Dissertation Part 1

Question: The commercialisation of Ethics: How graphic design influences the consumer.

AA4302 Honours Design Report Part 1 Cameron Campbell Iain Currie 0704795 B(Des) HONS Graphic Design Stage 4 Robert Gordon University Gray’s School of Art 16th December 2011

Table of Contents

Introduction Chapter 1:

The mentality of consumers, designers and culture; why is

design influential?

Chapter 2:

Three kinds of campaigns; how do they influence?

Chapter 3:

Examples of ethical design: How does ethics fit into

design?

Conclusion Bibliography Illustrations List of Illustrations Appendix

Introduction

This is a study into the ethics involved in the practice of graphic design, and how graphic design influences the consumer of whatever product is being sold – whether the product is face cream, a politician or awareness about slave trade.

“Graphic Design; ... by its very nature it affects lots of people and with this comes a responsibility.”

– Lucienne Roberts p.13 1 “Designers must be good citizens and participate in the shaping of our government and society. As designers we could use our particular talents and skills to encourage others to wake up and participate as well”

– Katherine McCoy 2

As these allude to, due to the nature of the practice of graphic design it reaches masses of people, with this comes a responsibilty to communicate wisely and well. As the second quote points out, with this responsibility we have a duty to serve humanity well with it.

Graphic design as it is today is a very young, in the scheme of human civilisation it has just begun. Doctors in some form, 1

Lucienne Roberts, (2006), Good: An Introduction to Ethics in Graphic Design: AVA Publishing 2 Steven Heller & Veronique Vienne, (2003), Citizen Designer (perspectives on design responsibility): Allworth Press, U.S.

have been part of human society since its beginning, now all doctors swear to the ‘Hippocratic Oath’, written nearly 2,500 years ago. Why do all professions not have an oath? Why isn’t it an industry standard for designers to sign an oath to design responsibly?

Quite a number of designers have written different manifestos and pledges. Possibly the most notable is ‘First Things First Manifesto 2000’ originally written by Ken Garland in 1964 and re-published in 2000 by the Canadian organisation ‘Adbusters’.

“There are pursuits more worthy of our problem-solving skills. Unprecedented environmental, social and cultural crises demand our attention. Many cultural interventions, social marketing campaigns, books, magazines, exhibitions, educational tools, television programmes, films, charitable causes and other information design projects urgently require our expertise and help.” 3

The emphasis in our culture towards capitalism and consumerism mean that the area of advertising is a very lucrative area for a graphic designer to be involved in. So designers spend a lot of time selling cat food, to shoes, to mortgages. This is now becoming what designers are known for, there are far more beneficial things designers can give their time to, than telling people the phone they’ve got is now old 3

http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature.php?id=18&fid=99

and unfashionable after 6 months, or informing women they’re not thin enough, or that you deserve a new car and don’t need to have the money right now.

There are much better things designers can spend their time doing than ‘window dressing’, we can use our skills to benefit humanity.

So in this report I aim to research and analyse why graphic design is so influential, and why and how graphic designers have influenced people.

A definition of ethics will first have to be established; Philosophers generally divide the field of ethics into three main areas or headings; metaethics, normative ethics and applied ethics. It is within applied ethics that our discussion falls, as it fulfils two criteria that are required for an issue to fall under applied ethics. First that there are people either side of the fence and it is a recognised issue, second that distinctly moral issues are involved e.g our duty not to deceive others, help those in need.

Our discussion will involve the mentality of consumers, designers and our culture in general, and why design is so

influential. Following this, a study into three different kinds of campaigns; advertising, political and advocacy, and a study into design for each of these and how they’re influential. Finally an analysis of examples of ethical design, and how ethics can fit into deisgn.

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Chapter 1: The mentality of consumers, designers and culture; why is design influential?

“Who you’re working for, who you’re trying to communicate with, and how you choose to do that, what kind of tools you use – even the kind of paper you use is a statement and that’s before you even put anything on it.” 4

A quote from Delyth Morgan about how every single thing we do, use and say communicates. This chapter will be a study into how a piece of design communicates with the consumer, the thinking that goes into that design from the designer’s point of view. Then seeing how both these points of view are shaped by our culture, and how our design fits within context and culture.

The issue of images and visual communication is where we must start, we must understand how visual communication works.

Jean Buadrillard in his book Simulacra and Simulation, Baudrillard opens by referring to Borges Fable of a society that becomes so exact with it’s cartography that only a map of 1:1 scale will suffice, and the map entirely replaces the landscape 4

Lucienne Roberts, (2006), Good: An Introduction to Ethics in Graphic Design: AVA Publishing

it’s covering.

