teaching social responsibility in design education.
"While social responsibility is being discussed more and more frequently within the Visual Communications industry and among educators today, no standards or guidelines currently exist to aid in the implementation of these concepts into the higher education curriculum. Where social responsibility is not already part of a Visual Communications program, and there is little or no administrative support for inclusion, it is left to individual instructors to decide how to best integrate this topic into their syllabi. This site is a collaborative resource for educators of Visual Communications who wish to instruct their students on the importance of adopting a social and ethical approach to their work. If you know of additional resources that you feel would be of value, please contact us." (Heidi Cies, Creative For A Cause).
Heidi, well done - this is a fantastic project that is certainly going to prove useful. I look forward to our future conversations.
Link: Creative For A Cause
Communication Designers Need to Catch Up Fast
When I was first asked to contribute a piece on design ethics to Design Sessions, Notes on Design, I wondered how I could credibly comment on such a complex and highly academic topic. Whilst sitting at the early stages of my creative career, I wondered how many of us really understand what it means to be a “good” designer, and asked myself, if and how, I am a “good” (socially-responsible) designer?
Design Ethics
Throughout every stage of my creative training, I have echoed the belief that design is “quintessentially an ethical process” (Devon and Poel 2002). I strongly believe that Communication Design has a positive and negative ability to affect social change, but recognize that its influential power should be treated with respect and careful consideration, of its use, from all its designers. "Ethics is not an appendage to design but an integral part of it, and we advocate using the moral imagination to draw out the ethical implications of a design. We will stress and develop the social ethics paradigm, because design is an iterative social process for making technical and social decisions that may itself be designed at each stage with different people at the table, different information flows, different normative relationships, different authority structures, and different social and environmental considerations in mind. […] One might make the distinction that professional ethics is concerned with the `good' […]" (Devon and Poel 2002).
Designers Need to Catch Up Fast
The debate over what is “good design” or what is good in design has forever bewildered me, and as the legendry Milton Glaser suggests, determining ethics in Communication Design is complex and something to be carefully considered. Although a “good designer” may, in academic circles, represent ethical motivation and practice, the majority of students are taught to equate “good design” with aesthetic value. We have all been there haven’t we, admiring a beautifully crafted poster, wishing it was our name underneath it. Unfortunately, with the ease of computer skills and rising consumerism, our industry is saturated with technology and this has failed to naturally associate “good design” to ethically or socially intelligent practice. The socially conscious designer therefore appears to the masses to be running against the grain, and often becomes tagged as a Political- Green- or Eco- designer, just to name a few. In order to ensure the Communication Design sector remains as credible to the public as it does to its internal networks, we must keep up to speed with the ever more socially conscious worlds of Architecture, Fashion and Product design. In the words of Rick Poynor [2007], “If communication design is to play a role – and it must – designers need to catch up fast”.
What is GOOD Design?
There are, however a small number of socially and ethical responsible designers that match the contemporary nature of today’s leading Visual Communication. Globally known agency Pentagram, sustainability design firm Thomas Matthews, public service design from Think Public, and the socially responsible work of The Helen Hamlyn Centre and The UK Design Council's RED Project are just a few great examples of the marriage between intelligent 21st Century design thinking and real-life social challenges.
Are you a good designer?
On discovering last month, that only 23.2% of UK design graduates find work in the creative sector (Think Public 2007), I felt marginally happier in the knowledge that I was possibly not alone in the struggle to secure “credible” work in the UK creative industry. Yet, I continue to wonder where that leaves the remaining 76.8% of us? Are we caught up in the celebrity spin of the design industry and perhaps forgetting the real purpose of Communication Design? Are we intimidated by the technological revolution that has taken over our practice? Do design students and graduates have the appropriate knowledge to utilize their skills to positively impact cultural, social and public challenges? (I am sure, given the chance the majority of us would love to have been involved in Bruce Mau’s Massive Change). In a critique written for Creative Review this month, leading critic Rick Poynor hits the nail on the head, asking if we should be demanding more from our conferences than simply a showcase of (beautifully executed) portfolio pieces from our famous designers?
