Study Task 2: Ethical Graphic Design? *THINK PIECE*

, *How ethics impacts on the practice of Graphic Design*

'Can Designers Save the World? (And Should They Try)'Nico MacDonald, 2001

"...our culture is one of participation, and not participating is one of the most subversive and disturbing things you can do."

• refusal is most effective when it is deliberate and intentional. 
• silence and refusal are important because they challenge rampant consumerism without adding to it.
• "Ethical design in some sense is a response to a sense of political powerlessness: designers are urged to get off the fence and act".  p. 18 (Cameron cited in MacDonald, 2001). 
• In First things First (2000) - roles of designers have become people who help companies push inessential products with no useful social ends to costumers.
• "It'd vision of consumer capitalism is a stark one: Human beings have little or no critical faculties. They embrace the products of Disney, GM, Calvin Klein and Philip Morris not because they like them or because the products have any intrinsic merit, but because designer puppetmasters have hypnotized them with things like colors and typefaces." p. 19 (Bierut cited in MacDonald, 2000).
• 'We should also be aware that as designers we can indeed make a great difference to the world by building on what we know how to do already. Key skills in the designer process include being able to conceptualize and weigh up a multi-dimensional problem, consider scenarios or use, think laterally and creatively, evaluate ideas and communicate effectively.' p. 20
• '...for designers to be more effective at ensuring that their skills are applied to products that actually make a difference to people's lives they would do well do understand better the world around us, from a political, business, social trends, economic and technological perspective.
• To create better design, us as designer should be able to understand the users and audience better (not imposing our own views and values on them but treat them as individuals needing effective and satisfying design solutions. 
• Improve our relationship with our clients --> applying some good design thinking can guarantee that ur insights will be taken more seriously and will benefit real people at the end. 

'A Manifesto With Ten Footnotes'Michael Bierut, 2007

• "ad agencies have treated designers as stylists for hire, ready to put the latest gloss of the sales pitch" p. 27
• "Consumer culture is an oxymoron" p. 28 (Kalman cited in Bierut 2007)
• "What I am suggesitng...is that we make some attempt to identity, and to identify with, our real clients: the public. They may not be the ones who apy us, not the ones who give us our diplomas and degree. But if they are to be the final recipients of out work, they're the ones who matter" p. 31 (Garland cited in Bierut, 2007)

'Is it okay to be happy?' Lucienne Roberts, 2006

• "Although our practice is grounded in commerce and the requirements of a brief, it can still deliver joy and delight and certainly can enhance the quality of life for all concerned" p 67 (Roberts, 2006)
• *Self expression - 'compromising our desires is sometimes appropriate and inevitable' p 67 (Roberts, 2006)

*How ethics impacts on the practice of Graphic Design*

Ethics is an important part of design as  it's a sensitive topic which argues between a designers freedom of self expression or a designers role being to help agencies and companies create ads that persuade and manipulate. Discussed heavily in the original First Things First manifesto is the fact that designers are helping agencies push products that have no real value to its consumers, which presumably is going against the principles of Graphic Design. As said by Michael Bierut (cited in MacDonald 2001, p 20) 'They embrace the products of Disney, GM, Calvin Klein and Philip Morris not because they like them or because the products have any intrinsic merit, but because designer puppetmasters have hypnotized them with things like colors and typefaces', implying that through the design of the advertisements consumers are being lured in to consume products that they don't necessarily need but want in order to improve their social status or identity. On the other hand, Garland, stated after the publication of First Things First, that perhaps if designers focus their aim at understanding the 'real clients' of the design then perhaps everything is worthwhile. Similarly, Lucienne Roberts said in her essay 'Is it okay to be Happy?', 'Although our practice is grounded in commerce and the requirements of a brief, it can still deliver joy and delight and certainly can enhance the quality of life for all concerned' p 67 (Roberts, 2006). Not just because designers are 'told' what to do doesn't mean they can express excitement through their designs.