“arguing that in modern consumer society, which promotes the gradual eradication of nature by culture, the sign, i.e. the map, has replaced reality” 5

Borges point was that in our society, signs (images and text – things we use to communicate/express ourselves) are starting to disrupt and replace our perception of reality. Baudrillard continues this point, with what he describes as the ‘hyperreal’.

“It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal” 6

The hyperreal is the perception of reality we come to after the signs distorting our perception. Baudrillard point is that images have become more than images, because of their ubiquity and our cultures subjective understanding. They have become our reality, according to his understanding when an image is created it can actually change someone’s perception of reality, it can change reality.

One commentator on Baudrillard, Andrew Fellows corroborates his point further, 5 6

http://www.thefilmjournal.com/issue13/thematrix.html Jean Baudrillard, (1981), Simulacra and Simulation: The University of Michigan Press (1994)

“Most of us feel instinctively that a graphic image is the truest record of reality – if you see it in an image it has to be true it has to be real – and this means that the graphic image has become a much more powerful” 7

Continuing on his point, Fellows again suggests that the image has now in our culture become more influential that words.

That images have begun to become reality in themselves, so now images carry incredible power and influence. So as a designer’s job is to create images and marketing to influence and persuade people, a designer is incredibly influential. This is the consumer’s experience of a piece of design.

Moving onto media Baudrillard cites McLuhan’s formula ‘Medium is the Message’. In brief McLuhan’s theory was that the form of the medium (the means by which something is being communicated), embeds itself in whatever the message happens to be, therefore inevitably influencing and shaping the message.

Baudrillard goes on to discuss the use of information,

“We think information produces meaning, the opposite occurs” 8 7 8

http://www.labri-ideas-library.org/download.asp?fileID=363 Jean Baudrillard, (1981), Simulacra and Simulation: The University of Michi

“Thus information dissolves meaning and dissolves the social, in a sort of nebulous state dedicated not to a surplus of innovation, but, on the contrary, to total entropy.” 9

Here Baudrillard argues that the over use of media and information is having the opposite effect – of overload, and now any meaning is being lost. So are areas of graphic design actually meaningless? Have they gained influence, but lost the ability to decide what they actually influence? Are they just generic images thrown out into the melee of media and understood in whatever way the consumer perceives it? Do designers have control?

Baudrillard continues onto media and advertising,

“Thus the media are producers of not of socialisation, but of exactly the opposite, of the implosion of the social of the masses.” 10

Baudrillard argues that the aim of all this information was to – in other words – make the world smaller, and increase socialisation. Here he says the opposite happens, with the ‘total entropy’ that occurs, meaning is lost, and that socialisation 9 Jean Baudrillard, (1981), Simulacra and Simulation: The University of Michigan Press (1994) 10 Jean Baudrillard, (1981), Simulacra and Simulation: The University of Michigan Press (1994)

loses it’s meaning.

“As a medium has become its own message (which makes it so that now there is a demand for advertising in and of itself, and that thus the question of “believing” in it or not is no longer even posed), advertising is completely in unison with the social.” 11

Baudrillard continues on even further, to say that this new socialisation, (what he refers to as ‘the social’) is now dependant on this method of communication. As he understands the cause of the social to be the overload of information, the social can’t continue in the same way without constantly being fed with more of the same information.

So even worse, are graphic designers not even serving the purpose that they think they are? Are they merely feeding and continuing the system that they were born into and out of ?

Going back to the start of this chapter, if we follow Baudrillard’s philosophy; ‘How a piece of design communicates with the consumer’ – It’s capable of shaping someone’s reality, while losing the meaning intended. ‘From the designer’s point of view’ – They are just part of the meaningless machine of the social. ‘How both these points of view are shaped by our culture’ – Our culture is the social which has lost all meaning, 11 Jean Baudrillard, (1981), Simulacra and Simulation: The University of Michigan Press (1994)

yet still pervades and corrupts all of society. A rather bleak outlook.

Chapter 2 Three kinds of campaigns; how do they influence?

This chapter will focus on how specific campaigns have and are communicating to us, the three kinds this study will analyse are advertising, political and advocacy. Advertising focusing on the commercial area, political looking into contemporary campaigns in the UK and US. Finally Advocacy, an area covering any visual communication that isn’t inherently commercial advertising or political, but is trying to persuade and influence people towards an understanding or movement. Here is a quote from Katherine McCoy introducing this area.

