Ambiguity and Truth 'The Road to Hell' by Milton Glaser

Today we had a lecture about ethics in design and learnt about the different aspects and angles in which ethic can come under and how it can affect designers and the corporate world in general. We looked at Milton Glaser's 'The Road to Hell' from his essay 'Ambiguity & Truth'. The questions were gradually meant to become 'uncomfortable' as you read on, and as I was reading it I did feel a bit weird and became more conscious of of my won believes and I became to actually question myself if I would actually do it. I also felt that the questions challenges peoples personal beliefs and morals as they are quite controversial and talks about topics in society the environment and politics. Thinking, about when the actual essay was wrote during the 1960's; designers back then were treated more tools rather than people themselves. The designs in those era lacked morals and ethics, such as very sexist advertisements etc. The questions in this essay would've been very much relevant in those days and changed the way designers and design was seen. At the same time, the questions are still relevant today as well in my opinion, only that we are more aware of ethics and morals, as well as the fact that people and consumer's themselves are more aware of corporate designs and are more literate in advertisements and have stronger ethics and morals in general.

We also discussed corporate responsibilities in general and in terms of design. We thought that as designers we should be aware of who and what we are designing for, therefore doing thorough research about the corporation and their own code of conduct was important as it meant that as designers we could also try and align our own ethics and morals with theirs or and accepting their own values as everyone will have different morals and personal values. In addition, we also thought it might be for corporations to take care of their public image in order to gain and keep their loyal consumers. It also shows that the company itself is being aware of the social, cultural, political and environmental issues, therefore they themselves engaging in programs in which they show that they are trying to improve or help a situation as well as create advertising and design which relate to this issues. 

Thoughts & Reflection:

Overall, I thought the lecture was quite helpful and very informative. It made me questions my own personal values and morals for my design practice and in general, which I found really beneficial as I've never really thought about these kind of things before  - not that deeply anyways. In addition, it may also help me with my own research for the area of design that I want to know more about and how ethics can affect and take part in the area. For example, I feel like if I picked an area in advertising or branding, ethics will be a huge part of the considerations that needed to be done for it. Furthermore, I think it also links to my PPP module were we were taking about manifesto's and personal beliefs and ethics, therefore looking at ethics in more in depth in this lecture may also help me think more carefully about my own manifesto for PPP.