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There is little doubt that design has an impact on our world. It encourages conspicuous consumption and contributes to overflowing landfills. But when it comes to design education a growing focus is on the potential to use the design process to affect positive change. The industry recently traded success stories and case studies at the “A Better World By Design” conference in Providence, Rhode Island.
Hosted by an interdisciplinary group of students from Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design, the three-day conference went beyond the ‘sage on the stage’ experience, with 17 separate panel sessions, 17 workshops, and lots of inspiring discussion about positive change that’s happening both locally and globally.
The whole thing got me thinking: As the gatekeepers of our clients’ marketing footprints, graphic designers need to start measuring those footprints and providing options that will help reduce environmental impact. The design process is informed by, and thrives under, constraints and parameters. It’s time we added sustainability to our list of mandatories.
Nathan Shedroff is a metrics advocator and founding professor of the MBA Design Strategy program at California College for the Arts and author of Design is the Problem. He offers the following action points for designers looking to affect positive change:
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- 1) re/create new corporate charters
- 2) require transparency and accountability of everyone
- 3) create new roles for advertising
- 4) think in systems
- 5) work in multidisciplinary teams
- 6) create better tools and metrics
You can read more about Shedroff’s work on sustainable design here. And you can see him speak at the 11th annual Design Thinkers conference in Toronto on November 3 and 4th, hosted by the Registered Graphic Design Association (the RGD). For details, check out designthinkers.com.
David Young
October 20, 2009 @ 2:54 pm
Hi again, Patrick…
I’m so glad you used impact as a noun!
‘It’s time we added sustainability to our list of mandatories.’
Nicely said—especially right after: ‘the design process is informed by, and thrives under, constraints and parameters’
Thank you for this post,
David