“All design solutions carry a bias, either explicit or implicit, the more honest designs acknowledge their biases openly rather than manipulate the audiences with universal “truth” and purity.” 12

Starting with advertising campaigns, the first I will look into was a Swedish viral video called ‘The Hero’, (1) it’s purpose was to encourage people to pay their TV license. The video worked by visiting the web site and uploading a portrait photo of yourself or a friend, it would then publish your own version of the video. The video depicted a collection of scenes celebrating 12

Steven Heller & Veronique Vienne, (2003), Citizen Designer (perspectives on design responsibility): Allworth Press, U.S.

a ‘hero’, scenes from a significant press release, mass marches with placards and posters, billboards and average families watching this breaking news at home – all these scenes featured the photo that you uploaded, making it look like it’s a genuine video of you or your friend being celebrating by an entire country.

As an idea and creative advertising it’s amongst the best I’ve ever seen, the fact that it’s managed to go international is testament to that. It’s basic purpose is to engage a vast age and demographic of the Swedish people to pay their TV license by making them feel like a hero in so doing. The important point about this video is that it’s light-hearted. It gives a very different face to the TV licensing people in the UK, that just constantly threaten with bursting through your door at any time day and night. Who actually likes the UK TV licensing?

This Swedish advert actually makes you respect them for their creativity and effort, out of that respect one would be much more likely to pay.

Most Importantly this advert isn’t putting up a false front they know people don’t like paying, so they’ve made a joke about it and given something to the people to enjoy in return.

The next advert is one for the iphone 4 (9), it’s basic selling point is,

“If you don’t have an iphone, you don’t have the App store – so you don’t have the world’s largest selection of App’s... Yup, if you don’t have an iphone, well... you don’t have an iphone.”

The arrogance of this is overwhelming, despite a well produced advert as one would only expect from Apple, this communicates very clearly. It unashamedly states that they’re the best around, and have a monopoly on all the best technology and software available. Granted this is a surprisingly honest advert, they don’t hide or fabricate what they’re saying. They simply announce that if you don’t have an iphone your unworthy and detestable, someone might be entirely open and honest about being prejudice and offensive towards someone – that doesn’t excuse them causing offense. This may seem like harmless fun about their products superiority, but not when people in third world cultures buy the latest phone instead of food, because in their culture they’re not seen as good enough if they don’t have that phone.

The third advert to study is the Cadbury’s fairtrade advert (12), again this is a very well produced professional advert.

This advert is a celebration of Ghana, it features Ghanian Rap Artists, music and culture. It’s possibly meant to be a grateful gesture from Cadbury’s. It can’t help but seem patronising and disingenuous, an advert saying “Hey! Look, we care about African’s too!”.

Of course we can’t be too cynical, they have to their credit adopted the fairtrade brand, and changed the way they go about their business. But are they just ‘jumping on the band wagon’? If they as a company really cared about fair trade, then the company would be founded on that basis.

This is the commercialisation of ethics, Cadbury’s aren’t the only brand to be guilty of this by a long way. Are they just using the fairtrade brand as the movement gains momentum to stay with the market trends. Or do they actually care? Are company’s understanding actually starting to change?

Now moving onto Political campaigns, first we will study Barack Obama’s campaign of 2008 (4). The Obama campaign has become an icon and a new bench mark in design and campaigns, far surpassing any 21st century western political campaigns. The design was very effective in setting him apart not just from McCain but from any presidential campaign. It needed to be something utterly different and momentous, as

that’s what Obama becoming President was. The campaign needed to stand out because Obama stood out.

It was communicating something new and fresh, something that hadn’t been done before. The remarkable thing about this is that had to appeal to everyone, as Obama was selling himself as a very different new product to the American people.

So what does the Obama campaign communicate? The ‘O’ symbol and font were key to the success of the brand. The O, had a few meanings, it represented the O of Obama, it was the 0 of the ‘08 campaign, most importantly it was an organic shape. A holistic shape, reflecting the earth, depicting a horizon within it, symbolising hope and new beginnings, with growth in the foreground reflecting grain growing. The font ‘Gotham – Tobias Frere-Jones’, was designed for the brand, it conveyed confidence, security and professionalism.

In the book ‘Designing Obama’ Scott Thomas introduces the journey by quoting an unnamed designer.

“Well, I guess, I’m lazy. I just make sure all my clients are smart people with unique messages and good products. The rest is easy.” 13 13

Scott Thomas, (2010) Designing Obama: a chronicle of art & design from the 2008 presidential campaign: Post Press.

His basic point is that if you have a good product it’s easy to sell. Thomas concludes his introduction, by saying that designing for Obama was easy because Obama was a good product, a new refreshing hopeful compassionate product.

“Obama didn’t need to be sold as something he wasn’t, nor made palatable by a flurry of spin and crafty marketing. His life story, as recounted in his two memoirs, embodied the American dream” 14

The brand didn’t have to be fabricated or dressed up, because the product was good enough.

