Encouraging Social Responsibility

Design Ignites Change supports designers and architects who are addressing pressing social issues. Participants are encouraged to apply design thinking to problems that exist in their own communities. Two mentoring initiatives, Create! Don’t Hate and School: by Design are designed to create an opportunity for professional designers and college students to collaborate with underserved high school students to execute projects around compelling social themes.This year's award winners include organizations tackling immigration reform, childhood obesity, obstacles facing those afflicted with autism, and empowering the homeless. Read about the winners and their projects here: Design Ignites Change 2010 Cycle 2 Award WinnersSource: http://designigniteschange.org/pages/2-about

Ethics: Graphic Design In-takes

Sérgio Neves (aka Chazzy) is a design student from Lisbon who has written a thoughtful and creative collage and narrative on ethics in graphic design. He references findings from my thesis along with thoughts about ethics from Milton Glaser, Steven Heller, Helen Armstrong, Mário Moura, and Lucienne Roberts.You can see his work here: http://hausofcat.blogspot.com/2010/12/ethics.html

Students and pro bono work

"The Role of Graphic Design in Social Awareness," "Issues in Design," and "Can Design Touch Someone's Heart?" are all graphic design courses with the common theme of creating pro bono work (volunteer work done “for the public good”) to teach social responsibility. As AIGA Philadelphia and others are taking a pledge to support paid internships, where does pro bono work done by students fit in? Nonprofit organizations clearly have a need. Organizations like DesigNYC partner designers with nonprofit groups in New York City to create pro bono work on a local level to benefit the city. The Ad Council has been working with volunteers from the advertising and communications industries since 1942 to create public service campaigns to effect positive change in the lives of Americans. Other organizations like Design Global Change have a similar mission, sending students to India and Africa to create design that will effect change and create a better world.Students gain valuable experience designing brand identities, packaging, poster design, and more by working pro bono for nonprofit organizations. They can also fill out their portfolio with "real" work. Is this any different than student internships that are unpaid? If so, why?

Do you think unpaid internships are unfair?

When creative director Florian Bacheda of FB Design was asked "What do you think the biggest ethical issues are that graphic design students can expect to face in their careers?” He responded with the following: “I think the biggest ethical issue will be from a managerial perspective. Some bigger corporations will try to use the recession as an excuse to place more work on the shoulders of fewer people. Creatives in managerial positions that work for these corporations must balance the reasonable requests that some of them make in response to the recession with the ones that are borderline exploitative. The junior designers in the field need to decide if they are being asked to be part of an understandably lean and mean operation, or if they are being taken advantage of.”Bacheda raises an issue that is also being discussed by design educators and practitioners regarding unpaid internships. AIGA Philadelphia has started a movement to support the ethical treatment of professional designers and students in the workplace. They are asking designers to take a pledge to stop posting unpaid internships to their job boards and websites.Students are eager to get "real-world" experience. Design professionals often complain about the skills that design students fresh out of school lack. Education is important, but most designers will attest to the fact that the most critical education they received was on the job. The opportunity for student internships is often a motivating factor when choosing a design school. Is it fair to entirely eliminate the opportunity for unpaid internships? What if during these trying economic times design studios can't afford to pay their interns, won't this limit opportunities available for students?Shel Perkins wrote an informative article entitled "Be Smart about Student Internships" on AIGA's "Center for Practice Management" website. Perkins points out the differences between interns, volunteers, and paid employees and how when set up properly having an intern often results in more time spent training and educating them than work being produced by them, and that this is how it should be. The primary purpose of an internship is the education and training of the student. If a design studio feels they may be asking their intern to do work that does not contribute to their education and training they should pay them at least minimum wage.Perkins' article offers a detailed explanation of the Federal requirements for an internship program. He also talks about the mutual benefits that both students and employers can gain through an internship program that complies with these requirements.What do you think? Are unpaid internships are unfair? Does it make a difference if they are students or professionals?

Would you pass a graphic design certification test?

Certification is currently a topic of debate among graphic designers in the United States and has been for over a decade. Proponents feel it will create value for graphic designers and a minimum standard of professionalism. Their hope is that it will prevent graphic design from becoming a commodity. Opponents feel it's a waste of time and a form of elitism that could create unnecessary boundaries for talented designers.Let's suppose for a moment that proponents of graphic design certification win their argument and the U.S. follows in the footsteps of other countries like Canada, the U.K., Australia, and Denmark. Although design certification models differ between these countries, most require graduation from either a two-year or four-year school and most require a minimum level of experience working in the industry. Some require an exam.The examination board for R.G.D. (Registered Graphic Designers) gives graphic designers in Ontario a written test consisting of approximately 180 multiple choice questions. The test takes approximately 3.5 hours. Following are some sample questions. How well do you think you would do?1) Dimensional software creates objects that are:a. in raster formatb. in RAW formatc. in vector formatd. in CMYK format2) This form of research is built around numbers, logic and objective data:a. formative researchb. exploratory researchc. quantitative researchd. qualitative research3) Which magazine designer was responsible for the influential look of Harper’s Bazaar from 1934-1958?a. Lester Beallb. Alexy Brodovitchc. J. Müller-Brockmannd. Herbert Matter4) Stochastic printing consists of:a. a random pattern of dots varied by frequencyb. a regular pattern of dots varied by frequencyc. a random pattern of dots varied by amplituded. a regular pattern of dots varied by amplitudeSources:http://designcertification.org/http://rgdexamboard.com/the-test/Answers: 1.c, 2.c, 3. b, 4. a

