Book 4 – Ethical Designers

It MUST Expand project Book

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Ethical Designers Theory & Practice R e s e a rc h & D e v e l o p m e n t

Book 4, It Must Expand Project – Ethical Designers Theory & Practice

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Various Designers 202

Introduction:

Anne Bush:

This book is dedicated to researching individual ethically minded designers and organisations of various different approaches and styles.

Anne Bush is Professor and Chair of Design in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Hawai`i. Her work includes writing, graphic design, and site-specific installations. Her essays on graphic design and graphic design history have been published by Émigré, V isible Language, Design Issues, ZED and V isual Communication.

They have also been published in the books Citizen Designer and Regarding Romantic Rome, among others.

Judith Schwartz: Schwartz ear ned her Masters of Arts Degree in Advertising Design in 1999 from Syracuse University School of V isual and Performing Arts, where she developed her interest in writing.

As a published author Schwartz questions the growing form of corporate sponsorship in her essays.

“In business, no matter how emotionally involved in a particular cause a company might appear to be or how loudly it preaches about its values, in the end the bottom line is profit and self-interest.”

How can we make meaningful change if the majority aren’t interested or tied down by their situation? A fundamental change will need to take place

Book 4, It Must Expand Project – Et hical Designers Theory & Practice

“I have always felt a certain unease with the general ways in which the design profession has framed notions of social responsibility. Frequently defined by acts of generosity (i.e., pro bono designs for non-profit agencies) or environmentalism (i.e., the use of recycled paper and soy based inks), the design profession, in many cases, limits social responsibility to acts of benevolence or good will.

What is socially responsible design? It needs to be bigger – a whole mind set, not a few actions.

Shawn Wolfe:

Kurt Anderson:

Jessica Hefland:

Shawn Wolfe was deconstructing and reconstructing consumerism and brand fetishism since before he knew that’s what he was doing. From days spent working in retail and cranking ou t handmade fanzines to a tour of duty in the trenches of the apparel industry to his current position as self-styled ambassador of consumer hoodoo. Wolfe wrestles unmanageable themes ranging from commodification of the soul to planned obsolescence.

He began his career in jour nalism at T ime, where during the 1980s he was an award-winning writer on politics and criminal justice before becoming, for eight years, the magazine’s architec ture and design critic. He received an honorary doctorate from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2005, and in 2009 was V isionary in Residence at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.

Helfand is a founding editor of Design Observer, a blog of design and cultural criticism: today, the site is the largest design publication in the world with over a million site visits a month.

“We can’t all afford to tur n down work we find objectionable or ch ange jobs as soon as we start to feel lousy about our situation. We’re all leading compromised lives, and whatever we do, no matter how carefully we s tep, our actions are going to compromise the quality of some other life, somewhere in the world.”

How do we reconcile principles and the reality of day to day life?

“Wars aren’t stopped and poverty is n’t cured by a poster and it never was, but it’s victory by a thousand cuts.”

“Rage and anger are good and understandable but I’m not sure they do much to go beyond that base if you will of 30-40% (of those who already agree with you). I would take the lessons of humour and take it beyond.”

Maybe the solution is a very considered subtle and subversive one. He argues that you need a tactic that connects with people personally.

“I work in a graduate program at Yale, and often they see the writing they do as separate from the work they do as designers, but more and more and I think especially for people who are interested in embracing ideas beyond design and using design to mobilise a greater opportunity to explore bigger issues for all of us, writing is a really necessary component and I firmly believe that in conjunction with visual thinking there’s a really wonderful opportunity to make different kinds of work.”

This is personally very encouraging for me, as this is what the vast majority of my research is.

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Ken Garland 404

Ken Garland is notable as a British graphic designer, author and game designer. Garland established Ken Garland Associates in 1962.

Garland studied design at London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts in the early 1950s (at a time when Alan Fletcher and other later-prominent designers were also students). In November 1963 Garland authored the First Things First manifesto which advocated “in favour of the more useful and more lasting forms of communication” over the increasing overuse of design talent in advertising.

First Things First Manifesto 2000: “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 as the most lucrative, effective and desirable use of our talents. Many design teachers and mentors promote this belief; the market rewards it; a tide of books and publications reinforces it.