My second political example is the The Conservatives campaign (10) of the 2010 general election. This was a campaign coming off the back of a thirteen year Labour occupation, which involved the Iraq war, and a UK wide recession. David Cameron was the Party leader, with the Party’s main slogan for the election campaign being “Vote For Change. Vote Conservative”.

The illustration provided depicts two posters that were part of a series of five released by The Conservatives, this illustration shows them being driven down downing street. The series of posters quite simply mock the Labour party in particular it’s 14

Scott Thomas, (2010) Designing Obama: a chronicle of art & design from the 2008 presidential campaign: Post Press.

leader Gordon Brown.

The five slogans were postulated quotes from Gordon Brown, and are as follows.

“I took billions from pensions, let me do it again.”

“I increased the gap between rich and poor, let me do it again.”

“I doubled the national debt, let me do it again.”

“I caused record youth unemployment, let me do it again.”

“I released 80,000 criminals early, let me do it again.”

These posters are really aimed at those in society that don’t usually vote Conservative, but mainly those whom are irked somewhat by Labour’s governing of the country. Something that seems to almost overtake the meaning of general elections, is a feeling of the Parties trying to get ‘one-up’ on the other Parties, for example these two posters (13) from Labour and The Conservatives.

The message that seems to stick more than any other from the series of five posters, is pettiness and mockery. The are unashamedly saying ‘don’t vote for this guy he’s an idiot, you

should vote for us because we’re going to do things differently.’

This message is at polar opposites to our earlier example of Obama’s campaign, one that embodied hope, renewal and new start. What the Conservatives are trying to convey is a message of change, their slogan after all is “Vote For Change.

Vote Conservative”. So why are these two campaigns as hugely different in their application? On one level they are quite similar.

Why is it that the Conservatives came out with such a childish point of view? Even if they are correct, and Labour are ‘the bad guys’ and the Conservatives really can cause positive change, does one not usually come off better by being positive and selling yourself as someone that cares? Rather than selling yourself as the lesser of two evils? Yet on the other hand, maybe they should be applauded for their honesty, maybe they are just petty and childish so that’s how they’re selling themselves.

Moving onto our third section, advocacy campaigns, our first is a poster (11) designed by Signalnoise – a design agency founded by James White, based in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Signalnoise designed the poster in response to the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in March 2011. The poster could

be bought from the Signalnoise web site for $29.99, all the profits were donated to the Canadian Red Cross along a choice of other charities – the poster was successful in raising over $15,000.

The design is aesthetically beautiful, a remarkably elegant design, that captures the horrible destruction of something pristine, and inevitably fragile. It’s a tasteful poster, reflecting something tragic with notable dignity – reflecting the Japanese people very well.

The success of this campaign cannot be denied, it raised over $15,000, for relief efforts in Japan, a wonderful, beautiful thing.

But in this very interesting article by Fast Company Design they question the motives behind buying this poster.

“I was very tempted to join by purchasing one for myself.

But when I stopped and thought about that knee-jerk desire for a second, the feeling wasn’t good.” 15

At first it seems the only response should be to buy it instantly and give money to help the relief work, and you get an elegant 15

http://www.fastcodesign.com/from-the-editor-30092010

poster in the process. But why are you getting a poster? Why are we more inclined to give if we get something out of it?

Does that make the process of buying this poster a selfish one, because shouldn’t we just give for the sake of giving?

Are the givers restricting themselves to only giving whatever percentage of the poster price goes to charity, instead of giving much more by giving straight to the charity? As the author says.

“Let’s say I did buy one of these posters: what on earth am I supposed to do with it? Hang it in my living room like some overly aestheticized/sanitized symbol of a blindly horrific natural disaster that I had no direct experience of ? Or, worse, as some sick, bragging monument to my own willingness to “help”? To be honest, the only sane thing to do with a poster like this might be to just burn the thing as soon as it arrives in the mail.” 16

This depends on Sinalnoise’s motives, if he considered all of the article’s author and my previous questions, then his motives may be questionable. If he didn’t and his response was just a knee-jerk reaction, of ‘I must do something now!’, and instinctively turns to his talents and resources. Then it’s a different story as he’s doing what he can, but if the latter is true, shouldn’t he still ponder upon his idea and all of it’s implications before printing?

16

http://www.fastcodesign.com/from-the-editor-30092010

On the other hand, we can’t ignore the remarkable amount of money one man raised. How many other people around the world have achieved such a successful ratio as his? Even if some of the process may be questionable, do the means justify the end? That’s a big question to answer. How far and to what point to we take our principles?

Our next case study is the Dove Real Beauty Campaign (8) launched in 2004, this is a campaign taking action to “help free ourselves and the next generation from beauty stereotypes.”

The campaign is constantly in the process of producing television adverts, videos, poster campaigns and many more resources on their web site. All focused at challenging the stereotypical view of women, and aiming to tell women that ‘Every women is beautiful’.