What are the most important ethical issues graphic design students will face in their careers?

As part of my research for my thesis I polled graphic design educators and practitioners and asked them the open-ended question "what do you think is the most important ethical issue is that graphic design students can expect to face in their careers?" The answers were wide and varied, some I had expected and some I hadn't even considered.Steven Heller, author, editor, and co-chair of the MFA Designer as Author Department at SVA (School of Visual Arts), gave an answer that captured the range of responses I received. He said, "Every individual will face different concerns with issues of ethics in graphic design. Some will be asked to serve a client they might not like or a product they might not care for while others might be faced with whether or not to undercut a competitor. There are no universal answers.”Designer and author Jessica Hefland's answer focused on honesty, kindness, and boundaries:“Being clear about boundaries — between friends and clients, money, and its perception being the complication that thwarts all successful achievement in collaboration.”“Honesty — because it is the single most important prerequisite for success in life AND work.”“Kindness — because you can, and must endeavor to be famous and successful and STILL BE NICE (an overstatement, but I'm serious) which is not only possible, but mandatory for true happiness.”Hefland said “It never ceases to amaze me that women, who continue to struggle, in millions of ways, to achieve equal status and pay with their male counterparts, do not help and support other women more than they do: worse, they prevent other women from achieving, when they should be mentoring them, period.”Other issues mentioned through email, phone, and social networking sites with over 60 graphic design professionals and educators included copyright, non-payment for services, font licensing, spec work, crowdsourcing, kickbacks, corporate sponsorship, sustainability, and working for someone you don’t like or whose product or service you don’t believe in. The responses were passionate and also filled with anecdotes about personal experiences and as Steven Heller noted in his response, there really were no universal answers.If you would like to see all the results please fill out the contact form or write me directly at info@ethicsingraphicdesign.org.What do you think are the most important ethical issues that graphic designers will face in their careers?

How much do students know about ethics?

In the Spring of 2010 I conducted a survey among undergraduate graphic design students to find out how much they know about ethical issues in graphic design. The results showed that there are many issues they know little or nothing about. Questions concerning licensing fonts, reading terms and conditions for EULAs (End User License Agreements), and correct image use all showed that a high number of students are unsure and unclear about these issues. Of all the respondents, 59% of the students answered “sometimes” when asked if they only use properly licensed fonts and 16% said that they didn’t know what this meant. When asked if they read the legal copy on EULAs, 54% answered “sometimes.” When asked if it’s ok to use images that they find on Google, 23% answered with “I don’t know.” Nearly half of them didn’t know what working on speculation means. Students were confused about issues of sustainability and social responsibility as well.Download a pdf with the all the survey results: emkane_survey_resultsHow much do you think graphic designer students know about ethics?

Teaching Social Responsibility: "Water for India"

In January 2009, Hartford Art School Professor Natacha Poggio and a team of six art and design students traveled to Abheypur, India to implement the “Water for India” sanitation campaign as partners to the work of the “Engineers Without Borders” Student Chapter at the University of Hartford.“Water for India” aims to convey the importance of cleanliness, sharing, and respect for water resources through a painted mural at the girls’ primary school, coloring books with sanitation tips, and t-shirts featuring the logo.What began as an assignment in the Spring of 2008 for a class called “Issues in Design” grew into an ongoing effort after receiving feedback from Abheypur’s villagers. Since the start of the project, the students worked collaboratively on this wide-reaching project with other disciplines, team members and cultures and in 2009 the "Water for India" campaign placed third in the AIGA (Re)design Awards.The students and Professor Poggio have continued using design as a way to educate and empower people. The social consciousness and awareness of those involved grew through the process of research and learning to design for a more universal audience. The mission was extended in the next session of “Issues in Design” where the students worked on a new wellness campaign designing “kangas” (traditional cotton garments that Sub-Saharan women wear) for local communities in the Lake Victoria region of Kenya.Professor Poggio continues to teach “Issues in Design” along with a special topics class called “Design Global Change” (DGC) which evolved into an organization which focuses on global design projects.Where else do you think opportunities exist to use design to teach social responsibility?