Fashion Week: It’s Complicated

New York Fashion Week kicked off this past Thursday, and with it some complicated topics graphic designers are very familiar with:

Design Plagiarism

High fashion brand Saint Laurent is showcasing a dress with graphic lipstick prints that retails for $3,490 - but looks a lot like a dress from Forever 21’s 2013 collection that sold for $23. Saint Laurent is most likely safe from being sued for copyright infringement because copyright law prohibits the protection of a design if it can only be depicted in a limited number of ways— tubes of lipstick may fall into this category. However, it doesn't protect them from being called out for it.

Social Awareness

As New York Fashion Week Live reports, “one of the great ironies of fashion is the disconnect between the beauty of the products, and the way the materials are often sourced.” Consumers are increasingly demanding more humane treatment of animals and people, as well as the use of more eco-friendly materials. Fashion designers are responding and young designers like Max Gengos, are embracing the concept of “responsible luxury” when deciding on which materials to use and the conditions in which their products are produced.

Sustainability

We live in a culture of disposability. This extends to “fast fashion,” where cheap garments are produced quickly to keep up with trends. America buys 20 billion garments a year, 1 item per person per week. This results in 12.7 million tons of clothing thrown away each year. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that textile waste occupies nearly 5% of all landfill space and 85% of textile waste is not recycled. Ultimately this leads to overtime, overcrowding, and unsafe conditions for overseas workers employed to keep up with the demand.

Cultural Influence

Celebrities like Emma Watson and fashion designer Stella McCartney are speaking out in campaigns like this recent one for British Vogue on Fashion and Gender Equality, demanding empowerment for women and a better message for women of all ages and sizes, allowing them to feel good about who they are.As we enjoy the glamor of New York Fashion Week, we may also do well to consider the complicated relationships surrounding beauty and image.Sources:http://newyorkfashionweeklive.com/http://www.thefashionlaw.com/https://www.notjustalabel.comhttp://www.ecouterre.com/http://www.elle.com/http://www.weardonaterecycle.org/

Branding Whackyweed

While doing research for this blog post, I discovered there are at least 564 nicknames used for marijuana, about 500 more than exist for cigarettes and alcohol. This may be a sign of times to come for brand marketers as they scramble to figure how to brand the newly legal drug.In fact, designers and bloggers are already hard at work branding marijuana. Last month Creative Bloq published an article about the challenges designers face in rebranding marijuana from illegal to legal. They offer advice about the importance of ditching the street names and using scientific language instead.Designers are also challenged when differentiating between service and product types. Similar to alcohol and cigarettes, marijuana comes in many different strengths and flavors—but it also has a wider variety of uses including skincare products and supplements for pets.Brand experts may differ in their process and their outcomes, but they generally agree that branding is a form of story telling. But what is the story they want to tell? Some proponents of marijuana feel it is a recreational drug, similar to alcohol. If this is the story then we can expect to see these products competing with top Super Bowl advertisers like Budweiser, romanticizing the effects of marijuana, presenting it as the ultimate party drug—sure to win you friends, fun, and make all your problems go away. Others feel that marijuana's story should be about it’s medicinal effects and how it can be used for an overall sense of wellness, healing, and proper nutrition—a panacea of sorts. All of these stories collectively indicate big business is on the way. Companies like Aquarius Cannabis are dedicated to branding marijuana. Their website talks about the “cannabusiness” and the challenges of addressing both market sectors—medicinal and recreational.While such business steamrolls ahead, let us not forget the ethical issues involved. Similar to branding cigarettes and alcohol, graphic designers are likely to find themselves on Milton Glaser’s “Road to Hell” when working in this industry sector. Many would argue that much like cigarettes and alcohol, branding marijuana hits #11 on Glaser’s list, “Design an ad for a product whose continued use might cause the user's death?” Although a bit more complex due to proven medicinal effects and other uses, there’s plenty of evidence that the misuse of marijuana that would certainly put it in the same category.Then there’s the impact of growing marijuana on the environment. It’s estimated that 60-70% of marijuana consumed in the U.S. comes from California. Marijuana is a thirsty plant—using twice as much water as wine grapes. Cultivation of this plant, especially during the current drought conditions, needs to be done responsibly. Ecologist Mary Power recently co-authored a paper for the journal of Bioscience that details the destruction of the sensitive watersheds where cultivation is done and stresses how important it is that the environment be included in the debate on marijuana legalization. Power feels that quasi-legalization increases the difficulty to address the harmful environmental effects and full legalization may make things better from an environmental standpoint.Regardless of your opinion on marijuana, there is no disputing the fact that as the debate continues about its legalization, branding efforts will continue to grow right alongside it—and graphic designers will be navigating these murky ethical waters right alongside as well.Sources:http://www.pot-heads.com/what-are-the-nicknames-for-marijuana.aspxhttp://onlineslangdictionary.com/http://www.fastcodesign.com/3024457/6-branding-lessons-from-the-pioneers-of-weed-designhttp://www.creativebloq.com/advertising/how-designers-are-rebranding-marijuana-61515127?utm_source=Design+Indaba+mailing+list&utm_campaign=6e059e5cdf-Weekly_17_jun_20156_18_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_eb8e2b1d91-6e059e5cdf-429312541http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/10-best-ads-super-bowl-xlviii-155441http://www.miltonglaser.com/milton/c:essays/#2http://e360.yale.edu/feature/the_high_environmental_cost_of_illicit_marijuana_cultivation/2895/http://www.livescience.com/42738-marijuana-vs-alcohol-health-effects.html