This has all been carried by the Dove brand, a simple style has been carried into this campaign (14). This campaign has made a real impact on our society, even surpassing the hopes of its founders. It’s reached a lot of people and increased Dove’s sales as Dr Susan Orbach (Co-Founder for The Campaign for Real Beauty) and Katie Adams (Senior Brand Manager for Dove) explain.

“Dove had such a huge take up in sales” 17 “The dove self-esteem fund has touched 3.5 million young women globally and by 2010 we will have reached 5 million young women.” 18

Again we can’t deny the campaign’s success, it’s clearly reached and affected a lot of young women, raising their selfesteem as Katie Adams states.

“We had letters upon letters from people saying “thank you for embracing the larger breasted women”” 19

Dove have taken a big step further than other companies and campaigns as Dr Orbach says, ‘We hoped this would change everyone else’s ad’s’. It’s success was undeniable. But if it was a campaign saying ‘Every Women is Beautiful’, why is it only ‘young women’ that are targeted? Are mature women not beautiful too? Do they not need their self-esteem raised?

Another interesting point is one that ‘Adbusters’ make in this article written by Sarah Nardi.

17 http://www.dove.co.uk/cfrb/the-real-beauty-debate/videos.html?v#v=http://doveliferay-uat.s3.amazonaws.com/US_en/en_gb-staging/global/video/tv-spots/1_success_of_ campaign_576x324.flv 18 http://www.dove.co.uk/cfrb/the-real-beauty-debate/videos.html?v#v=http://doveliferay-uat.s3.amazonaws.com/US_en/en_gb-staging/global/video/tv-spots/2_impact_on_ self-esteem_576x324.flv 19 http://www.dove.co.uk/cfrb/the-real-beauty-debate/videos.html?v#v=http://doveliferay-uat.s3.amazonaws.com/US_en/en_gb-staging/global/video/tv-spots/1_success_of_ campaign_576x324.flv

“But the intention – to somehow bolster women’s self-esteem while selling them firming lotion – is the problem. This is advertising in the guise of activism. Cue the cynical laugh.” 20

This seems to be a huge contradiction. The following illustrations (15,16,17,18,19) are screen shots from the very same web site as the campaign. One for firmer skin, for ‘summer glow’ (tanned) skin, for more colourful hair, for fuller hair and one for silky, shiny hair. Why are Dove selling products that are essentially about ‘improving’ a women’s appearance?

These products aren’t merely about healthy skin and hair, these all promote the idea of the ‘ideal women’ e.g. that women should have tanned skin, and this product will make your skin more tanned. As Sarah Nardi states ‘This is advertising in the guise of activism’ – Is this ethical? To appear to be ethical in order to gain as Dr Orbach says, ‘a huge take up in sales’. If that is true that is the very definition of unethical. It should also be added that not one Dove product carries the Fairtrade Mark 21.

Our last case study is a campaign that started in Holland (20) and has since spread to the UK, Norway, Switzerland and 20 http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/77/a_designer_moment.html 21 http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/products/retail_products/product_browse. aspx?comps=BEAUTY

Belgium. The campaign is called ‘Ramadan Festival’, it was started by Dutch citizens who decided to act upon the divide in their culture, after the violent murder by an Islamic extremist of a Dutch film director Theo Van Gogh. The campaign aimed to reconcile those two communities – Muslim immigrants and the local people and society at large.

The movement has set up various events and campaigns on an annual basis that happen over the Islamic annual festival of Ramadan. These are designed to encourage people to accept diversity as a good and beneficial thing. Some of the initiatives that are in place are the ‘Ramadan Caravan’, which is a tour bus that travels round the country during the festival.

Providing mass meals on peoples streets (21), they also include interactive things like videos and quizzes, as well as musical and visual artists that will perform and run interactive sessions.

They are trying to do something new, they’re trying to do something that’s not been done before. It’s a beautiful thing something that should spread. The design of the poster (20) is very simple bold graphics, it doesn’t mince it’s words. It conveys a message of simplicity and unity which reflects the festival completely. There are no false pretences, assumptions and suggestions. It is straight forward visual communication,

not depicting a certain colour of skin or ethnicity, as Sarah Nardi the author of the same Adbusters article earlier cited, states.

“The design used to advertise the festivals features no celebrities and no product – it’s just a universal symbol tweaked slightly so as to be more truly universal. It is simple, honest and powerful.” 22

The Sarah Nardi continues.

“It’s what design that hopes to inspire a change in our thinking should be.” 23

What is good design? How do we define good? After all these examples we can see it’s hard to design without hurting something or someone. How can we achieve good design? How can we apply a universal law to a discipline so broad with so many influences?

