Category: The Sustainable Studio
Bookmark on: del.icio.us
Have you heard? Green is the new black, according to everyone from Vanity Fair to Forbes. This makes some of us shudder, as eco-everything becomes yet another trend to keep up on. We’ve all seen the pharmaceutical ads encouraging patients to self-diagnose, and we can sometimes feel like those doctors who are inevitably forced to prescribe drugs they know little about. Sure, we can spec recycled paper. We’ll just add a little soy ink. And that’s often as far as we go, having done our part. It’s safe enough, we reason, and the patient is happy again. Next, please.
But let’s be honest with ourselves, if not our clients: we don’t really know what we’re doing and some of us aren’t even sure why we’re doing it. All we know is that this trend keeps growing, sinking its roots into the public conscience like new media and that whole Internet thing. It’s a new reality growing up around us and we aren’t quite sure how to respond.
The beauty of this reality, however, is that we don’t need to know all the answers. We’re designers: every project we start requires a problem that needs solving. That problem is a seed, and our job is to grow it into an effective solution. Well, we’ve just been tossed another seed-the challenge of sustainability. As pundits argue with each other and throw statistics back and forth, the seed has already taken root. Our job as designers is to start asking the questions needed to keep it growing. How often do we water it? How much sunlight does it need? What is its nature?
Some of us don’t want to ask these questions. We’re not doctors or politicians, or any of the people who are supposed to step up and save us all. We’re just designers, trying to pay our rent on time. The problem with this approach is that we are also polluters and buyers of polluting products. The paper industry alone is the third largest industrial polluter in the U.S. We give them our money, but we don’t ask enough in return. We encourage consumption among our audience-we earn our very living from it, in fact-and we leave it at that.
But we simply can’t have it both ways. We can’t grace the covers of Fast Company as “Masters of Design” and the shelves of Target offering “Design For All,” and still claim that we are powerless to address this issue of sustainability. If we are the influencers that we claim we are, if we the solvers of problems and communicators of valuable information, then we must be held accountable for the part we play.
We know instinctively that there aren’t any easy answers to our questions. But as composer John Cage tells us via designer Bruce Mao’s Incomplete Manifesto, the only way to avoid paralysis is to begin anywhere. One such place might be Design Can Change. A digestible, fact-based resource, Design Can Change offers an overview of the issue, poses some new questions, and points us in new directions. Most importantly, it recognizes our power as designers to effectively move toward a sustainable future.
The very nature of design equips us well for this challenge: we understand collaboration, we understand how to approach problems from new angles, we get our rocks off by being on the cutting edge and yet know how to dutifully slog through the most difficult projects. And we know that it all begins with asking the right questions. In future posts, I’ll raise some of these questions and discuss additional entry points. My goal-and I hope, eventually, yours-will be to create various ways into the discussion about sustainability and to build a framework within which we can each play a part.
Stay tuned for next month’s Sustainable Studio,
Jess
Jess Sand | Principal | Roughstock Studios
Author, Small Failures: Sustainability for the Rest of Us | BoDo Author | The Sustainable Studio
Comments to this post:
Comment: Eric Karjaluoto says
Hi Jess,
This is a great post–we’re so happy that you are making this issue a long-standing topic for BODO readers. You’ve made many strong points.
It’s true; we’re only peripherally involving ourselves in the issue by choosing better paper and inks. This goes so much deeper, and we have to ask bigger questions if we’re truly the problem solvers we like to believe we are.
The other issue that you raise is that we don’t need to know all of the answers. Honestly, how could we? That being said, it’s sure a good time to start educating ourselves, making small steps and engaging in the discussion.
I compare this situation to a patient being informed of an imminent heart attack, if life-changes are not made. It would likely be a bitter pill to swallow: needing to change diet and exercise more. Given the choice of a different life or no life at all however, I believe that most would prefer the former.
This is a wonderful opportunity for us, as designers, to make the difference we always believed we could. Thank you Jess; we’re so pleased to have your support for this effort.
Best,
Eric Karjaluoto
—
Personal: www.erickarjaluoto.com
Work: www.smashlab.com
Blog: www.ideasonideas.com
Please visit: www.designcanchange.org
13th April 2007 Quote
Comment: Rob Gough says
Jess,
Excellent post.
It is nice to read a call to action that begins to push our (designers’) thinking beyond the low hanging fruit when it comes to “green design”. Beyond spec’ing recycled paper and soy ink (side note: discover the truth about soy). More to the point, beyond thinking of green design until the end stages of a project. Perhaps more we can begin to approach our projects in a new way…asking questions upfront like, Can this message be delivered on a smaller format? Or maybe a format that is entirely paperless? If paper is a required, is that fill of color in the background necessary? And so on…
These days it seems there are so many companies jumping on the green movement without any significant change or well-planned policy shift behind their efforts. The many challenges that meaningful environmental protection presents are too large to placate with lip service, a shallow chapter in a corporate sustainability report, or another watermark on our paper.
As designers, particularly those of us who work with a variety of companies, we are are in a unique and powerful position to work with these companies to help shape real changes within the industry and beyond. With power comes responsibility.
Again, thanks for the article and keep up the good work.
Rob Gough
Website: www.goughgraphics.com
Blog: www.drawingonexperience.com
13th April 2007 Quote
Pingback: .: Designers who Blog: Design, Illustration, Photography, Web, Advertising, Branding … says
[…] The Sustainable Studio […]
14th April 2007 Quote
Comment: shanti hadioetomo says
Hi Jess,
I am greatful for the existence of this blog to begin with, as a business resource for graphic designers - things that you don’t really learn at school. In addition, I’m happy to see that the importance to practice sustainability as a graphic designer has become important. Because we are communication problem solver, we should be able to move towards making our impact real: better choices for our environment therefore for ourselves. I look forward to your resources section, as that will be one section that I will use the most (not that I skip your posts) personally and professionally.
Best,
Shanti Hadioetomo
Website & blog: www.shantomo.com
15th April 2007 Quote
Comment: Jess Sand says
To all,
It is so gratifying to hear this kind of response, and to see other designers grappling with these issues. Rob, your points about greenwashing are well taken, and it is definitely worth discussing in a future column. One of the biggest challenges, I believe, is that people view sustainability as an all-or-nothing proposition—if you aren’t doing everything to be sustainable, then you might as well not do anything.
Next month, I’ll be dissecting this myth, and others, as they hold so many of us back from actually taking the next step.
Thanks for all your insights, and do spread the word!
Best,
Jess
—
Roughstock Studios: Words and Pictures
http://www.roughstockstudios.com
19th April 2007 Quote
Pingback: meganprusynski » Blog Archive » Redesigning Design: Imagining a Greener Future for the Design Industry says
[…] Fast forward a few years, and I'm seeing even more exciting ideas propelling the design industry forward. I'm hoping it won't be long before green design is synonymous with good design, and designers are as concerned about the sustainability of their projects as the aesthetics. Design firms focused on environmentally conscious design are becoming quite common, and independent designers are beginning to realize that having knowledge of green design solutions is an asset to their businesses as well as to their clients. There is a hopeful air in the industry today and a call for change from designers themselves. […]
31st October 2007 Quote
Leave Your Comments