Essay Map: Throughout my essay, I will discuss the relationship between colour and sustainability, especially with reference to packaging. I will also explore how companies use colour as an insinuation of sustainability, regardless of their company’s ethos. I wish to explore this further, as the environment and sustainability have such an impact on everyone’s lives, and it is often the job of the designer to communicate the importance and impacts of commercial waste, often through colour choices. The audience should wish to learn more about this subject, as global waste affects on every individual, and thoughtful consumption of packaging is one way people can reduce their impact on the environment, partially by being aware of how their subconscious reacts to colour. The first thing the audience will want to learn is the place and importance of packaging within our society, and how it has become one of the only and most important selling tools available to producers (Humphery, 1998). They will then want to learn more about how we came to be such a consume and discard community (Packard, 1960), expanded, until recently, by the distribution of free single use plastic bags (*****), as well as how little responsibility people tend to take for this (Berger ???) The next thing my audience may wish to know is the importance of awareness concerning packaging, and its impact on the environment. Therefore, I will introduce key ideologies and issues of packaging waste (***), as well as key facts and figures on how disposable packaging is damaging the environment (Smart, 2010) (***) I will then look into how colour theory works alongside consumers, and briefly explore the impact colour can have in packaging (FIRST YEAR). Then, my audience will want to know how these companies influence purchases solely based on colour (Packard, 1960), and how the general public have little control over their responses to purchasing based on colour (Ethical consumer, 2005) Then I will discuss the relationship between colour and sustainability, and greenwashing within larger companies. I will also explore the battle companies face between being ethical and seeming ethical through customer facing propaganda. I will then explore the solutions to these problems through identifying the ideals people want, and how these can be applied to packaging in real terms. I will expand onto this throughout my practical research, and understand how packaging demands have changed a lot since it was first devised to reflect a growing conscience in environmentally friendly goods, which still being aesthetically appealing. I will then propose possible solutions in ethical packaging, and discuss the changing role of designers. Finally, my audience may wish to know how this all ties together to show an advancement in the future for aesthetically pleasing packaging which is appropriate colour wise, as well as having minimal environmental impact. I will combine the opinions to see how knowledge of colour and sustainability is being abused, and what can be done to help ease our impact on the environment.
Usage of packaging- why Plastic bags- freely available Waste Impact on environment- facts Key figures for future Colour theory and impacts on consumer Key historical points Relationship between colour and sustainability Greenwashing Ethical seeming vs ethical Reusable packaging Needs to be appealing Lack of packaging is the answer - Interesting, reusable design necessary Designers become engineers Finally conclusion Humphery: 'the package is an extremely important substitute for the personal relationship that people desire'- Humphery p.65 'now the package must do its own selling job, and for that reason a great deal more interest must be taken in the proper packaging of merchandise... the package must 'get attention, arouse interest, create desire, get action'' - Humphery p.87 ‘As incomes rose in the second half of the nineteenth century in Britain, the priority for the working class was the consumption of better quality and easily available everyday goods’ p.26 ‘Many of these products were imported’ p.27 ‘the luxurious, the convenient and the economical, all of which were emphasised in the manufacturers’ efforts to promote their products’- p.27 ‘The supposed cleanliness and uniformity of manufactured goods were also sources of celebration’- p28 ‘To these packets can be added colours, company logos, promotional spiels, and images. The identity of the product as a material thing becomes increasingly drawn into the cultural realm until even the most everyday of products seems to lose some of its materiality and becomes bound up with ideas and emotions to do with cleanliness, uniformity,
