The following is an excerpt from the book Green Graphic Design, by Brian Dougherty, principal creative director for Celery Design Collaborative.
There are three distinct ways of thinking about a graphic designer's role: designer as manipulator of stuff; designer as message maker; and designer as agent of change.
I like to think of design as a big, ripe avocado. The outer layer of this avocado represents the physical world of paper and print. This is the obvious part of design that we immediately see-the layer of stuff. Yet if we peel back the skin of the avocado, we discover the meat. This is the realm of brand and information. All of that stuff on the exterior really exists in order to convey information and deliver messages.
If we dive still deeper into the design avocado, we find one more layer-the seed at the center. This seed represents the central challenge around which all of the messages and stuff of design revolve: effecting change.
Designer As Manipulator of Stuff
The kind of graphic design that I learned about in school is a world of typography and images, paper and ink. It is the descendant of Gutenberg and the Bauhaus. It is essentially a world of stuff. In this world, graphic designers are manipulators of words, creators of image, and specifiers of materials.
Within this conception of graphics, green design is a matter of finding and using better physical materials. Designers may research things such as recycled and tree-free papers; or try to find nontoxic inks; or devise folds and structures that result in less waste. When most designers think of green design, these are the common themes.
In the early days of Celery, we immersed ourselves in the world of alternative materials and manufacturing techniques. We collected a library of unusual papers made from bamboo, banana, beer, and a bounty of other materials. We discovered topics outside the typical realm of graphic design, such as biomimicry, biocomposites, and Bucky Fuller. Ten years later, this is still a big part of what we do. We are researching and experimenting on nearly every project we touch.
Designer As Message Maker
Along the way, I have also come to know a different realm of graphic design-one that is not specifically about stuff. In addition to creating physical artifacts (all those booklets, brochures, and banner ads), graphic designers also help clients strategize about how to build strong brands and craft communications that resonate with their target audiences. As such, we are message makers. The messages designers make, the brands we build, and the causes we promote can have impacts far beyond the paper we print on.
This points to a different level of green graphic design. In addition to seeking out better materials and manufacturing techniques, designers can craft and deliver messages that have a positive impact on the world. An obvious example of this sort of green design is when designers work with nonprofit advocacy organizations. For instance, Celery helps the Global Footprint Network communicate with political leaders around the world about sustainable development. We use green materials, of course, but the ideas and messages we work with have much more potential to change the course of world development than our material choices do.
Likewise, green designers may help values-based companies build strong brands and succeed in the marketplace. These companies in turn help to educate their customers about social and environmental issues. Innovative brands can also have an influence far beyond their market share because they can shift the competitive landscape for major industries. A small company like Elephant Pharmacy, which has four stores in the San Francisco area, has carved out a comfortable niche by focusing on holistic wellness and natural products, but it has also influenced larger competitors to focus more on these things.
However, green messages are not limited to nonprofits and green businesses. Community outreach, cause marketing, and corporate responsibility are all well-developed corporate activities that allow graphic designers to work with messages that can have a positive impact. Designers can help companies position themselves as leaders on social and environmental issues, which in turn can influence business operations for years to come.
Designer As Agent of Change
At its core, design is about effecting change. Someone, somewhere is dissatisfied with the way they find things, and they attempt to improve the situation by investing in design.
As designers, we are trying to help clients change the way people think and/or the way they act. In this sense, designers are uniquely positioned to shift not only our own actions, but also the actions of many others who are touched by our work-including our audiences and our clients. We may be hired to change the user's experience of a client's brand. But in the process of doing this, we have the power to change the brand itself. We have the power to influence the substance of a product or service. Green design at this level is about being a force for positive change.
Your range of possibilities as a green designer is directly related to how you define your role as a designer. If you think of yourself as a manipulator of stuff, then you can specify recycled paper and green printing. If you think of yourself as a message maker, then you can actively help influence the ideas and brands you work with. If you think of yourself as an agent of change, then you just might be able to change the actions of your audience, your clients, and your peers.
Green Design is Good Design
Green graphic design is, first and foremost, about using the power of design to shift the status quo toward sustainable solutions.
The past century has witnessed a profound change in the role of graphic designers from a physical craft toward intellectual problem solving-from the factory floor to the cubicles of middle management. In recent years, a handful of design consultancies such as Stone Yamashita Partners and Bruce Mau Design have pointed the way to a future where graphic designers help define long-term corporate strategies and command a place among corporate executives. Many of us still set type and work with printers on production issues, but the range of our industry has increased dramatically and will probably continue to increase.
Likewise, the influence of graphic design is increasing. As partners with printers, graphic designers influence the flow of enormous quantities of materials and energy. With marketing managers, we influence public opinion and educate customers. With business leaders, we influence the brand value of organizations and help to determine their success or failure.
The power of graphic designers has undoubtedly increased. And with this newfound power comes new responsibility. We have to ask, "Are we having a positive influence, or a negative influence? Is our work making life better for people and for future generations? Or, are we helping to fray the social fabric that holds us together and the ecological systems upon which we all depend?"
Whether our job relates to production, layout, message hierarchy, or brand strategy, all of us can embrace a greener, more responsible model for graphic design. We stand between business and its audience. Just think of the good we could do-if only we choose to use our power!
Green design is a higher order of “good” design. Most of the aesthetic and functional principles that have guided our traditional conception of “good design” still apply. In fact, our work needs to be “good” in order to be green. But green design adds a new set of standards to the old “good design” that encompasses ecological and social “goodness.”
As graphic designers, we develop an innate compulsion to fix bad kerning and to clarify muddled messages. That's a big part of “learning to be a designer.” It doesn't matter whether it's a major corporate identity system or a toddler's birthday invitation with an audience more likely to eat the design than read it. Most of us are in this field because we enjoy solving visual problems. Over time, we develop an internal compass that guides us and helps us make design decisions.
Yet when it comes to the environmental and social aspects of communications, many designers feel that they need special permission from some higher authority to do the right thing. Suddenly, designers start saying things like “My boss hasn't asked me to do it” and “They're not paying me to be a do-gooder.” But it is everyone's job to do good work. If we redefine “good design” to encompass green thinking, then it is automatically part of our job. We don't need permission to do good any more than we need permission to obsess about kerning.
Learning to be a green designer is simply a process of refining that internal compass that guides our design so that it includes social and ecological considerations.
The New York ad agency Green Team developed a tool for assessing the overall “goodness” of communications. They created a web tool, called After These Messages, that allows people to view an advertisement, then answer a series of simple questions (If you created it, would you sleep well at night? Would you put it in your portfolio? Does it contribute to society?). The tool processes the answers and then plots the ad on a chart with two axes (show below): aesthetic quality (from Hack to Genius) and social benefit (from Heaven to Hell). Anyone is free to make a judgment, and then to see how that compares to the average judgment from all other viewers. It is a fun, often surprising, activity.
After These Messages is a window into the future of design. It is no longer enough to strive for high production values. Designers must also strive for positive social and environmental impact. It is not “good” to be genius if your genius is used to damage society. Our conception of “good design” is changing. After playing with the After These Messages tool for a while, all of our design awards programs start to seem shallow and superficial. They seem one-dimensional because they only assess production values, completely ignoring the broader social context. As we adopt a more multidimensional lens for assessing design, green design will become the norm. We all strive to do good design; we just need to update our concept of “good.”
Excerpted from Green Graphic Design by Brian Dougherty and Celery Design Collaborative. © 2009 Brian Dougherty. Excerpted with permission of Allworth Press. All rights reserved.
Avocado photo - CC license by ms.Tea