Book 4, It Must Expand Project – Et hical Designers Theory & Practice

Encouraged in this direction, designers then apply their skill and imagination to sell dog biscuits, designer coffee, diamonds, detergents, hair gel, cigarettes, credit cards, sneakers, butt toners, light beer and heavyduty recreational vehicles. Commercial work has always paid the bills, but many graphic designers have now let it become, in large measure, what graphic designers do. This, in tur n, is how the world perceives design. The profession’s time and energy is used up manufacturing demand for things that are inessential at best.

Many of us have grown increasingly uncomfortable with this view of design. Designers who devote their efforts primarily to advertising, marketing and brand development are supporting, and implicitly endorsing, a mental environment so saturated with commercial messages that it is changing the very way citizenconsumers speak, think, feel, respond and interact. To some extent we are all helping draft a reductive and immeasurably harmful code of public discourse.

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.

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 ru nning uncontested; it must be challenged by other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages and resources of design.

The mos t striking thing about this manifesto is that it was written in 1961.

It was one of the first to emerge, and recognise a problem. Recognising the spread of this issue is important, in order to understand how closely joined

it is to our culture. It has quite an open ended conclusion, simply calling for the debate and awareness to multiply and spread.

Summary: – Ke n G a rl a n d P ro p o s e s a re ve r s a l o f p r i o r i t i e s .

– T h i s wa s a h u g e i n s p i ra t i o n to th i s p ro j e c t , i t h e l l p e d m e to f i n d a l l th e o th e r e th i c a l designers.

– I t a l s o h e l p e d m e to s ta r t u n d e r s ta n d i n g th e d i f fe re n t a p p roa ch e s to a s ol u t i o n .

http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature. php?id=18&fid=99 Ken Garland, (1996), a word in your eye: The University of Reading

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Katherine McCoy

McCoy is an American graphic designer

garbage out. The most rarified design

and educator, best known for her work as the co-chair of the graduate Design program for Cranbrook Academy of Art.

solution can never surpass the quality of its content.”

During her extensive career spanning education and professional practice, McCoy worked with ground breaking design firm Unimark, Chrysler Corporation, and with Muriel Cooper in the early days of MIT Press while at the Boston design firm Omnigraphics.

McCoy’s career in education was similarly broad, teaching at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Illinois Institute of Technology’s Institute of Design, and the Royal College of Art, London. She is also the co-founder of High Ground Designers, a workshop firm created for professional designers in their studios.

Katherine McCoy has a strong interest in social and cultural activism, involved with design.

Here are some key quotes about her work and views, “A design has no more integrity than its purpose or subject matter. Garbage in,

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Book 4, It Must Expand Project – Et hical Designers Theory & Practice

“The occasional pro bono piece as a relief from business as usual is not the answer here. The choice of content or clients is crucial.”

“Design education most often trains students to think of themselves as passive arbiters of the message between the client/sender and audience/receiver, rather than as advocates for the message content or the audience.”

“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.”

McCoy also makes the point that others have made about the integrity of a piece of design will never exceed the integrity of it’s subject matter. Even if it the most beautiful design – if it’s for something unethical then the entire

endeavour is unethical. So we must

teaches the student that their role as a

be smart about what projects we take on, and if we do then maybe we need to discuss with the client what they’re trying to communicate.

designer is to abrogate their mind, and offer up their skills in what ever way is accepted by any client.

Again McCoy corroborates this point about giving some time or ‘the occasional pro bono’ as she puts it. Isn’t the solution it’s a change of priorities, it’s the selection of projects – as Alex Baker put it in his response to the question part of the emails sent out: ‘Where would you draw the line on a project t hat you wouldn’t do due to ethical reasons?

“The client. It’s all about the client.

If they stand for evil things or doing things in an evil away then run. Run. Run.” Yet again McCoy echoes what has been said before about design education, That design schools don’t teach their students to think, to think critically about their work. It only teaches them design principles on how to layout a page how to use colour etc. But

McCoy also talks about a design solution bias, that all solutions have a bias. It’s only the honest solution that admit that they have a bias.

Similar to Nancy Ber nard’s theory of reality branding that offers the solution of agreeing with the client to only communicate what they can actually follow through with. I’ll come to this view point more fully on the next page.

Summary: – K a th e r i n e M c C oy a d vo c a te s th e v i e w th a t th e i n te g r i ty o f a d e s i g n s ol u t i o n w i l l n e ve r s u r pa s s i t ’s s u b j e c t m a t te r.