convenience, progress, modernity, class status, gender roles and identities, luxury, sensuality and so on’ p.33 ‘the meanings attached a product rather than simply the product itself becomes the central part of retailing’ p.33 ‘by the late nineteenth century large food manufacturing concerns had become an important part of Australia’s industrial landscape. Their products were also becoming household names’ p.41 ‘The package is an extremely important substitute for the personal relationship that people desire’ p.65 ‘ many food retailers recognised and embraced this shift towards sensual selling’ p.86 ‘ now the package must do its own selling job, and for that reason a great deal more interest must be taken in proper packaging of merchandise’ p.87 ‘ the package must ‘get attention, aroused interest, create desire, get action’’ p.87 ‘Clearly Anetta sees consumption not only as selfish, but ultimately unsatisfying. During our conversation, Anetta spoke of people’s participation in consumption cultures as a kind of restless searching for happiness and gratification that she felt could not ultimately be met by material things’ p.197 Packard: ‘ already some home furnishings are being built to break down within a few years and product makers have been showing a disconcerting fascination with the idea of setting ‘death dates’ for products’ p.17 ‘ a hypothyroid economy that can be sustained only by constant stimulation of the people and their leaders to be more prodigal with the nations resources’ –p.17 ‘ their ever expanding economy demands it’ p.18 ‘ a charge of rape cannot be sustained by any adult when consent or cooperation has been given’ p.19 ‘ it should also be noted that much of this training to bring out new projects was inspired to a very large extent by a desire on the part of producers to gain more shelf space in supermarket jungle’ p.24 ‘ the concept of colour ‘matching’ in order to broaden sales was also used in promoting home accessories’ p.38 ‘ apparently bright colours promote impulse to call someone just for the heck of it.’ P.38
‘‘You use once and throw it away… you use it once and throw it away.’ This specific chant was used to promote the sale of a deodorant pad.’ P.47 ‘ steaks and other meats have appeared in disposable aluminium frying pans. When the steak is done, just throw away the pan along with the nasty old grease. Muffins come in throw-away baking tins. Hungarian goulash began being offered in throw-away plastic boiling bags.’ P.49 ‘ tomorrow, more than ever, our lives will be “disposable”’ p.50 ‘ that is just the cost of the packaging, the wrapping. It is a figure worth pondering for a moment. Divided by the number of families in the United States, and you come up with the staggering statistic, one almost beyond belief. The average United States family today spends five hundred dollars of its income each year just for the package!’ p.51 ‘ however, a potato-coloured peeler wouldn’t have much impact on the sales counter. They decided to solve that by displaying the peeler on a colourful card. Once the housewife got the peeler home and removed the bright card, the chances that she would lose the peeler were excellent. He explained how this would work to the benefit of the company.’ P.53 ‘In 1955 consultants had ‘forecast that pink would be the leading colour. It was. In 1956, turquoise was the predicted leader. It was. This year the prediction was lemon yellow,’ and it added that if the sale of lemon yellow baby bathtubs, wastebaskets, bowls, and such could be trusted, then the forecasters were again right on top of the trend’ p.73 ‘ at one a stage, for example, he sold women on boldness in nail enamel, then subsequently unsold them on bold in favour of muted enamel’ p.76 ‘ in a most tentative mood let us try to comprehend the implications of a system that demands that its people engage in ever greater consumption’ p.173 ‘ he found ‘an enormous strain on supplies of vital raw materials’ and added, ‘the survival of the nation is involved. An assured supply of iron ore, petroleum, natural gas, metals, coal, and a host of other materials is essential to the strength of the American economy’ p.185 ‘ start channelling the use of both accordingly’ p256 ‘ far more can be done than is being done to reclaim scrap, to develop substitutes (especially substitutes that do not require an enormous energy output to produce), to reduce waste in both the mining and use of resources’ p.256 ‘ perhaps it is only natural that a people who have been so long over-blessed with an abundance of materials and energy continue to squander then and think in terms of ever mounting ‘strength’ until a traumatic event abruptly forces then to realise that conditions now call for a more prudent and ingenious use of muscles and energy’ p.257