The Real Work Experience
Wodcast recently interviewed Think Public's founder Deborah Szebeko, who gives her definition and belief in "Public Service Design" and continues to explain Think Public's recent project "The Real Work Experience". This initiative is perfectly fitting to this discussion; The Real Work Experience is a small London based initiative, offering a form of career guidance to socially conscious design graduates, and potentially challenges the pre-conceived ideas of a typical designer career path. Interestingly, explaining her motivation for founding Think Public, Szebeko confidently describes her frustration of how unaware design students are of how they can use their skills to design for the greater good. During my degree, design thinking, research and risk-taking were highly credible attributes (due to which I perhaps naïvely accepted high grades). Little did I know throughout those years of caffeine-driven creative freedom that the industry I was about to approach was not looking for a design graduate like myself. However, amongst the freelance work and placements, I dedicated time to explore what was happening in the wider creative industry and its surrounding society. Delving into studies of design theory, critique and ethics, I read 2-3 books a week for over 12 months, followed many an online design community, often contributing my research findings, anecdotes and commentaries in an attempt to spread the knowledge that ethics in Graphic Design are far from stale or unfashionable. In contact with creative’s and non-profits across the globe, exploring themes surrounding ethics in Communication Design, research has taken me from Creative and Emotional Intelligence to Educational reform, from Social and Ethical Design to Sustainability and back, and has left me today with a body of design knowledge and a plethora of resources that I am proud to be able to discuss and share in context of the future of Communication Design.
Now, with the intention to return to the designer table, I am excited to think how I can use my wider knowledge of the creative sector to assist whatever design team I work with. I will continue to bathe in social research and ultimately I look forward to finding the suitable platform and balance between developing my graduate skills in Graphic Design and the evident opportunities of socially responsible practice.
Link: Design Sessions: Are You A Good Designer?
Is 18 the New 30?
Whilst ploughing through new design talents, the last thing we expect to find is a teenager hitting the design headlines, however Armin Vit recently interviewed 18 year old Ethan Bodnar "...graphic designer, author and entrepreneur." What surprises me (apart from his forthcoming book!), is not entirely Ethan's skills with the computer, or his portfolio of work per se, but its his wider knowledge of the industry that is admirable. Just a quick click through his blog illustrates his quite unbelieveable comprehension of Communication Design and its power to influence change. In his interview, he comments: "I don't think I want to spend my whole life being your normal designer. I would like to take design thinking and apply it to other areas. I will use the power of creativity and design to have a positive impact on the world. Coming up with new ideas and new ways to solve issues and problems. It is my belief that creativity can solve anything." (Sounds like something I would write in my diary). I hope the early promotion helps Ethan to follow this belief and show us that such recognition can assist him to make a positive impact on the industry. Ethan, well done, I wish you the best of luck!
Link: Armin Vit interviews Ethan Bodnar
Sustainable Typography
Written for
Design Sessions, Notes on Design.
The concept of “green” typography may seem ridiculous to non-type-nerds and, yes OK, perhaps typography can’t conquer climate change, but it can certainly help communicate it! With these thoughts in mind, I thought it would be interesting to share some recent examples I’ve found of contemporary typography that truly redefine those terrifying visions of green (and tree-shaped) logos!
The above posters, by Marian Bantjes, Christoph Niemann and Paula Scher, were commissioned by Winterhouse Studios for the Stora Enso sustainability initiative, and have since been accepted into the permanent collection at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. Fabulous!
The graphic design team at Thomas Matthews are so immersed in this field that everything they do with type could be considered ‘sustainable’. However, the logo for sustainability company ‘Beyond Green’ is a personal favourite; a simple, but effective play on colour association.
When it comes to intelligent logos, Al Gore’s latest WE campaign forThe Alliance for Climate Protection has a great logo (yes, I know it’s green), designed by New Yorker Brian Collins.
It would seem there is a recurring trend regarding contemporary eco-typography. For example, picking up on the Sagmeister-esque hand-made typography, The New York Times Magazine is using the work of sculptural designer Gyongy Laky, for last week’s Green Issue!
Although not directly intended for sustainability, the hand-drawn ‘Customised Fruit’ by designer Sarah King, certainly made me look twice! Imagine these as printed adverts for organic food! There are plenty more examples of GOOD sustainable typography, so keep your eyes peeled and I’ll post any updates next month!
Link: DesignSessions: Notes on Design