Celebrating Earth Day 2013

Earth Day 2013 infographic

Turning Trash into Treasure

“Waste Land" was a project created by the artist Vik Muniz where he enlisted the help of workers from the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to create art out of garbage. Muniz raised over $250,000 when he brought the portraits that were created to an auction house in London. Mr. Muniz donated his $50,000 take for the sale of one man's portrait to the workers’ cooperative. An award-winning documentary with the same name was released in 2009 and some of the project's participants visited the Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio to see themselves in Mr. Muniz’s 2009 retrospective. “Sometimes we see ourselves as so small,” one tells reporters at the opening, “but people out there see us as so big, so beautiful.”In Cateura, Paraguay, Favio Chavez, an ecological technician at the landfill the town is built on, creates instruments for a young people's orchestra from trash. The “Recycled Orchestra” quickly gained more students than instruments. The students are beginning to take tours around the world and filmmakers are working on a new documentary, "Landfill Harmonic," to tell their  story.Another recent project intent on raising awareness about litter was created from 1.7 tons of garbage found on Mount Everest. 15 Nepali artists spent a month creating more than 75 sculptures from empty oxygen bottles, torn tents, ropes, boots, and every kind of camping equipment imaginable. Yaks, wind chimes, prayer wheels, and all kinds of unique sculptures were created. The works were exhibited in Kathmandu.The mission of Emergent Structures, located in Savannah, GA, is to increase the value and accessibility of building material waste streams through facilitation, collaboration, education, and advocacy. Some of their projects have included a collaborative fundraiser with the Humane Society of Savannah that began with a call for submissions for custom built cat or dog structures made from reclaimed materials and the "This Ain't Junk" repurposing competition with Savannah’s Habitat for Humanity. Emergent Structures wants to publish stories from all over the world about reclaiming materials and encourage people to submit their projects to Exclaim Your Reclaim.San Francisco's Recology Artist Program in Residence provides Bay Area artists with access to discarded materials, a stipend, and a large studio space at the Recology Solid Waste Transfer and Recycling Center.Closer to home, one of my students, Rick Diguez, was recently inspired to create a book made out of discarded stainless steel, left over scrap from a gutter installation. The result was a finely crafted book that pays homage to some of his favorite artists.Also local for me, the Newburgh Mural Project is a series of inspiring outdoor paintings featuring the work of Chilean artist Dasic. This project has transformed old buildings and tunnels into works of art bringing beauty into neighborhoods struggling with poverty and crime.What have you seen lately that inspires you to turn trash into treasure?Sources:http://www.emergentstructures.org/http://www.good.is/posts/landfill-harmonic-making-music-from-trash-in-a-paraguay-slumhttp://www.recologysf.com/AIR/http://www.sierraclubgreenhome.com/uncategorized/one-mans-trash-is-another-mans-art/?pid=1836http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2012/11/turning-mount-everest-trash-treasure/4008/#http://www.wastelandmovie.com/synopsis.htmhttp://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/10/20/arts/design/1248069211361/clip-waste-land.html

Keeping Score of Sustainable Design

With Earth Day 2012 less than 3 weeks away, it’s the perfect time to question how sustainable your graphic design practices are.With the confusion caused by the abundance of green logos, along with the feeling by some that sustainable design is unattainable (as  designer Jessie McGrath argues in her MFA thesis that “the idea of sustainable design is an illusive goal because a product can never be truly sustainable by virtue of the fact that it is a product,”)(1) some graphic designers may be discouraged to even try. However, there are some tools available. The Living Principles Scorecard, designed by Phil Hamlett, is an assessment tool that graphic designers can use to help them navigate the murky waters.The Scorecard, designed to be used in both the studio and the classroom, rates levels of sustainability on a scale of 0-4 (with 0 being “Doing Nothing” and 4 representing “Restoration”) and is divided into 4 categories:

1. Environment
2. People
3. Economy
4. Culture

Nathan Shedroff, Living Principles ambassador and Chair of the MBA in Design Strategy Program at the California College of the Arts, states, “the tool allows designers a quick assessment of a solution’s sustainability opportunities without a lot of work or a whole culture change. That change can come over time, as more and more people within an organization or studio use the tool over and over.” (2)The Living Principles Scorecard is available for download and designers, educators, and students are all encouraged to use it to help them assess how sustainable their graphic design practices are.Sources: http://www.livingprinciples.org/introducing-the-living-principles-scorecard/Notes:(1) http://www.ethicsingraphicdesign.org/?p=861(2) http://www.livingprinciples.org/introducing-the-living-principles-scorecard/ 

Greenwashing with totes

Steven Heller's recent post asks the question "Are There Too Many Totes?" Heller's article talks about how when used correctly totes can reduce the number of disposable bags. Conversely, if used incorrectly (with the massive onslaught that many of us see daily) the canvas or polypropylene bags have the potential to become another blight that will end up in the landfill.MFA grad Jessie McGrath argued in her recent thesis that “the idea of sustainable design is an illusive goal because a product can never be truly sustainable by virtue of the fact that it is a product.” (Read more)Most people want to do the right thing; they just may not realize the full implications of taking or buying more totes when offered. Why not comb your closets and reuse the ones you already have?What about the role that graphic designers play; are they practicing sustainability when they design more totes for the ever-growing eco-friendly bag business?