22 23

http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/77/a_designer_moment.html http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/77/a_designer_moment.html

Chapter 3 Examples of ethical design: How do ethics fit into design?

“Designers find themselves in a spider’s web of duties – contractual duties, duties to clients, to stakeholders, to colleagues, to themselves and their work, and to society at large. It’s sometimes difficult to serve everybody well while at the same time fulfilling one’s implicit duties to society.” 24

This quote is from Anthony Grayling about the dilemma of an ethical designer. This chapter will look into practicalities, at how others contemporary designers have reconciled this issue, how they go about their job as designers while trying to be as responsible as they can.

First we will look at the cited in the introduction, one of the first to emerge, aptly called ‘First Things First Manifesto’ originally penned in 1964 by Ken Garland, twenty one other visual communicators signed the manifesto. In 2000 it was redrafted by the Canadian organisation Adbusters after finding it in an article in Eye magazine.

“We, the undersigned, are graphic designers, art directors and visual communicators who have been raised in a world in which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have persistently been presented to us 24

Lucienne Roberts, (2006), Good: An Introduction to Ethics in Graphic Design: AVA Publishing

as the most lucrative, effective and desirable use of our talents.” 25

It goes onto say that advertising or commercial work is now what designers are becoming known for, and that it’s time for designers to use their talents for other causes. To actively seek out projects that will benefit someone or something.

“We propose a reversal of priorities in favour of more useful, lasting and democratic forms of communication – a mind shift away from product marketing and toward the exploration and production of a new kind of meaning. The scope of debate is shrinking; it must expand. Consumerism is running uncontested; it must be challenged by other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages and resources of design.” 26

The conclusion of this manifesto is quite open ended not in the sense of being open to interpretation but to application. It’s observation and diagnosis is spot on, it recognises the overuse of commercial advertisement, just as we saw Baudrillard did earlier. It’s a simple call for change, a change of mind set it doesn’t give concrete answers, these don’t always need to. It’s a simple call for an awakening.

The second example we’ll look at is a book written by David B 25

26

http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature.php?id=18&fid=99 http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature.php?id=18&fid=99

Berman called ‘Do Good Design: How Designers Can Change the World’, it’s a book essentially about his journey as a designer and how he came to his current understanding of design. He started out with a straight forward design job at an agency, he became uncomfortable with the way he was working so left and started his own ethical design agency. He states his reason for this in his introduction.

“Designers have an essential social responsibility because design is at the core of the world’s largest challenges… and solutions. Designers create so much of the world we live in, the things we consume, and the expectations we seek to fulfil. They shape what we see, what we use, and what we waste. Designers have enormous power to influence how we engage our world, and how we envision our future.” 27

His main point was about the power and influence designers had to change and shape the world. He recognised the responsibility of designers to design wisely. Continuing in his book he has two main chapters the first studying examples of what he considers bad design. He picks them apart getting under the skin and examining the messages that are actually being communicated. Showing how harmful they can be.

He then goes onto explain all the benefits of ethical design and 27 David B Berman, (2008), Do Good Design: How Designers Can Change the World: Peachpit Press

that right now is the time for change.

“Imagine again a society’s potential where the largest signs, the cleverest ads, the most prominent messages promote healthy behaviours. Isn’t that the society we want our children to grow up in? We can choose it now.” 28

His conclusion of the book is a pledge which is;

1.

2.

3.

I will be true to my profession.

I will be true to myself.

I will spend at least 10% of my professional time helping repair the world. 29

This is simple and straight forward, he goes onto to explain this in further detail in his book. This is a much more practical and applied approach than first things first. This gives the pledger a much clearer goal and task. This approach is much more applicable in many cases than first things first, but it could be argued that it’s limiting. The benefit of having an open ended application is that it leaves the ‘pledger’ the responsibility to go as far as they can. A pragmatic person could also argue that if a person only gives 10% of their time only 10% of society will be fixed. Is it possible to give 100%?

28 David B Berman, (2008), Do Good Design: How Designers Can Change the World: Peachpit Press 29 David B Berman, (2008), Do Good Design: How Designers Can Change the World: Peachpit Press

Another example is ‘designcanchange.org’, this is a web site with resources and an ethical pledge for designers to sign, which is.

In my professional practice, I will endeavour to: Learn: Engage in the topic and seek to understand the

issue.

Think: Make a sustainable mind set second nature.

Act: Put my knowledge to use in my daily work.

Inform: Share information and build awareness for

sustainability.

Unite: Spark change through collective strength. 30

This pledge is much more thorough than David B Berman’s, it’s much more aspirational – it has room for growth and development. It doesn’t set limits in the same way. A strong point about it is that it covers a lot of areas, it acknowledges that ethical design isn’t just about using recycled paper and soy based inks, it’s much more than that. It’s an entire mind set and world view.