– M c C oy a l s o m a ke s th a t p o i n t th a t th e ‘o c c a s i o n a l p ro b o n o’ i s n’ t th e s ol u t i o n , i t ’s th e ch o i c e o f p ro j e c t s .

– A l s o m a k i n g th e p o i n t a b o u t d e s i g n s ch o ol s te a ch i n g th e i r s t u d e n t s to b e pa s s ive a rb i te r s b e twe e n th e cl i e n t a n d th e m a rke t .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_McCoy Steven Heller & Veronique V ienne, (2003), Citizen Designer (perspectives on design responsibility): Allworth Press, U.S.

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Nancy Bernard

Nancy Ber nard, a visual communicator,

positioning, promotional strategy,

has an essay featured in Citizen Designer as well, Reality Branding, these are some quotes from the essay:

message, environment of design, product design, and distribution, all we’re doing is dressing windows.”

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

“Reality branding is honest. It reflects the real value of the goods. If the product is frivolous, don’t pretend that it’s serious; if the organisational culture is obsessed with technology, don’t pretend its about people; if someone else’s stuff is pretty much the same as yours, don’t pretend that it’s unique. Find something else about the organisation that no one else can claim.”

“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.”

“In ‘reality branding’, our responsibility is to . . . Make it honest. Make it relevant. Avoid hyperbole. Be respectful. . . our clients responsibility is to make sure the organisation delivers on its promises.”

“If we lie down, accept the last-link position, and put all our energy into the look and feel of the design object itself , we’re abrogating our gifts, cheating our clients, and cheating the public.

If we don’t contribute to strategic

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Book 4, It Must Expand Project – Et hical Designers Theory & Practice

Ber nard has a very down to earth view of this issue, she talks in a very frank way about design’s position in the pecking order of society, that we just serve corporations. So the tangible power we have is in negotiating with clients on the creation of the brief to make it ‘real’.

This is Ber nard’s Reality Branding theory, that our responsibility as designers is to make sure the message we’re communicating is real. That

we’re not dressing anything up that

As Jan Van Toor n said:

isn’t there. That we become part of a lie. I find the fourth quote the most compelling, as she explains that if we don’t challenge the brief and make people think about the message we’re sending then we’re not doing our jobs at all. That we’re cheating our clients and ourselves. If we don’t challenge these things and encourage critical thought then all we’re doing is window dressing .

“Communication is the form of capitalist production in which capital has succeeded in submitting society ent irely and globally to it’s regime, suppressing all the alter native paths. If ever an alter native is proposed, it will have to arise from within society of the real subsumption and demonstrate all th e contradictions at the heart of it.”

Though I don’t fully agree with this point of view, as one could understand it as down to earth, but it could also be seen as pessimistic. Ber nard doesn’t see designers as having much influence, she sees our main area of influence as being the creation of the brief. Now there is obvious truth to this, as it’s an immediate truth.

But thinking more about the long term impact, maybe this solution doesn’t offer a holistic solution. This feels more like just trying to stop something being as bad by making it less bad or at best neutral. We something bigger than this that will offer a new solution.

Van Toor n points towards an alter native being proposed, he believes that to be the solution – if ever that is possible.

As Kalle Lasn said in my interview with him: “Most of the designers I’ve met – with a few exceptions – are mild people. Yeah, they have a certain kind of apathy, but there is a feeling among designers that you don’t really have a lot of power. ” I think here Kalle Lasn points toward what Nancy Ber nard has done, this solution is too mild.

Summary: – Na n cy B e r n a rd th i n k s th a t we m u s t re c o g n i s e o u r t r u e p o s i t i o n i n s o c i e ty, b e fo re we c a n m ove fo r wa rd .

– Re a l i ty B ra n d i n g s e e k s n o t to l i e , to b e re s p e c t f u l – to b e h o n e s t i n e ve r y pa r t o f communication.

– T h i s i s c e r ta i n l y a c o m m e n d a bl e a p p roa ch , b u t I c a n’ t h e l p b u t fe e l i t ’s to o m i l d , we c a n g o s o m u ch b i g g e r.

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

Book 4, It Must Expand Project – Ethical Designers Theory & Practice

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David B. Berman

David Berman has over 25 years

sustainable way? Imagine: what if we

of experience in design and communications and has worked extensively in the adaptation of printed materials for electronic distribution, including accessible Web design and software interface development.

didn’t just do good design… we did good?”

