Where Graphic Design is Failing
When Valerie Casey founded the Designers Accord in 2007 to create awareness of sustainability issues in graphic design, she hoped it would be a short term project. One that would start the conversation and put in place industry standards for sustainability that would become the norm. Five years later, though, even with all the movement’s success, too many sustainable graphic design books, events, and conversations are still focused around the introductory topic of what sustainable design is, and why it’s important, instead of innovating beyond what should be obvious by now.
So why isn’t the sustainable graphic design conversation progressing? New techniques and innovations in ecocentric paper, printing, inks, technology, materials, and manufacturing are being developed at a rapid pace. Yet, instead of discussing new inventions and techniques that affect the lifecycle of our deliverables, an embarrassing number of designers either don’t know that sustainability is an issue, or think that their responsibility stops at recycled paper and soy ink (hint: there’s a lot more to it than that).
For a progressive group of people like designers who constantly ask the question “What will the future of design look like?”, it seems everyone should be aware that regardless of what the aesthetics may be, the future of design must be sustainable because the business world is changing. As evidence, almost every large corporation today has a Director of Sustainability, or at least a public waste reduction plan. As consumers and governments become more aware of the world’s finite resources and start to demand more responsible companies, it will be the design firm of the future who will deliver those ecocentric solutions to meet the needs of the new business world.
So why isn’t this awareness sweeping through graphic design the way it has through other design industries? Perhaps it’s because our creative counterparts who design buildings, spaces, and products learn about sustainability issues in school. They also have certifications setting a baseline from which to start, and then push beyond. If communication design schools could add sustainable design thinking to their curriculum, not only would it create that needed baseline for our industry, but it would also produce an army of young, motivated designers equipped with this new (and much needed) set of tools – ready to offer great value to any design firm / business.
Relying solely on the educational system to rescue our industry is folly, though, because the need for sustainability has already occurred, and our industry must act immediately. Those interested in sustainable design must begin pushing beyond the basics. We need to seek out and share our innovations, processes, and successes. No more intro to sustainability. Let’s take the conversation to the next level and start making real change happen. In the words of Ric Grefé, “If you don’t like change, you’ll like irrelevancy even less.”
// This article appeared in GDUSA’s September 2012 Issue.
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7 Comments
Having been on the sustainable design committee of AIGA Portland, even after all the events we did, just how to incorporate sustainable design solutions into one’s work remains elusive.
The problem is, so much of the focus is on companies that make products, which is one of the few, if only, areas to innovate by rethinking the whole process, using different materials, eliminating waste, etc. But not all of us are designing boxes for Puma.
The majority of designers are doing print and web work and are eager to do sustainable design work but there are few examples of just how that happens. Sadly, there’s nothing really sustainable about every website going mobile so we have more and more devices turned on all the time.
My friend Chris runs a class at Portland State called Waste Not. She encourages her students to design new systems and tries to get them away from just designing a new thing and calling it green or sustainable. Some of the ideas they’ve come up with are great, like doing a spoof branding campaign to make tap water as sexy as slinging bottled water.
But the big challenge is first getting out of the model of client hiring designer to do x and instead, giving designers an outlet to get paid for the ideas they self generate.
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Gage,
Thanks for writing this article.
Here are my thoughts why designers aren’t embracing this topic.
We position ourselves only as a service industry and much of the BIG decisions involving a project are already pre-determined BEFORE we receive a project. We therefore create limited mobility for ourselves by “design”
Designers talk internally more than externally and therefore lack the knowledge to make strides in new innovations involving sustainable materials etc.
Hardly anyone in design education teaches the subject
Apathy.
Sustainability isn’t really in human nature. Tony Fry says it best: “In sum, we human beings live in a contradiction. In our endeavor to sustain ourselves in the short term we collectively act in destructive ways towards the very things we and all other beings fundamentally depend upon.”
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Thanks for the comments. Based on what you both said, it sounds like knowledge of the issue and what one can do about it is the point where we’re failing.
