Designers' Declaration of Care
(I am looking for feedback -- what do you think? Is this something we can do? Is it possible to build this as a community?)
You are walking along a beach and see a plastic bottle. Pick it up and think about it. Someone, somewhere once designed this. A designer in an office sat at a computer and drew up the form of the bottle. They knew the available fabrication processes and associated materials; they had a brief regarding cost and they made their choice for the design specification. They also made a choice not to design an object for degrading or for a system of reuse. So the designer is directly culpable for the atrocity of the plastic flotsam. The best case scenario is now that it floats around on the oceans for hundreds of years—the worst case is that it ends up in the guts of a dead whale.
As a profession, I think we have got away far too lightly. We are directly responsible for much of the destruction of our environment and the creatures that live there. We have designed the diesel engines whose exhausts wreck the lungs of city dwellers, as architects we have specified products with toxic chemicals that make us sick in our homes, we have designed food containers that leach poison into our food, and so on with countless more examples. We know what we are doing, yet we do it anyway. Don’t we care?
Designers are responsible, but we are not fully (or often even partially) taking on this responsibility and its implications. I can hear you say, yes but we do not have a choice, we are told what to do by our employers and they are committed to going for the cheapest possible option to maximise profits for their clients or multi-national owners. And I will say, what about morals? Have designers sold their souls? Do we care?
Would a doctor endanger the life of a patient to save money for their boss in the hospital? No because they have a obligation to life and an oath to adhere to, both of which acknowledge their moral duty. What is different about designing a diesel engine? It also endangers life, both human and animal, as well as the futures of our descendants. Isn’t it time we applied the medical morals to our acts as well?
I would like to propose a Designers’ Declaration. I would like it to say that we will do no harm and always work for the betterment of all life on Earth. But pragmatically that might have to come later. In the meantime, it may have to be something more like ‘We will endeavour to minimise present and future harmful effects of our creations in every way possible, working towards a time when those effects are zero.’
David Trubridge
Designer at Duncan Meerding Design
5 年A good conversation to have.. stating this I think it should only be part of the solution, not all of it. For an example we need a big conversation about tremds and their destructive nature. ... the trend mentallity stems from the market and drive for mega profits from large corporations. The designer is only one small cog in a big nachine, be it a pretty integral one. I think this conversation hwas some great implications, starting a conversationn to change mentallity in the design profession, but also influence the conversation in society more broadly. I like the idea of something similar to the hypocratic oath for designers.
Working by day, calligraphy, letter artist and letterpress enthusiast by night
5 年I love this David, while the issue may be greater than just the designer, by creating a United front against using these harmful products I would hope to have a knock on effect, whereby the intended recipient of the design considers their impact also. I'd be happy to sign a declaration like this, as a step to creating a better world for all.
Professor of Design at University of Strathclyde
5 年Hi David, I am one of the founder and organisers of the Does Design Care...? series of workshops and events. Does Design Care...? welcomes researchers and practitioners from a wide range of disciplines to explore what it means to care now as part of our International Workshops of Design Thought and Action. We held the first Does Design Care...? workshop at Lancaster University in 2017 and are holding the Second Does Design Care...? workshop at Chiba University in Japan from 1 to 3 July 2019. The workshops are truly international and have had participants from the UK, USA, New Zealand, Australia, China, India, Iran, Israel and Japan. Does Design Care...? explores different ways to conceptualise, provoke, contest and disrupt care, and has served as a venue for synthesising future visions of care. We have produced a publication compiling papers from all attendees, available for download here - https://www.designresearchforchange.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Does-Design-Care-for-web.pdf The first Does Design Care…? workshop also produced "The Lancaster Care Charter”, published in the journal Design Issues - https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/desi_a_00522 More info on Does Design Care...? [2] at Chiba University, Japan from 1 to 3 July 2019 can be found here -?https://www.designresearchforchange.co.uk/does-design-care-2/ All of this work is part of my Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) (UK) funded Design Leadership Fellowship. More information can be found here -?https://www.designresearchforchange.co.uk
Curators of the modern workspace
5 年The challenge is possibly that A) A designer wins a brief and needs to comply to the criteria of the brief cost usually has a very strong weighting. Or B) The designer is effectively at a mid- management level within a large firm and cannot strongly enough fight for the moral drivers of this righteous and courageous intent. - I imagine the Nespresso pod designer cringes when they see articles decrying the plastic and tin foil waste their daily consumable creates. Ideally a company should want a premium green friendly product and the brief should stipulate that - then Design and Procurement should both have KPI’s that measure the sustainable side of the product. We need to attack this issue from all of the angles top down , bottom up we need everyone to care. Thank you for writing this piece it is a valid concern.
Head Of Design at TASKA? Prosthetics
5 年Interesting you raise this David - at a time when the Designers Accord is being dissolved. As designers we all have responsibilities to educate and act.? https://www.designersaccord.org