As an author (Do Good Design [Peachpit/Pearson, 2009]), expert speaker, designer, communications strategist, and consultant, his professional work has brought him to over 30 countries.

“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.”

“What could become possible if designers used their power to influence choices and beliefs in a positive and

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Book 4, It Must Expand Project – Et hical Designers Theory & Practice

“Good design is a strategic, sustainable, ethical response to a

business problem.”

Here is t he ‘Do Good Pledge: 1. I will be true to my profession.

2. I will be true to myself.

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

David Berman’s book ‘Do Good Design’ is a very easy read, let’s say that it’s social design for dummies. I’m not meaning to look down on his book, it’s a good discussion on the issue, in summary it’s a good book, but maybe over sim plifies the issues.

Here we can see his main points, Berman has a strong sense of each designer ’s responsibility, because designer s create so much of what is around us, then we have a direct influence on being able to make a positive influence.

product developers. This is taking aim at the corporations or companies that would be employing designers to brand their product. These are very good principles, I especially like number 6 “If you can’t find a promise to make about your product that you’d feel comfortable making to your children or best friend, redesign your product.”

This is very similar to the well known golden rule “do to others as you would have them do to you.” This is a good rule to stick by in every situation.

Onto Berman’s pledge that he outlines at the conclusion of his book, if find this conclusion a bit tame, or ‘mild’ as Kalle Lasn put it. It feels as though Berman is giving people an out from feeling guilty (if they do), instead of proposing a solution. Granted I’m offering neither. But it still feels as though it’s quite tame, I don’t feel he goes far enough to offer a new way of society and design.

Summary: – B e r m a n’s s t re n g th i s th a t h e g ive s a e a s i l y m a n a g e a bl e a n d i m pl e m e n te d a p p roa ch , i t ’s a l s o e a s y to e n c o u ra g e .

– O f fe r s g o o d p o i n t s to g ive to c o m pa n i e s a s we l l a s re m i n d i n g u s o f th e ‘g ol d e n r u l e’.

– T h o u g h h e m ay b e d o e s n’ t g o fa r e n o u g h i n h i s c o n cl u s i o n s .

http://www.davidberman.com/about/ David B Berman, (2008), Do Good Design: How

The image opposite is taken from the book, it outlines eight main points for

Designers Can Change the World: Peachpit Press

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Milton Glaser

Milton Glaser (b.1929) is among the

of doing anything. People are horrified

most celebrated graphic designers in the United States. He has had the distinction of one-man-shows at the Museum of Moder n Art and the Georges Pompidou Center. In 2004 he was selected for the lifetime achievement award of the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum. As a Fulbright scholar, Glaser studied with the painter, Giorgio Morandi in Bologna, and is an articulate spokesman for the ethical practice of design. He opened Milton Glaser, Inc. in 1974, and continues to produce an astounding amount of work in many fields of design to this day.

so they deflect the imagery. So you have to work around people’s immunity, that’s always the issue in design. How do you get through when people are resisting the images that they have seen in the past and the accumulation of their resistance in terms of memory.

Well here it tur ned out that the words themselves, once you established the idea of family members that the words themselves have an almost poignancy when they come across. The attempt here again is to create empathy, the empathic response is perhaps the most powerful instrument we have to communicate ideas. If you can get anybody to be empathic you are on the road to accomplishing a change in perception.”

The following quotes are taken from a conference in 2006, called ‘Designism’, hosted by Milton Glaser. The event was conceived by ADC vice-president Brian Collins and included panellists Kurt Andersen, Milton Glaser, Jessica Helfand, George Lois, and James V ictore. Author Tony Hendra provided introductory remarks and Steven Heller served as the moderator of the panel.

“What you get with the most poignant images is resistance to the possibility

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Book 4, It Must Expand Project – Et hical Designers Theory & Practice

“Designism like any other ‘ism’ is the assumption of a political position or at least a philosophical position that says something about your relationship to the world. And in this case it raises the issue of whether design as an activity has a social context whether or not it’s only about persuasion and selling goods, or whether it has a social

intention that creates – in a simple

to have a similar experience of feeling

sentence – a better world. And so what we’re trying to do with the word designism is I suppose you could call it an ideological position about whether designer s should and can do good...”

in order to connect with the message being put across.

“I think you don’t have to necessarily set goals, in terms of where we’re going. As long as we could actually agree on this fundamental idea that design c an be an instrument for social change. If can we actually say that’s possible, that’s desirable, well I’d be very hap py if that’s all we did.