Our final example is from Nancy Bernard, director of collaboration for the Palo Alto branding firm comes up with a term called “reality branding”.

“In ‘reality branding’, our responsibility is to . . . Make it 30

http://www.designcanchange.org/#/act/pledge

honest. Make it relevant. Avoid hyperbole. Be respectful. . . our clients responsibility is to make sure the organisation delivers on its promises.” 31

This is the most succinct solution we’ve looked at yet, it’s a different approach than others have taken. Nancy Bernard has a different point of view than the other designers we’ve looked into.

“Whoever said that graphic design could change the world, anyway? Have you seen the world lately? It’s Huge!”

“Design is at the bottom of the capitalist food chain.

Audiences neither know nor care who we are. And the people who hire us think what we do is basically stupid, even though they have fun doing it with us.

As if you didn’t know.” 32

She brings a pragmatic and in some ways refreshing view, a very ‘down to earth’ view. It’s important to keep our goals realistic as it can be disheartening to set our aspirations in the sky. The simplicity of it is helpful as well, to just make everything you make honest and to discuss that up front with the client. There is merit to her approach, it seems attainable, but it could struggle to challenge society as a whole.

31 Steven Heller & Veronique Vienne, (2003), Citizen Designer (perspectives on design responsibility): Allworth Press, U.S. 32 Steven Heller & Veronique Vienne, (2003), Citizen Designer (perspectives on design responsibility): Allworth Press, U.S.

How do we reconcile, a pragmatic, practical approach with one that will be able to grow, and challenge societies view of design? Is that even possible? We say design can change the world? But how can a system change if not everyone in the system is pointing in the same direction?

Conclusion

Where do we go from here? The first step in this process is recognising a problem, as with every process of change, first people need to be united in understanding there is a problem.

Only then will people be able to start to act in a meaningful way.

There has been a big move in our society towards being ‘green’, it has become expected that people should recycle, and systems are increasingly being put in place to facilitate people doing this. The hard thing with a ‘right now’ culture, a culture that is so used to getting whatever they want right now. Technology is obliging to this mind set, with the expansion of smart phones so people can access the Internet anytime anywhere. Naturally people expect solutions to be easy to implement, and easy to carry out. People don’t want to have to go out their way. For example in order for recycling to really become a national way of life, ‘kerbside recycling’ was a solution. As it literally meant recycling could be accomplished on your door step. In order for this to be implemented, there needs to specific recycling trucks, and various kinds of recycling bins. A huge operation for local councils, which will inevitably incur large expenses.

So in order for design and essentially culture to change, a kind of revolution will need to take place. Is this even possible?

More designers along with society are moving toward being greener, but this is not the whole problem with design. The problem we face is a corrupt system tells people they aren’t good enough, and takes advantage of developing countries.

Lastly a quote from Ken Garland the author of First Things First,

“we have to take a pragmatic view. Start with the real world, not the ideal world, and we’ll see how we can approach an ideal world from the real world. We mustn’t give up. The temptation to slip into a cynical position on these issues is very strong, but with scepticism there is always a thread of idealism within it. If you are able to survive on a breath of idealism you should take deep breaths, because I don’t want you to give up.” 33

So where now? How do we approach this issue? What can our next step be?

33 Lucienne Roberts, (2006), Good: An Introduction to Ethics in Graphic Design: AVA Publishing

Bibliography Books: Kalle Lasn, (2006), Design Anarchy: Oro Editions; illustrated edition.

Steven Heller & Veronique Vienne, (2003), Citizen Designer (perspectives on design responsibility): Allworth Press, U.S. Lucienne Roberts, (2006), Good: An Introduction to Ethics in Graphic Design: AVA Publishing David B Berman, (2008), Do Good Design: How Designers Can Change the World: Peachpit Press Michael Bierut, William Drenttel, Steven Heller, (2002), Looking Closer Four: Critical Writings on Graphic Design: Allworth Press, New York Jan van Toorn, (2006), Design’s Delight: 010 Publichers, Rotterdam Jean Baudrillard, (1981), Simulacra and Simulation: The University of Michigan Press (1994) Scott Thomas, (2010) Designing Obama: a chronicle of art & design from the 2008 presidential campaign: Post Press.

