“We are living on this planet as if we had another one to go to.� - Terri Swearingen.
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How can
designers promote sustainability in their work?
(2001 p.16) puts it “Products are the source of all environmental problems. It may seem surprising, but most environmental problems are caused by unintentional side effects of the manufacture, use, and disposal of products.� In the 21st century, communication design through products and graphics is the most efficient way to communicate a message to the largest demographic due to its versatility and its ability to adapt into any form of media. This turns designers into educators rather than craftsmen, as it is their work that will guide and manipulate human interaction with the environment. It has therefore become a designers responsibility to communicate the right message through their work to guide the public into making the right choices. There needs to be a complete change in general public opinion as the current lifestyle is engulfed in an instant
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ociety changes every day, and with these changes comes the possibility that new needs and problems will arise. Frequently, the solutions are related to design and for this reason, modern designers can play a more vital role in societies development. Current methods of manufacture are largely unsustainable and it is coming at the cost of the planet, there needs to be a massive change in how products are made and the way society perceives its own consumption. As Datschefski
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“how do we love all the children, of all the species, for all time?”
culture with the belief that everything can be bought and disposed of in the same moment, and with products replacing products the choices are running thin, as is the time left to make them. If designers understand how humans interpret visual information, then more efficient designs for communicating sustainable living could be created, seeing comes before words and creating a strong visual design is a vital part in letting the viewer successfully interpret what they are looking at. Current percep-
tion is to keep the financial price down and ignore the environmental cost to such point that “over thirty tonnes of waste are produced for every one tonne of product that reaches the consumer” (Datschefski, E 2001 p.17), this mentality needs to change before it becomes too late. Designers start any brief with the aim to answer a question or solve a problem, but what question needs to be asked to change the mentality and attitude of design so more sustainable processes and materials will be consid-
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Fig. 2
Fig. 5
ered. William McDonough proposed this question to all designers at a TED Talks (2007) “how do we love all the children, of all the species, for all time?” This question encourages designers and manufacturers to consider a much wider picture than the one in front of them, as it is current narrow minded trends to get a job done as cheaply as possible as “only one in ten thousand products are designed with the environment in mind” (Datschefski, Edwin 2001 p.6). This style of industrial framework is fairly primitive and conceived around a one-way manufacturing flow, what
is know as a cradle to grave flow, without appropriate consideration to a products manufacturing sustainability and disposal. It is the designers who get the first say on how a product is made and what it communicates “whether we realize it or not, we live in a designed world. The question is: will this be a design for destruction or for a sustainable new world that we can safely hand down to our children and our childrens children? It is not about the world of design, but the design of the world.”(Mau, B. 2004). When thinking about the consumption of
“Creating sustainable pieces should begin at the start of the design process.” 4
Fig. 3
products a new approach is starting to be considered where a product is designed to be kept for life rather than being constantly replaced. This process needs to start from the conception of a design so that it may run through the entirety of the products development and further consumption. “Creating sustainable pieces should begin at the start of the design process. First, the designer must determine if the project deserves to exist in a tangible form. To do this, the designer asks the following questions: is this the best method to communicate the message? What is the impact of making this piece? After this initial discussion, it is important to openly communicate ideas and decisions with the design team and client. As the project continues to develop, the graphic designer should work corroboratively with the client and vendors to develop a solution” (Sheerin, 2008, p19).
