A Question of Ethics in Graphic Design (original) (raw)
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Wicked World of Ethics in Graphic Design
Ethos of graphic design has been misunderstood as a link between consumers and suppliers for too many years. Over the last century graphic designers have worked to promote products and services they didn’t believe in or use themselves. In some cases, designers have helped to contribute to excessive consumption and prodigious waste through their use of catchy phrases and sayings. Designers have begun to rethink the content in which they are designing with in order to decide if this follows their personal and professional ethical standards. With the talent to combine ideas, problem solving skills, and a strong need to communicate; designers have the ability to use these talents to encourage a better understanding of the cultural and social needs around the world. Rather than using their problem solving skills to sell a product, graphic designers use these skills now more than ever to make a positive impact on society whether locally or globally.
Ethical design: a foundation for visual communication
2016
The central original contribution to knowledge proposed by this thesis is the setting forth of a conceptualisation of ethical theory specifically in relation to design, with a focus on visual communication design. Building on earlier work by design theorist Clive Dilnot in the area of design ethics and on philosopher Giorgio Agamben's formulation of the philosophical concept of potentiality, a way of thinking about the relationship between design and ethics is proposed which concludes that design is in fact always inherently ethical. However, this conception of ethical design purposefully leaves questions of the qualification of good and bad unresolved, stating only that the ethical is the prerequisite condition in which both good and bad become possibilities. Design's significantly unethical capability to suppress and anaesthetise individuals' ethical experience is highlighted through a proposal of a process of an/aesth/ethics. Observation of the relationship between design and ethics in the real world through a series of interviews demonstrates something of the complexity of design's relationship with ethics and the diverse range of positions, beliefs, attitudes and paradoxes abounding within the design profession when it comes to addressing the question of "good" design practice. Six "sites" of ethics within contemporary design discourse are introduced and discussed. The ethicality of design practices in relation to these sites are then analysed through the lens of the proposed ethical framework: identifying strengths, weaknesses and potentials within these observed strategies. The way of thinking about ethical design proposed here demonstrates potential in contributing to designers' ability to critically consider the ethicality of their own practices. From this foundation they may be better equipped to begin addressing the question of the qualification of the "goodness" of design. In conclusion, proposals are made for how this framework could be practically developed and used to support and encourage ethical design in the real world.
Redefining Design Ethics: Why Graphic Design Needs Professional Self-Regulation
The discussion of law within design has typically focused on the legal rights of designers, emphasizing legality over morality within an industry continually stressing holistic concepts. Discussions of design ethics are often pigeonholed by references to the "Citizen Designer" or Glaser's "12 steps on The Road to Hell." Focusing on ethical quandaries posed by client selection while overlooking the design process leaves little room for the reality of financial security. This paper explores industry regulation and licensure within design practice, focusing especially on including considerations within client- and user-based solutions. Focus is placed on the legal case of Maguire v SOCOG 2000, and the example of web development as bases for re-defining ethical design. In conclusion, this paper examines alternative definitions of design ethics as they apply to the entirety of the production process, and reviews the importance of humanity within morality-based design law.
The Ethics of Graphic Design? Visual Communication and Social Commitment.
The process of translating messages into images or facilitating visual communication is an activity that involves responsibility towards the public on the side of the author. Even when occupied with commercials, corporate identity, or other so-called non-political goals, designers are actually making decisions towards the preservation and reinforcement of social and cultural assumptions. Since the days of the Modern Movement there has been a great deal of debate on questions as to who the actual clients are and who should take part to the negotiation process from which design emerges. A few years ago when the Helvetica typeface, one of the icons of the modernist search for the standard, celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, these questions were revived, this time without attempts to agree on a set of rules. This seminar draws on these questions, which developed alongside the whole history of the graphic design profession, and explores notions as design ethics, social commitment and public role of the designer. The seminar featured a presentation by Silvia Sfligiotti of Alizarina Milan on the role of the user in the design process—do designers work with, for or against the users? Annelys de Vet of the Sandberg Institute Amsterdam and Annelies Vaneycken of Trans-ID Brussels also presented on their recent works, in which visual communication is used as a tool to chart and highlight tensions and cleavages in culture and society. The seminar was chaired by Gabriele Oropallo, and ended with an open round table discussion with the participation of Ken Garland and Richard Hollis.
