Designers and Ethics - Lecture 10 - 10-11-11

The design community is part of a socio-economic system, which assumes limitless growth and a continual state of desire. One of the first scenes where this community was seen was the Bauhaus, which set up the concept of 'one true type' of objects and variety.

The major problem for the designer is to continually create a 'stimulating urge to buy.
"In a free enterprise capitalist system the only reason to use a designer is to increase the sales of a product."
I'm not sure if I agree with this view, I suppose it is true to some extent, but I believe that behind every design, there is some heart and passion to it. There is emotion, and personality to it, and without it, I don't think that designs would be as successful as they are.

Milton Glaser, an American graphic designer (b. 1929), came up with the 12 Steps on the Designer's Road to Hell, which is a chart with which you can find out where you draw the line:

1.     Designing a package to look bigger on the shelf

2.     Designing an advertisement for a slow, boring film to make it look better

3.     Designing a crest for a product, to make the product look older

4.     Designing a jacket for a book whose sexual content you disagree with

5.     Designing a medal using steel from the World Trade Center to be sold as a profit-making souvenir of September 11

6.     Designing an advertising campaign for a company with a history of known discrimination in minority hiring

7.     Designing a package aimed at children for a cereal whose contents you know are low in nutritional value and high in sugar

8.     Designing a line of t-shirts for a manufacturer that employs child labour

9.     Designing a promotion for a diet product that you know doesn’t work

10. Designing an ad for a political candidate whose policies you believe would be harmful to the general public

11. Designing a brochure for a SUV that flips over frequently in emergency conditions and is known to have killed 150 people

12. Designing an ad for a product


Some questions to ask yourself about our (designer's) involvement:

• How do we square spending and consuming, as if there will be no future cost attached?
• What is our part in the capitalist society lie? - Is there such thing as sustainable design?
• Why do we employ self-discipline?
• Why should we be apolitical?
• Should we be neutral? Obedient?
• If we are problem-solvers, shouldn't we be careful of the problems we take on?

We need to start by asking the right questions of ourselves, for example, does society as a whole really expect anything from designers as a profession? And do they even know who we are or give a damn anyway? I think these are very important points to consider, as I believe you should stick to what you believe, and if you get an assignment from a client and you don't agree with it, then you shouldn't do it, if you don't want to, but don't you shouldn't starting thinking that you are above the work, and think you are more important than you really are.

First Things First 2000, a design manifesto

"We, the undersigned, are graphic designers, art directors and visual communicators who have been raised in a world in which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective and desirable use of our talents." 

Over 50% of us operate some kind of boycott on the goods we purchase, and after hearing some examples, you can see why there is so many:

• Campbell's Soup - treatment of migrant workers
• Nike - child labour
• Gap - workers exploitation
• Nestle - baby milk - Nestle provided a baby milk substitute to baby's whose mothers were in hospital, which led to the babies becoming dependent on it, and eventually leading to the deaths of  hundreds of babies
• McDonalds - destruction fo rainforest so that they can graze cattle
• ASDA/Walmart - workers rights
• Apple - workers death
• EXXON/Shell/BP - polluters

In conclusion, when you first hear the title of the lecture 'Designers and Ethics' you think 'oh, well, this is just common sense etc.', but once you get into it, you do really start questioning yourself (well, it did for me), for example, 'am I really against something, and if this came up in my professional career, what would I do about it?'. I would like to think that if this ever happened to me, I would have the guts, and determination to take the task on, but I think if and when you are presented with this, it is an entirely different story. After-all, design is not a neutral, value-free process.