Ethics

Yesterday I said I might like to look into the role of ethics in a commercial design sense.

Today I looked at chapters and articles from some books, one of which was the introduction in Citizen Designer by Steven Heller. In it he gave a list of what Milton Glaser felt were things that should not been done by a responsible, ethical designer: Make brochures for unsafe SUVs or create an advertising campaign for a company that has bad employment relations with racial minorities. I think it would be interesting to see how design companies manage to keep their ethical standpoint (if any) in check - do they stand by what they believe in and turn down certain jobs or do they put their ethics on hold so that they can pay the bills. (black and white thinking)

I may be able to contact designers/design studios to see how they individually and collectively feel about the role of ethics in their work: does it bother them or do they feel that ethics are very important? Do they feel there is a certain degree of trade off? If so do they feel that trade off is somehow stifling their own individuality and purpose of expression/existence?

The Citizen Designer book gives a cultural background to the subject of graphic design and its relationship to commercial pursuits. From this I may be able to find links between (possible) conflicts of ethical and commercial interests (on the part of the designer) and the rise of consumerism, managerialism, globalisation etc.

Hopefully by gathering enough of this kind of information - on design studios and their codes of practiced ethics I could create a report that would illuminate the lack or abundance of ethics and responsibility on show in the design industry. I may also be able to link this info with market trends in society and the pressures these put on the ethics of graphic designers.

Also, at the moment I think ethics are anything that an individual designer feels passionately about (as regards society) and how these can be compromised.

- Pearse