Chapter 3 of my PhD thesis: "Ethical Design: a foundation for visual communication." Robert Gordon University, 2016.
Head-Hand-Heart: Ethics in Design - Keynote at Istanbul
Our understanding of design has been evolving steadily over the past 100 years and in recent years there has been a rush of new research into a variety of dimensions and Ethics is one the many dimensions that have received research attention. In this paper we look at the various dimensions of design and at current and past definitions to see the contemporary understanding of the subject as we see it today with the aid of models that the author has evolved over several years of reflection and research. We then trace the evolution of design as a natural human activity and restate this history in terms of the major stages of evolution from its origins in the use of fire and tools through the development of mobility, agriculture, symbolic expression, crafts production and on to industrial production and beyond to the information and knowledge products of the day. This sets the stage to ponder about the future of the activity and of the discipline as we see it today.
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Recent years have seen an increased interest in designers' ethical responsibility. However, knowledge concerning how ethical practice could be cultivated in real-life settings is still lacking. In order to explore this issue, we formed a team with practitioners at a digital design studio. During 10 months, the team co-designed activities and materials intended to sensitize design practitioners at the studio to ethics. Our findings highlight the importance of presenting ethics in an appealing manner in order to engage designers, and this paper illustrates how we explored this in our project. Moreover, we discuss co-design as a collaborative space for engaging design practitioners in the exploration and development of ethics that go beyond "tick-box exercises".
Designer's Ethical Responsibility and Ethical Design
Design affects the entire lifespan of a product. Humans design ideas in their environments, especially to meet their own needs. People come to design ideas and abilities from various objects and events in nature, and use these to increase their design capabilities. With the increase in human population, proliferation of product needs, and the dangerous use of products, the ethical risks have increased. The risks within unethical designs have now reached all levels of human life. Products have been introduced to the market without considering their ethics, and in many of them, only the material purpose has been pursued, instead of the benefit to humanity. This research focused on the goal of the product designers, which is to design and develop a product, while contributing to the awareness that the product needs to be subjected to both risk and ethical analyses as with all other requirements. The dominant task of this study is to enable designers and their designs to develop their own ethical discourse and concepts. In doing so, the most forward aim is to not damage humans, but to design what is useful. The impact on the designer is to have ethical responsibility for their designs.
2023
Commercial graphic design has come to be viewed as damaging to the environment and society. This dissertation examines graphic designers of the current Design for Good movement to determine what their two desires: (1) for meaningful and ethical work and (2) for the production of ethical outcomes which encourage positive social and environmental change, reveal about the relationship between design and ethics in contemporary society. Using a qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews revealing the personal experiences of individual designers and document analysis of online mission statements of Design for Good agencies and activist design organisations, the following research questions are answered: What motivates designers to participate in Design for Good? What is the role of the Design For Good community in driving the Design for Good movement? How do graphic designers and design organisations define authentic Design for Good? What does this indicate about the relationship between ethics and design work in contemporary society? Comparing data to theories of ethical work and job selection identified in the literature review, design’s relationship to ethics is revealed to be deep routed in its ability to influence change. Designer’s understanding of this power and their ability to champion their personal values in their work and within the Design for Good community are recognised as strong motivating factors. Authentic Design for Good is understood to be hugely complicated to define, particularly with regards to client selection and working with commercial clients. Characteristics of contemporary society including capitalist systems and a lack of unified governance are identified as barriers. However, the relationship between ethics and design is observed to be reciprocal: ethical issues in contemporary society encourage designers to seek ethical work, whilst the ethical outcomes produced function as meta-goods, reshaping society’s understanding and awareness of ethical issues.