Alastair Fuad-luke says that there is a key group of sustainability issues that are being solved by designers such as “climate change, food, water, ecological capacity, consumption and production, social injustice, poverty, new enterprise, technology and biodiversity” (Fuad-luke, 2009, p.82). Concerning sustainability, communication design has made a strong start, but a lot more needs to be done to see significant change. As previously explained, visual messaging is the most efficient way to get people in contact with sustainability concepts, as seen in Fig. 2 (Gutierrez, 2009) and Fig. 5 (Le, 2009) where responsibility is put on the consumer to encourage them to consider what they buy and consume. In Hong Kong they are starting to explore different methods of appealing to the public. A company called “Chocolate Rain” have made a children’s character called “Fatina” (Fig. 3) out of salvaged
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“celebrity branding is unprecedented in the advertising world” materials. She’s seen as special for “her ability to find old treasured objects, out of which she is able to create new tools to help her in her numerous quests, enabling her to make a difference” (Mak, P. 2012). She has been made to appeal to the public youth, in the hope it will trend and be seen as the next cool thing, with underlying subliminal messaging to promote that a more sustainable lifestyle is to be embraced not endured. Fatina is inspiring society to view products and waste differently, and encouraging them to think creatively to use a product again, this way of life is being explored in a movement called “upcycling” which a encourages a diversion from recycling which still involves the use of virgin materials. A website called upcycling is dedicated to showing “people how
to reuse and modify the products they already own to save money on buying new ones” (Why Upcycle? 2011). This in turn is inadvertently reducing the fabric and textile waste which currently stands at “1.8 million tonnes a year” (Why Upcycle? 2011) and prevents its contribution into, environmentally damaging landfill sites. The term “Trashion” (Ricketson, K. 2007) is by no means new, but recently it has started to draw attention for its potential in design and the effect the concept could have on the manufacturing process and in society. Elvis&Kresse are a large Trashion and upcycling company who are starting to draw attention to themselves and in 2009 the red belt (Fig. 1) they had made from old fire hose was “worn by Cameron Diaz in a Vogue photoshoot” (Foiret, C. 2009). “Celebrity
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Fig. 1
branding is unprecedented in the advertising world” (King, D. 2011-13). Seeing celebrities wearing the new “Trashion” clothing, and being able to find out how to make it themselves will show sustainability in a positive light and potentially turn it into the fashionable new style it needs to become. Designers need to make sustainability appeal to the public, they need to raise awareness and make its concepts easily understandable and get people to appreciate the effects and consequences of ignoring it. The general public need to be educated and informed about what sustainability is and the benefits it can bring to the many areas of day to day life. This would make it a more relatable subject and encourage a more conscious approach to what they are consuming and more consideration about whether it’s re-usable, longevity, type of materials, and method of manufacture, among other characteristics. This could be easily achieved through visual advertising campaigns to raise public awareness. Ingo Gunther has demonstrated a very good practice of using maps to convey ideas on sustain-
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ability. From 1988 until present day, he has created over 300 visual models of geopolitical issues. His work has covered a broad spectrum of issues including politics, environmental and wealth distribution. Take this piece of work for example (Fig. 5), this work is trying to illustrate the damage to the Ozone among other issues, it’s difficult to explain to someone the damage and effect that having holes in the ozone layer will have. However with the appropriate use of colour, shape and form Gunther has been able to create an easily understandable graphic which expresses the issue succinctly and clearly. In Joanna Boehnerts, Visual Communication of Ecological Literacy, she mentioned that visual design could be considered as a crisis discipline. The design process is creating an assumption and trying to tackle the problem by conducting research and applying visual understanding. Among the many means of visual content, maps are a very powerful tool of communication, it’s a piece of design which allows an understanding of the world with a specific point of view.
