OUGD505 - Design Practice 2 - Seminar: Ethics and sustainability in Graphic Design

Seminar: Ethics and sustainability in Graphic Design

What does ethics mean?

Ethics Definition 
- a branch of knowledge concerned with moral principles
- it is about the pursuit of truth. As designers we need to balance the forces. (Roberts 2007)

'Good' Design is good citizenship' Milton Glaser
- The work you create can have an impact

Katherine Mccoy

On being citizens
- suggests you are responsible for the impact that a design has
- could be said however that the message you are creating is that of the client, you are just providing the means to get the message out their, so it is not your complete responsibility

AC Grayling

On who to work for
- questions whether to take a stance on working for someone or whether you do the job whether or not it goes against your own ethics
- asks whether you should put the design first or yourself
- suggests you can have an alternative points of view and that it is legitimate to base your decision on these
- suggests you don't have to do things that you don't agree with

Jacqueline Roach 

On having an influence
- rather than disregarding what people with alternate points of view think you can join them and see how they view things
- by getting involved with people with alternate points of view you can help persuade them to think differently and make a difference, however this can only be done if you are involved

AC Grayling

On self and aesthetics
- suggests that putting out aesthetic things is ethical because it pleases people for its beauty
- suggests that making things aesthetic increases the quality of our experience of the world

Richard Holloway 
- Instrumental good is something that is good for something else
- Intrinsic good is something that is good in itself

Sustainability 

There are three types of sustainability:

- social sustainability (people and societies)

- economic sustainability (capital and growth)

- environmental sustainability (the world)

How does sustainability relate to ethics?

Eric Benson

Practices for designing sustainably:

At the beginning:

Is it the best method to communicate the message?

What is the impact of making the piece?

How can we lessen the imapct if we print the piece?

Initial discussions:

Respect and care for the community 

Improve the quality of life 

Conserve Earths vitality and diversity 

Minimise depletion of nonrenewable resources

Change personal attitudes and practices 

Design decisions:

Design for reuse / longgevity 

Design cyclically , not linearly 

Choose recycled/ non toxic materiasl 

Minimise Waste 

Minimise ink coverage

Choose places that use renewable energy and employ socially equitable and environmentally friendly business practices 

Educate consumers about the lifecycle issues through messaging / marketing 

Encourage others to design sustainably

Things to look at:

Creative Concern 

Footprint 

Renourish

Sustainability Issue Mapping

 

The diagonal cross axis represents four areas of sustainability , financial, social, environmental, personal.

It consideres that different projects have different needs and potentials in sustainability with outcomes relating to more than one of the areas.

Financial

- financially viable work focusses on issues that affect the costs of distribution and production

- focussing on cost cutting and profit however can lead to bland and uninspiring design

Social

- does the design benefit society as a whole?

Personal 

- personally desirable work meets the desires of the individual consumer 

Environmental

- considers natural resources depleted in the production process