Ken Garland, (1996) A Word In Your Eye: Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, The University of Reading Articles: http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature.php?id=18&fid=99 http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/77/a_designer_moment. html

http://www.noupe.com/design/focusing-on-good-design-notjust-good-decoration.html http://www.iep.utm.edu/ethics/ http://www.graphicdesignblog.org/awareness-campaginsgraphic-designers-contribute/

http://abduzeedo.com/35-creative-advertising-campaigns http://www.davidairey.com/how-ethical-are-your-designpractices/ http://www.thefilmjournal.com/issue13/thematrix.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/gallery/2010/mar/30/ general-election-2010-labour http://www.fastcodesign.com/from-the-editor-30092010 http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/products/retail_products/product_ browse.aspx?comps=BEAUTY Websites: http://www.dove.co.uk/campaign-for-real-beauty.html;jsessioni d=6CE204892CA37D1F498A445439651CE4 http://ramadanfestival.nl/ http://www.ramadanfestival.org/ http://www.witness.org/cameras-everywhere http://www.ethicsingraphicdesign.org/ http://www.ethicalgraphicdesign.co.uk/index.html

http://www.zerofee.org/ http://www.good.is/ http://www.adbusters.org/ http://www.designcanchange.org/#/home http://www.designersaccord.org/ http://www.davidberman.com/social/dogood.php http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097165/quotes Videos/Talks: http://www.youtube.com/user/theRSAorg#p/u/2/hpAMbpQ8J7g http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/william_mcdonough_on_ cradle_to_cradle_design.html http://www.ted.com/talks/patrick_chappatte_the_power_of_ cartoons.html http://www.ted.com/talks/alex_steffen_sees_a_sustainable_future. html http://www.ted.com/talks/rory_sutherland_life_lessons_from_an_ad_ man.html http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_gabriel_fights_injustice_with_video. html http://www.ted.com/speakers/yves_behar.html http://www.labri-ideas-library.org/download.asp?fileID=363

http://www.dove.co.uk/cfrb/the-real-beauty-debate/videos. html?v#v=http://dove-liferay-uat.s3.amazonaws.com/US_en/en_gbstaging/global/video/tv-spots/1_success_of_campaign_576x324.flv http://www.dove.co.uk/cfrb/the-real-beauty-debate/videos. html?v#v=http://dove-liferay-uat.s3.amazonaws.com/US_en/en_gbstaging/global/video/tv-spots/2_impact_on_self-esteem_576x324.flv http://www.dove.co.uk/cfrb/the-real-beauty-debate/videos. html?v#v=http://dove-liferay-uat.s3.amazonaws.com/US_en/en_gbstaging/global/video/tv-spots/3_media_role_576x324.flv

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List of Illustraions 1. Swedish tv license advert – http://en.tackfilm.se/ 2. Oil tankers posters – http://www.youtube.com/ watch?gl=US&feature=player_embedded&v=tiYaz6xg4mM 3. Unicef T-Shirts – http://www.threadless.com/UNICEF?utm_ medium=ExactTarget&utm_campaign=October-252011_102511+-+Tuesday&utm_source=102511+-+Tuesday 4. Obama Branding – http://digital.designing-obama.com/ 5. Tesco charity campaign – http://www.alzheimers-tesco.org. uk/donate-clubcard-vouchers 6. Alex Steffen TED talk – http://www.ted.com/talks/alex_ steffen_sees_a_sustainable_future.html 7. William McDonough TED talk – http://www.ted.com/talks/ lang/eng/william_mcdonough_on_cradle_to_cradle_design.html 8. Dove Real Beauty – http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U 9. iPhone 4 Advert – http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=onLYKU-CNhM 10. Conservatives campaign – http://www.guardian.co.uk/ politics/gallery/2010/mar/30/general-election-2010-labour 11. Japan Poster – http://vi.sualize.us/view/60c7a8600b9bd42 1b82f5d558cc2f6a4/ 12. Cadbury’s Advert – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ktL tvinZBs&feature=player_embedded#!

13. Conservative/Labour Poster – http://www.guardian.co.uk/ politics/gallery/2010/mar/30/general-election-2010-labour

14. Dove Real Beauty Campaign – http://www.dove.co.uk/ campaign-for-real-beauty.html 15. Dove Firming Lotion – http://www.dove.co.uk/products/ lotions/body/firming-body-lotion.html 16. Dove Nourishing Lotion – http://www.dove.co.uk/products/ lotions/body/summer-glow-shimmer-fair-to-normal-skin.html 17. Dove Colour Shampoo – http://www.dove.co.uk/products/ hair/shampoos/colour-radiance-shampoo.html 18. Dove Volume Shampoo – http://www.dove.co.uk/products/ hair/shampoos/volume-boost-shampoo.html 19. Dove Silk Shampoo – http://www.dove.co.uk/products/hair/ shampoos/silk-sleek-shampoo.html 20. Ramadan Festival UK – http://www.ramadanfestival.co.uk/ intro.htm 21. Photo of Ramadan Festival – http://ramadanfestival.nl/ read/media/id/745