Week 3

            Through some omniscient design I find a few answers to the problems I faced a few weeks back after reading the first set of articles (as if someone had preplanned this). I had lamented that as a designer I was no more than a tool to be used by some company to take advantage of mindless consumers but after reading this week's articles I’m a little embarrassed that I thought so closed-mindedly about design. What I didn’t realize, or chose not to think about, was that design is applied to more than just advertising and branding. Every man made object ever created was designed by some individual. Whether it’s a building, textbook, or street sign someone had to come up with a preliminary design for that object. I want my design to help the public not sell them junk they don’t need, but I also have to make a living. It’s a conflict between my needs and the needs of others.

             “The Responsibilities of the Design Profession”, “Ethical Design Education”, and “First Things First 200” all speak of the designer’s responsibility. They urge designers to use their talents to make the world a better place and while I don’t plan on doing anything as revolutionary as that I agree with their motives. I just want to make design that has a positive impact, but it’s not easy. If I wanted to shun all clients that take advantage of consumers I’d be working in a limited market and especially now in this recession I don’t know if I can take that chance. I feel that the writers of these articles and the designers they applaud are in a position where they can live comfortably and at the same time be able to choose their projects and clients. That’s not to say there aren’t exceptions like Walter Gropious and William Morris who went against the grain and did amazing things its just that, like I said before, I don’t want to change the world I just want to be able to live with myself at the end of the day.

            These articles are inspiring but I don’t feel entirely persuaded by their arguments. Maybe it’s the result of being part of a cynical generation but there’s this voice in the back of my head asking: “well that’s great and all but what can I do?” They tell me that I should be a responsible designer but don’t really give me a starting point. I also feel that Herber Spencer (author of “The Responsibilities of Good Design”) and Max Bruinsma (author of “First Things First”) draw the world in black and white: either your going against the system or you’re a part of it. There are grey areas to everything including design and I never enjoyed the idea of revolution to create a radical change because I never whole-heartedly believe in the cause (which would require dividing the world between us and them, black and white). However despite all this there is a part of me that wants to contribute to society in a positive way, I just don’t know how I’ll do that. I suppose it’s just something I’ll have to figure out as I go along.

Ethical Design Education

• Young designers are cynical about their profession.
• History is filled with designers who fought system and did their own thing.
• The student began taking an interest in sustainability and other responsible design practices.

The Responsibilities of the Design Profession

• Designers today focus more on making money than using their design for the better good.
• This reflects the early 1960s when a group of individuals got together and wrote the design manifesto: “First Things First”
• Design can be used for more than just marketing.

Innovation and Exploitation – A Critique of American Apparel

• American Apparel may practice some commendable employee policies but hides a corrupt management and uses over sexualized imagery
• They become ethical in one aspect to hide their unethical practices.
• They are using sex as a cop out to gain consumers.

First Things First

• Group of designers/photographers/etc. gather together to write a manifesto that rejects conventional design
• They believed that design could be used for a broader and better purpose to the common good.
• They wanted to make a change.

First Things First 2000

• Not much has changed since creation of last manifesto.
• Designers are responsible for changing the world.
• The media has become too “saturated” with bad design.