These past few weeks have been unbelievable in quite a few ways. As such, my posts have been rather delinquent. I'll be updating a few things in the next couple of posts, but first, let's discuss some ethical design groups.
Then first group is pretty straight forward. The Ethical Design Collective. Their primary philosophy: the encouragement of education and development, philanthropy towards our fellow beings, and care of our planet and the flora and fauna it supports. Personally, I think it sounds a bit fluffy and self-important, but that doesn't change the fact that they have wholesome goals and a healthy purpose. The idea behind the collective is to bring designers together under a common purpose. It is a forward-thinking group in that it is more of a connection for designers than a design office with headquarters in New York. In terms of their output, I think their portfolio is in its growth stages, but they are relatively young, and I look forward t seeing more of their work.
One thing I enjoy is that they don't just display their work... they display their experiments as well. Many design groups and studios just display their work. While this shows their strengths, it doesn't exactly give a client the opportunity to see rage of skill and ability. Necessity may be the mother of invention, but innovation [especially in this new age of green and ethical design] is the child of experimentation. They remain true to their philosophy by encouraging designers to appreciate and participate and just playing with design. Even the high end design studios can be stuck in the rut of innovating classics. We are in an age of more than great design... looking good isn't good enough. You have to mean good-- BE good. [I am really beginning to appreciate playing with type and creating arbitrary pieces of art in my spare time. It's the random things that inspire.]
The second design group I found is such a little gem of design. Celery Design Collaborative. [How organic is that!?!] I thi k the name just about says it all. The cleanest design does not have to be classically minimalistic. They take a new approach to design that they call "engaging upstream."
"The major goal of engaging upstream from the traditional designer’s role is to shift the focus of 'green' design from a battle over cost to a strategic conversation about value."
Designing ethically, for them, means taking initial responsibility. We have little control over production and distribution because it simply isn't part of what a designer does or it isn't within their resources... but the design is. So instead of blaming circumstances and availability, the idea is to look ahead and include your intentions in the original design. They call it designing backwards. Genius.
They have me all excited and about to jump outside of my seat. They have the neatest lightbulb packaging innovation. PLEASE visit the site and read all about it. Seeing as packaging is the next assignment, I will talk more about it in the next post. Until then... enjoy the taster :)
When I first read the prompt for this assignment, I was frustrated. My ambitions were never to work for a major ad agency. The corporate world has only left a bitter taste in my outh. The quest for design fame and glory and the accompanying monetary rewards have created money-hungry monsters. Advertising, branding, design, etc. have become increasingly corporatized. As such, people aren't always designing to an ethical or moral standard, just to whatever gets them up the next rung of the design ladder. I really enjoy design but I had determied that I ultimately wanted to do in-house design work with a non-profit, or freelance design for non-profit only. That way, all of my work would be ethical and stand for what I believe in. I am beginning to realize that ethical design is'nt about standing ona soap box in a corner and drawing with a self-righteous pout on my face... Just get out there and do it. People, groups, studios, clients... they're all catching on. Ethics are not dead. Au contrare-- they are spreading!