In this first quote, Glaser talks about the best approach in connecting with people. Explaining that the use of very striking images of poverty to evo ke a reaction from people, doesn’t work. He explains that because it’s so horrifying people naturally block it out as it’s not something people want to think about.

Glaser continues to explain that he believes the empathetic response is the most effective. As this is something that doesn’t scare people yet connects very dee ply. The hard part about this approach is that the people will have

Glaser explains designism as any other ‘ism’, it assumes a certain political or philosophical position. Designism is concer ned with whether or not design has a social aspect to it or whether it’s only about selling products. And this social context would be to create a better world. Basically whether designers should and can do good.

Glaser concludes the conference on the point that he would be entirely satisfied if the designism movement managed to get designers to agree on the point that design can be an instrument for social change. I agree that this would be a very pleasing conclusion.

Summary: – G l a s e r a rg u e s th a t th e e m pa th e t i c a p p roa ch i s th e m o s t e f fe c t ive , a s i t c o n n e c t s a n d c o nv i c t s w i th p e o pl e o n a n e m o t i o n a l l e ve l w i th o u t s h o ck i n g th e m i n to i t .

– G l a s e r c o n cl u d e s th a t i f D e s i g n i s m m a n a g e d to g e t d e s i g n e r s to a g re e th a t d e s i g n c a n b e u s e d fo r s o c i a l ch a n g e .

It will be a success.

Kalle Lasn’s diagnoses is that designers are too mild, that they just don’t know about the power and influence they possess. http://www.miltonglaser.com/milton/ http://www.adcglobal.org/programs/designism/

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George Lois

George Lois (bor n on June 26, 1931,

“There’s so much in this world to be

in the Bronx, New York City) is an American art director, designer, and author. Lois is best known for over 92 covers he designed for Esquire.

“George Lois’ Esquire covers are considered among the most memorable propaganda imagery in any medium, and certainly the most provocative in the history of the magazine industry.”, from 1962 to 1972. Lois’s Esquire covers offered a controversial statement on life in the 1960s with subjects including Norman Mailer, Muhammad Ali, Andy Warhol, Germaine Greer, and Richard Nixon. In 2008, The Museum of Moder n Art exhibited 32 of Lois’ Esquire covers.

pissed off about, that if you’re willing to use your design talent, your PR talent, your communications talent that the things that happen to you individually, that make you say ‘I gotta do something about that’ by doing this. You wind up using your design talent to do it, first you have to be an activist in your heart and your guts. You have to sit there and say I don’t like what’s going on with racism in this country I don’t like living in a racist country. It’s gotta be in your DNA that your pissed, and when I say pissed that doesn’t mean your go and convince people by saying ‘Fuck You!’.”

George Lois was also part of the Designism conference (being probably the most vocal, in his passionate fiery way).

“The important thing for me is to get to masses of people, who can tur n peoples heads around. The artistry of changing people’s maids is to kick ass with a smile on your face, that’s the trick.”

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Book 4, It Must Expand Project – Et hical Designers Theory & Practice

“Being pissed and having passion is tantamount in your soul and in your heart. You gotta be furious about what’s going on! That doesn’t mean that your fury shows in your work.

What has to show in your work, smarts, knowing how to manipulate thought, knowing how to get people to understand something. How to do it with wit, charm, power and simplicity or whatever that is. The name of the game though is that you got to have the passion to do it, and if you have that

passion things happen all around you.”

viewpoint, it’s one that isn’t often

Steven Heller posed a question to George Lois about the media:

seen from people in his position.

Most are more concer ned about being diplomatic. Lois just freely says what he thinks.

“Q: I think the one nobody has addressed is that fact that our media is almost totally controlled and I think everybody here knows that. Maybe one of the reasons why some ads and some co vers won’t run is not because the point is not relevant to us all but because in fact the people that own that media will not allow us to do that?

“In general the media has been complicit, Q: Is there too much media now, showing too much stuff?

“The existence of the Inter net has a tremendously valuable mitigating effect against the corporate control of media problem. Q: so it’s a correcting medium? “100%! If there was no Inter net, I’d be really scared of the Rupert Murdoch’s”

Lois talks about being pissed off, explaining that must be the starting point, that if we’re willing to use our talents. Then it’ll just happen as it would with anyone communicating a message, they’ll use the talents that they have to communicate what they care about. He argues that you must first be an activist in your guts. But continues saying that we can’t just express our anger as anger, we must be smart about it. As he says, “kick ass with a smile on your face, that’s the trick”

Summary: – T h a t we m u s t f i r s t b e p i s s e d o f f, b e a c t iv i s t s i n o u r g u t s first.

