Social Design: Do Good Design-Summarized Points

·         Do Good Design-Summarized Points

·         Creating to cater to yourself; how does the project affect you?

·         Designers have so much power they don’t even know about.

·         We made the world what it is today, we have literally designed everything nonorganic in the world.

·         “Never doubt that a few individuals can change the world, in fact only they ever have.”                 –Margaret Mead

·         Universities are natural incubators

·         Its cheaper to stretch an existing brand, than to invent a new product.

·         Graphic design has become more important than the brand or product itself.

·         Utility vs sex and design

·         Mini vans (Women) vs Sports cars (Men)

·         Imagine a world that the biggest ads promote the best behavior. Not Likely.

·         Branding matters more than the actual product.

·         Companies are switching products, ex tobacco to greeting cards.

·         Not as obvious for us to recognize visual lies as words.

·         Less laws exist to control visual lies.

·         The subconscious reacts to images.

·         You cannot ignore images-web advertisements, billboards, etc.

·         Volume of ads meant to wear us down, it is hard for us to filter them because of the speed and frequency.

·         A company recalled a catalogue because the models used were too skinny. They did not reprint to be environmentally conscious.

·         Companies will make more profit in the long run by being honest and not lying.

·         You are seeking the wrong audience if you need to lie to sell a product.

·         An employee that is uncomfortable with the ethics of a project can decline the assignment without being fired.

·         Sustaining our environment is the most challenging part of designing a better civilization.

·         The process has as much impact as the product itself.

·         Pens used to cost $120, now we sell 14,000,000 per day worldwide (that’s 1 pen/person/year on earth).

·         Those pens are in a landfill, 13% of BIC’s hazardous waste and 29% of nonhazardous waste ends up in landfills.

·         Printing industry is the third largest waste producer on earth.

·         Almost half of mailed material is trashed without being opened.

·         What is not influx are these three points of good news:

o   Sustainable design practices will, on balance, save money for both you and your clients.

o   Sustainable design practices won’t take any more time than what you do now, once you are familiar with them.

o   You don’t have to try it all at once, try one thing and keep adding.

·         TBL- people, planet, profit.

·         Organizational change-starts with one person

·         We shouldn’t have any less fun, but our skills could be used in nobler ways.

·         A designer accepts professional responsibility to act in the best in ecology and of the natural environment.

·         Society of graphic designers-professionalism includes a commitment to social and environmental responsibility.

·         Other countries around the world have adopted the code as well.

·         In Canada graphic design is a profession with an examination

·         Good design enables, bad design disables.

·         Truly inclusive design isn’t just a moral imperative. The majority of humans, at one point in their lives, will have some significant disability. Thus, from information technology, to packaging, to tourism, designing for all is not just kind, its good business.

·         The internet is liberating.

·         Designers are cultural agents.

·         “in 2000,the world still looked fairly benign. Since then the triple punch of psychological, geopolitical and environmental upheaval is causing designers to wake up.”

·         It took less than 15 years for recycling paper to become a norm.

·         90% of Europe’s top companies now publish corporate responsibility reports.

·         Shopping tips for agents of social change: rethink, avoid disposables, avoid bottled water, give ideas as presents, entertain simply, vote informed, plan carefully, buy products that tell the truth, lead by example.

·         Some pursue design as an exercise in aesthetic. Surrounding oneself with nice things can create a fulfilling life. However, it is only the surface of one potential.

·         Personal values+public code of conduct=professional ethics.

·         Not saying to not make money.

·         The time is now.

·         Commit.

·         Over 95% of designers that have ever lived are alive today.

·         The do good pledge:

o   I will be true to my profession

o   I will be true to myself

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

·         Strive to surround yourself with only well designed, reusable, sustainable product and practices.

·         Tips for buying sustainable design:

o   Insist that every project starts with a written strategy including TBL

o   Choose designers that have committed to public standards and social reasonability and will keep you informed on what’s new.

o   Plan products that will be designed to last.

o   Consider solutions that start with eco-friendly materials (local, ethical suppliers), that reuse existing things, or that result in things that can be reused.

o   Offset any unavoidable carbon footprint.

o   If you cant make a promise about your product that you would tell to your children, then redesign the product.

o   Tell the world about your progress.

o   Don’t just do good work, do good.