Eric said “apathy” was a cause, among other things, but in my experience designers are very motivated and passionate individuals. So this apathy can only be coming from a lack of concern for the situation, which in turn can only mean they are under informed about the impact they have as a designer. So if we get designers the information, more often than not, they’ll find a way to contribute to the solution. It’s in our nature.
And Jane mentioned that there aren’t enough good, informative case studies on what sustainable design really is – so again, this more about spreading the knowledge and information. GDUSA, HOW Magazine, Fast Co Design, AIGA and others are publishing more and more content on this subject, so my hope is that this will become less of an issue in the coming months/years.
Thanks again for the comments! Cheers!
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I’m not a graphic designer, but an interactive designer. I’ve been doing a lot of research into what sustainable interactive design looks like and it’s a tough thing to visualize. When we look at sustainable architecture, or sustainable product design, these designers are actually designing products that are themselves sustainable.
For interactive design, and also graphic design, we don’t create such tangible things. All of the work that I create exists online, there aren’t any materials used in the creation process (aside from a computer) and there isn’t anything physical to show when I’m done. A building, a chair, a toothbrush – these are all tangible things that can be seen and held. You can see what sustainable design looks like by interacting with them. Not so in the world of interactive design.
So, this has led me to ask the question: Is sustainable design more about using sustainable methods during the design process, or is it about creating a finished product that promotes sustainability? Maybe it’s both. I’m not sure. But I feel like a lot of other people are asking the same questions without any concrete answers.
After that long written comment, I should say that I’m relatively new, and completely self-researched when it comes to ideas and concepts of sustainable design. If what I’ve written here seems out of touch, I’d love to hear your thoughts! Thanks for reading
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Thanks for the note Kelly.
I think the idea that web/interactive design is not a physical thing that also needs to be looked at through a sustainability lens is being argued more and more. Computers, tablets, phones and internet host servers are all real, and they all use energy – and lots of it – which means that digital projects have a footprint as well. The whole subject needs more research, yes, but so does architecture, industrial, and graphic design. None of these industries have it all figured out yet, but we have a good place to start. It’s all about researching the problem, and pushing the ideas and concepts further.
For interactive the question is how do you design your site/app to be more efficient (black takes less energy to display than white, and Flash uses more energy than HTML5)?
Also, where are you going to host the site? Are the servers cooled without massive amounts of water waste, and are they powered with renewable energy?
These are just a couple examples, and you can find out more through resources like the following:
http://www.netmagazine.com/features/save-planet-through-sustainable-web-design
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/09/20/making-the-web-a-better-place-guidelines-for-green-web-design/
I hope this helps get your research started, and please feel free to share some links of your own. Thanks for the great comment!
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I just stumbled upon this article — it’s very much top of mind for me right now as I’ve taught Sustainable Design in the past at a local college and now volunteer for the GDC on the National Sustainability Committee and lead our SustainGDC twitter account. Our mission is to better integrate sustainability thinking into what it means to do GOOD design.
Personally, I’d also like to see the word ’sustainability’ dropped entirely and really just raise the bar in terms of what it means to be a skilled graphic designer. I think some designers get so intimidated by this ideal of ’sustainable’ as if it’s a beacon of perfection. The more people understand it’s a way of thinking, a process of consideration for a broader impact, the more they will take this on as a challenge (and drop their perfectionist attitudes about the whole thing!). I also find the word ‘efficiency’ can be less intimidating.
Something I’m often surprised by is that many designers don’t connect that what they’re putting out there in the world has impact — and they should give a damn about what kind of impacts they’re contributing too! It’s true that sometimes people come to us designers to ‘beautify’ things (past the point of making some key decisions that may determine impact) but this is why you need to speak up! Get in the room earlier — invite the conversation with your clients early on. And, don’t forget, you always have a choice in where you focus your talents.
When designers (and people generally) get clear on their personal values, it should be a no-brainer to see how they can live their values through their work. If everyone was passionate about their impacts on the world, think of all we could accomplish! Onto the future!
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Very well said Lisa. I completely agree. In fact, would you be willing to write that up as an article we can post here on the Living Principles?
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