– “ K i ck a s s w i th a s m i l e o n yo u r fa c e”.

Lois answers about the media point to the influence of the Inter net and moder n media. That the Inter net is actually become an independent free voice and corporations can have no control over it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lois http://www.georgelois.com/bio.html http://www.adcglobal.org/programs/designism/

I really enjoyed listening to Lois’

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Rick Poyner

Rick Poynor is a British writer, critic,

van Eyck Academie in Maastricht. He

lecturer and curator, specialising in design, media and visual culture.

He is V isiting Professor in Design Criticism and Research Methods at the postgraduate Royal College of Art in London.

is a frequent lecturer and has spoken about design and visual culture at public events, conferences and design schools throughout Europe, the United States, Australia, and China.

In 1999, Poynor was a co-ordinator of the First Things First 2000 manifesto initiated by Adbusters. He was the founding editor of Eye magazine in London, which he edited from 1990 to 1997, and he has contributed the “Critique” column to Eye since 1999.

He has written a regular column for Print magazine since 2000. His articles , essays and reviews have appeared in I.D., Metropolis, Harvard Design Magazine, Adbusters, Blueprint, Icon, Frieze, Creative Review, Etapes, Domus, The Guardian, Financial T imes and many other publications. In 2003, he was a co-founder of Design Observer.

Poynor was a V isiting Professor at the Royal College of Art (1994-1999) and a Research Fellow at the college (20062009). He has also taught at the Jan

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Rick Poyner has been a great influence and inspiration for this project. It’s his very insightful and critical thinking that has helped me shape this project.

Here are a collection of some of his quotes that I find helpful: “The fact that some advertising is amusing and well made is irrelevant, since what matters is the combined impact on the viewer of all advertising as the dominant mode of public speech.

Here, the medium truly is the message, and the message is a value system embodying an ideology that many of us do not share and want to resist.”

“The process of unlocking and exposing the underlying ideological basis of commercial culture boils down to a simple question that we need to ask and keep on asking: ‘In whose

interest and to what ends? Who gains by this construction of reality, by this representation of this condition as “natural”?”

“And here is the central dilemma for any designer working today. When it comes to consumer good, every new design (or old design re-editioned as if new), no matter how well considered, sincerely intentioned or just plain alluring contributes to the gigantic over-production of things. Whatever it is, in any purely rational assessment, we almost certainly don’t ‘need’ it, keenly as we might desire it.”

At the end of this page you can see a few more links to Poyner’s articles on the design observer website that there’s too much to copy straight in.

In this first quote Poyner discusses the affect of advertising, he argues that no matter how well made an advert is it doesn’t matter because the fact that it’s an advert communicates more than the content ever will. Any advert communicates a message of consumption and dissatisfaction. That

is the ideology that we do not want.

The next quote poses a question along similar lines as David Berman’s golden rule. Poyner asks “In who’s interest and to what ends? Who gains by this construction of reality, by this representation of this condition as “natural”?”. Who gains by it and who doesn’t? Another golden rule about thinking about others before yourself or your brief or your boss.

The last quote is about consumerism, Poyner states that no matter what the product is – we don’t need it. That any product is just going to being adding to the massive pile of things. Any solution will have to come from somewhere else, if it comes from within the system it’ll only get added to the pile. A new perspective is needed.

Summary: – A ny a d ve r t i s i n g c o m m u n i c a te s a m e s s a g e a c o n s u m p t i o n m o re th a n w h a t e ve r th e c o n te n t i s .

– ‘ I n w h o’s i n te re s t a n d to what ends?.

http://designobserver.com/author. html?author=737 Steven Heller & Veronique V ienne, (2003), Citizen Designer (perspectives on design responsibility): Allworth Press, U.S. http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ where-are-the-design-critics/3767/ http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ where-are-the-design-intellectuals/2347/ http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ how-to-say-what-you-mean/2097/ http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ adbusters-in-anarchy/1647/ http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ wim-crouwel-the-ghost-in-the-machine/26058/

Book 4, It Must Expand Project – Ethical Designers Theory & Practice

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