GRD Hanbook

‘Designers are the mediators of our daily experience. The easier my compost bucket is to use, the more comfortable my ride on the bus, and the more appealing my reusable grocery bag, the more likely I am to participate in environmentally sound practice. Designers carry a heavy responsibility, but at the same time they can offer our future the greatest gift’

Gavin Newsom, Lt. Governor of California

01

Design can educate, accumulate support and organise people. We aren’t saving the world, but we are taking an active role in raising awareness and encouraging action. We have the power to make a difference.

02

The Guild of Responsible Designers was born out of the lack of responsible and sustainable activity from students at Leeds College of Art.

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Bobby Jones Leo Sims Ewan North Laura Bruce Grace Buckley Jordan Harrison Reader Jamie Pudsey Beth Dalzell Isabel Tanner

The Guild of Responsible Designers members so far, from Level 6 Graphic Design.

04

Innovation is personal: If we are curious, open and empathetic, the great problems will find us.

The problem which found us was the lack of student participation with the College. This was our first project, to create a guild and society, where students can share their views and use their skills.

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We learn by working together, sharing our experiences and understanding. The outcomes of the discussions were more about participating and belonging than about specific items of content.

After the understanding of our environment and how it works we were able to pool our skills and knowledge toward what problems need addressing.

06

We would like to make a difference, and we know we can not do this alone.

Over the last few months we have explored, observed and engaged with how designers make a difference in the local community in Leeds, we have found one underlying factor which has to be constant: support.

07

With Bobby Jones now part of the Sustainable Committee at College.

We want more students to be part of it, at least one member from every discipline, not just Graphic Designers.

As a student representative working with the committee, we hope that our messages and practice will have more support and gives more knowledge of what it is the Colleges doing to be more responsible.

08

Growth.

Integrating more students from all levels and disciplines into the Guild who are aware of real world problems and problems within our own community, who want to combine our skills to make a difference.

Starting as a Graphic Design Level 6 core, we want more students who are share the same perspective as us to see what we can learn and share from our own experiences.

09

Development.

With the Sustainable Society we aim to educate, promote and illuminate sustainable and socially responsible design for anyone who may have an interest in the subject or would like to know more.

Named the Sustainable Society, we aim to demonstrate design responsibility for both the environment and social as a whole.

This will be achieved by workshops, action days, guest speakers and collaboration projects.

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Expansion.

In affiliation with Leeds University and the Green Exchange, our projects receive funding as well as relations with their committee and students.

Further expanding our ability to make a change on a much larger scale.

Working with Leeds University and the Green Exchange gives us access to other Leeds Colleges and Universities communities.

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What does it mean to design for good, and how can one be an agitator, an organiser and an agent of change?

Good design is made by designers who give a damn.

Working in collaboration with likeminded organisations, and individuals can be the catalyst to making a positive impact in our communities and around the world.

Good design starts with doing what we do best and being flexible enough to adapt to a range of commnication modes and outcomes.

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Rhizomatic thinking and learning. ‘A rhizome creates through the act of experimentation.’

Rhizomatic learning is a way of thinking about learning based on ideas described

by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari It responds and grows according to its environment, not straight upwards like a tree, but in a haphazard networked fashion. As a story for learning, it is messy, unstable and uncertain.

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Rhizomatic Structure.

The process which the Guild will go through is one which is completely experimental. The legacy of the Guild is that it will continue to grow but in way which has no set beginning or end.

The idea is to think of a community as an ecosystem in which each person is spreading their own understanding. The public negotiation of that ‘acquisition’ (through content creation, sharing) provides a contextual curriculum to remix back into the existing research/thoughts/ ideas in a given field.

Their own rhizomatic learning experience becomes more curriculum for others.

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Research so far.

Now knowing of the Sustainable Committee we now know more of how the College operates.

Interviewing key members from the Committee, Graham Tansley, Head of Visual Communications at LCA, Bianca Elzenbaumer, Researcher for the College, Suzanne Archer head of the Sustainable Committee.

For our own project of making the College more sustainable, we were at an disadvantage not knowing how the College was run. Now with more knowledge, we can prioritise which projects to have the most influence.

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Key dates.

Guild meetings every Wednesday at 1.00pm.

23 February Sustainable Society starts.

3 March, 12 May Sustainable Committee meetings.

Guild meetings are when we address our individual projects as well as collaborative projects which we all work on. The society will act as a platform to get more people involved and will host events with guest speakers. The committee meetings are a chance to work with the College at Blemhiem and Vernon Street.

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Legacy.

The Guild is to be handed down to the next level 6 designer, who shares the same idealology as the Guild of Responsible Designers.

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On the front-lines of social change.

Our attitude to use our skills to help the disadvantaged.

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Mission Statement.

Engaging our community by using our skills, while balancing idealism with pragmatism.

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Logo.

The logo was originally a lino cut by Bobby Jones. IT was inspired by artisan, to create a functional and decorative logo.

To be used across all printed ephemera.

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Not to used in grayscale. No other shade green or colour different than Guild green. Not to be flipped or rotated. Or at a scale smaller than 270 mm x 19 mm.

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Colour.

The use of stock instead of white.

Green: R 10 G 93 B 53

C 89 M 38 Y 83 K 33

Black: R 0 G 0 B 0

C0 M0 Y0 K 100

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Stock use.

Covers.

Cairn Eco White 300gsm Leaves.

Cairn Straw White 120gsm

All stock is made from 100% recycled fibre and the nature of the raw material means that there can be slight variations in texture.

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Type use.

Header Edmondsans 36 pt.

42 pt leading.

Guild Green.

Body Copy.

10 pt.

14 pt leading.

Black.

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Designers carry a heavy responsibility, but at the same time they can offer our future the greatest gift.

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