‘’The Good Life’ here presumably means the abundant life’ p.296 Smart: ‘ in short, it was widely accepted that consumer demand was amenable to influence and management, that consumer desire to be cultivated, aroused, and directed through the use of advertising and marketing strategies and the spectacle of display and decoration especially ‘Show windows,… colour and light displays’ p.62 ‘ avoidable food waste over the course of the year amounted to 4.1 million tons’ p.140 ‘ continually fashioning the self that would be expressed in and through endless consumer activity’ p.141 ‘ the consumer way of life, which has become second nature to those who participate in it, has also led to a number of serious consequences, including significant squandering of resources, in many instances relatively scarce if not irreplaceable natural resources’ p.160 ‘ humanity uses the equivalent of 1.3 planets to provide the resources we use and absorb our waste’ p.161 ‘ first, in addition to its aesthetic or symbolic significance consumption constitutes a process of extraction of use-value, from which waste in some shape or form is an inevitable unavoidable by-product’ p.162 ‘ 1.14 million brown-paper supermarket bags, the number used every hour’ p.171 ‘ 1 million plastic cups, the number use on internal airline flights every 6 hours’ p.171 ‘2 million plastic beverage bottles, the number used every 5 minutes’ p.171 ‘ concerns about consumerism and attempt to promote alternatives have a long history, almost ‘as old as capitalism itself’’ p.200 ‘Consumer activism, including ‘value-for-money’ and product design and safety campaigns’ p.200 ‘ promoting the idea that adoption of recommended environmentally friendly products and/or practices will be conducive to the maintenance of economic growth’ p.202 ‘established in 1976 the Body Shop represents an early UK example of a business that promotes itself as oriented towards green consumerism’ p.203 ‘offering minimal packaging’ p.203 ‘ its green credentials have been challenged by critics’ p.203 ‘ promoting the idea that personal well-being can be enhanced through consumption’ p.203
‘ promoting the consumption, wherever possible, of locally made and/or recycled goods, as well as foods that are in season locally’ p.206 ‘ that it might be healthier to consume less’ p.206 ‘our world is ending; [and] that if we go on as before, the oceans and the rivers will be sterile, and the soil infertile, and the air unbreathable in the cities’ p.207 ‘ French critical analyst Andre Gorz drew attention to the ecologically destructive impact of economic growth and rising consumption’ p.216 ‘’voluntary simplicity’ and ethical forms of consumption designed to counter the emphasis placed on materialistic values’ p.223 THE ETHICAL CONSUMER ‘ it is important to recognise that consumption is itself an arena through which people learn the meanings of what it is to act morally’ p.23 ‘ it is generally accepted that awareness of environmental and social issues is rising, driven by a growing volume of easily accessible information’ p.69 ‘ if consumers judge that companies are behaving badly, they can and will bring them to their knees’ p.89 ‘ a fair trade product or organic vegetable can be traced back to it producing farm and the impact of chemical reduction or wage rises can be studied in detail’ p.96 ‘ supporting ethical businesses and punishing unethical ones. As a result, more businesses would have to behave ethically because it would be unprofitable or damaging to the corporate image to do otherwise’ p.157 ‘ having information condensed into a single label from trustworthy and reliable source would be helpful’ p.159 ‘ some consumers view of pics to be the responsibility of businesses and government rather than their own responsibility’ p.170 ‘ ethical issues are becoming more important in how people judge companies’ p.195 ‘ sympathetic to social and environmental issues but not active’ p.197 ‘ their purchase decisions would be influenced if they had more information on companies ethical behaviour’ p.201
‘ respond to the ethical demands of consumers to ‘sell corporate social responsibility’, to ‘build ethical grounds’, and to capitalise on the growing ethical market’ p.221 ‘ like to build brands that consumers trust’ p.227 ‘ trusting the company to be ethical goes considerably further than this, and it is evident that many brands are facing something of a trust deficit in terms of the public’s faith in their commitment to doing the right thing’ p.227 ‘ social responsibility becomes more of a background quality that isn’t necessarily vigorously promoted’ p.229 ‘I think it is fair to say that the most risible attempt at corporate ‘greenwash’ are probably behind us now’ p.228 ‘ Communications environment was awash with misleading and over-hyped claims about ethical credentials and in particular about purported environmental concerns and benefits’ p.228 Humphery, K. (1998) Shelf Life Supermarkets and the Changing Cultures of Consumption, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Berger, J. (1972) Ways of Seeing, Harmondsworth: Penguin Packard, V. (1960) The Waste Makers, Harmondsworth: Penguin Smart, B. (2010) Consumer Society; Critical Issues and Environmental Consequences, London: SAGE Publications Harrison, R. and Newholm, T. and Shaw, D. (2005) The Ethical Consumer, London: SAGE Publications