Modern lifestyles are surrounded by all kinds of maps. “Google maps”, Travel routes, and the internet are all based upon a maps construction, and work in the same way. It can either lead you to a physical destination, or help your mind to develop a new idea. Each map has its own point of view, regardless or scale, function or the subject matter. Therefore when we read a map, we are entering someone elses point of view on a particular subject, this means a map can be a very personal object to its creator,
Fig. 5
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displaying tone, gesture and character. Life is far more complicated today than it was even 10 years ago, this has resulted in more advanced technology becoming a necessity to keep up with modern lifestyles, turning humans into consumer machines. Sustainability is not a widely understood concept, and much of this technology has detrimental effects on the environment which implies that people do not really understand what they are buying and the true cost that it may have. Everyone speaks the same visual
language worldwide. Andy Goldsworthy is a Scottish sculptor, photographer and enviornmentalist (see Fig. 6 & 7) who prodces art situated in natural surroundings using only natural materials.His tools are his own two hands, his media are the stones, sticks, leaves, snow. His fragile compositions are head in places by thorns, water, ice and gravity itself. The influence that Goldsworthys work has on the viewer is it changes their perspective on whatever natural materials he has decided to work with, and Fig. 6
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creates a greater awareness of the materials potential in design. What materials and how they are used in a sustainable design are vitally important in achieving its concepts as “ what is the point of designing foe recycling if it is piece of crap, compared to designing something that is not designed specifically for recycling but that is going to be sticking around for a lot longer� (Parsons, 2009). Waving hello, a rude hand gesture, or universal signage will mean the same in Cambridge as it does in Cambodia,
so visual communication design will be one of the foremost changing factors in current environmental sustainability because of its capacity to be understood by the widest public demographic, and that is exactly what needs to happen. It needs to be accepted by the majority, not enforced by a minority to change current methods of manufacture and wasteful modern lifestyles. Designers are the ones who will bring about this desired change, as they have the advantage of the public eye, and it is what their Fig. 7
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work is promoting that changes public perception and opinion. Bhamra and Lofthouse (2007 p.1) explain it as In this age of mass production when everything must be planned and designed, design has become the most powerful tool with which man shapes his tools and environments (and, by extension, society and himself). In the world of design, products could be simplified with increased efficiency in their respective area, the mentality of quality not
quantity should be adopted. We need to face this global crisis and think about the world we want to leave behind for the following generations. This demands high social and moral responsibility from the designer. This process has begun in current “Trashion” trends and it is slowly taking off, but it is a concern that it will lose momentum and fade out as most “fads” do, that is why the “Trashion” mentality needs to be adopted by all areas of design, to ensure it sticks as the new way of working not just something a small group of designers are experimenting with. “Because designers are both makers and consumers, our power to incite change is compelling, if we help to change the way our world is designed, it will allow for a better quality of life end continuing viable economic future” (Sheerin, p19).
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“Because designers are both makers and consumers, our power to incite change is compelling, if we help to change the way our world is designed, it will allow for a better quality of life end continuing viable economic future.�
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
& Image sources
Bhamra, T and Lofthouse, V (2007). Design for sustainability, a practical approach. Burlington, Vermont: Gower Publishing Limited. Datschefski, Edwin (2001). The total beauty of sustainable products. Crans-PresCeligny, France: Rotovision. Foiret, C. (2009). Cameron Diaz by Mario Testino for Vogue US. Available: http:// trendland.com Fuad-Luke, Alastair (2009) Design Activism: beautiful strangeness for a sustainable world. London, United Kingdom : Earthscan King, D. (2011-13). The Impact Celebrities Have on Our Lives. Available: http://www. deborahkingcenter.com Mak, P. (2012). Chocolate Rain - Why throw away your memories?. Available: http:// www.chocolaterain.com/. Last accessed 05 Jan 2013. Ricketson, K. (2007). Haute Trash: Fashion from Rubbish. Available: http://www. treehugger.com Robert. (2011). Why Upcycle?. Available: http://www.upcycling.co.uk Sherin, Aaris (2008) SustainAble. Beberly, United States of America: Rockport Publishers TED Talks. (2007). William McDonough: Cradle to cradle design. Available from: http://www.ted.com Parsons, T (2009). Thinking Objects: Contemporary approaches to product design. Singapore: AVA Book Production Pte. Ltd. Visual Communication of Ecological Literacy. Joanna Boehnerts
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Fig. 1 Elvis&Kresse, Belt made from old fire hose. images.ethicalsuperstore.com Fig.2 Diego, Gutierrez (2009) Keep buying shit www.greenpatriotposters.org Fig. 3 Fatima brooch. theworkshoplewes.com Fig. 4 Ingo G端nther. Illustrated Global Pollution Levels. images.fastcompany.com Fig. 5 Le, Steve (2009) Problem me, solution me. Available from: wasteprevention.blogspot.co.uk Fig. 6 & 7 Andy Goldsworthy sculptures. http://www.laboiteverte.fr
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“I feel more confident than ever that the power to save the planet rests with the individual consumer.� - Denis Hayes
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