How important is Ballot Design?
How important is Ballot Design? Maybe more important than you think.
The Broward County election results are being questioned and a state-mandated recount is underway. 24,000 residents voted for Florida governor, but not for a U.S. Senator—a highly debated contest and the first one on the ballot. The pattern is unusual, and found only in Broward County, and many feel poor ballot design is at the heart of the problem.The ballot design doesn't follow best practices for design and violates guidelines outlined in a 2007 report by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. The Senate race was placed in the bottom left-hand corner, below vertical instructions, making it very confusing.The recount will see markings that weren't picked up by machines, however it can't recover votes that weren't placed because they were overlooked.This isn't the first time a Florida ballot design is at the forefront election results. In 2000, the butterfly ballot in Palm Beach County has been blamed for George Bush's victory over Al Gore.
With these ballot blunders, it's pretty obvious that universal design standards that also meet accessibility standards are being called for. The Center for Civic Design is offering advice to make sure poor design does not get in the way of democracy.Sources:https://www.fastcompany.com/90265447/terrible-ballot-design-may-have-decided-floridas-senate-racehttps://eyeondesign.aiga.org/the-high-stakes-of-voter-ballot-design/https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/fl-ne-election-broward-unusual-total-20181108-story.htmlhttp://www.mit.edu/~jtidwell/ballot_design.html
Advocating for Accessibility
Ryan Seslow is a visual artist, educator, and accessibility advocate. He's using social media and his artistic practice this month to raise awareness and asking others to join him. Follow him on instagram and also take up the challenge to create art that raises awareness for the deaf this month.https://www.instagram.com/p/BnQ_iLlH-q_/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=1q5g0dn5y5bvk
Documenting the Undocumented
A Paper Monument for the Paperless is a graphic design advocacy project started by Himmelsbach®, a social artist from Amsterdam.The project consists of a series of sixty woodcut portraits created by 19 different artists that features the faces of undocumented refugees. The street is mobilized as citizens (illegally) distribute and paste the posters throughout city streets. Himmelsbach started the project in Amsterdam and it has spread across Europe. The image above was found in a street passage in Krakow.Himmelsbach created the project to raise awareness about the refugee crisis and to put a face on the undocumented. During a time when anti-refugee sentiment is spreading across the globe, he is one of the artists who are fighting back to change the narrative and help those in need.Contact Domenique Himmelsbach de Vries if you would like to participate and spread the posters throughout your city.Sources:https://www.himmelsbach.nl/?page_id=373https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-art-of-documenting-the-undocumented/
Do the Green Thing
As scientists issue dire warnings about the state of our planet, designers across the globe are working to "Do the Green Thing."Pictured above is street art created by Portuguese artist Bordalo II who uses everything from burnt aluminum cans and old appliances to scrap wood and old tires to create life-like animal figures. In the process, he keeps this material from ending up on the streets, in the oceans, and in landfills.Other initiatives include work by photographer Benjamin Von Wong who works on issues of social responsibility and sustainability. One recent project by Von Wong is to call attention to e-waste and the fact that less than 15 percent of electronics and circuitry that we throw away each year is recycled into new products. Von Wong strives to shed light on this disturbing statistic through his elaborate hyper-realistic visual style.Founded more than 10 years ago by Andy Hobsbawm and Pentagram partner Naresh Ramchandani, "Do the Green Thing" is a public service for the planet that uses creativity to tackle climate change. They've spent the last decade making films, posters, podcasts, and products to inspire more than 45 million people to live more sustainably.As we celebrate another Earth Day, take inspiration from these photographers, artists, and designers and think about ways that you can "Do the Green Thing."http://www.designindaba.com/articles/creative-work/6-designers-who-use-waste-inspiration-new-productshttp://99u.adobe.com/articles/58984/pentagrams-naresh-ramchandani-do-the-green-thing
Helping women tell their #MeToo stories
Women's History Month is being celebrated this year under the shadow of the #MeToo movement.The Miami Herald marked this year by speaking with women during a women's circle organized by the Miami Workers Center. The people telling the stories were not celebrities, but everyday people. The women talked about the awful memories that the #MeToo movement has triggered in them. One woman, Yuleidy González-Nieto, who has been a victim of abuse since childhood, says that she is glad people have come forward, but the stories she is hearing feel "like getting punched in the face." The movement has made it harder for her to hide from her trauma.The women's words inspired the Miami Herald to turn them into poetry and ask female artists to illustrate them. Yuleidy González-Nieto was one of the illustrators. She said creating art helps her heal, "art is a positive way of liberating negative energy. Art heals."Sources:http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article204250389.htmlhttp://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article193844849.html
Who's to Blame? Human or Machine?
In an article featured in The Guardian a few years ago, author Tom Chatfield states "Meaningful collaboration between people and machines must not subvert human creativity, feeling, and questioning over speed, profit, and efficiency. This sentiment has been echoed over the past several years and is getting even louder.Google has made blunders before, for instance when they released a new photo app in 2015 which resulted in automatic tagging of black people as gorillas. Google was quick to blame the problem on computer algorithms and quickly removed the "gorilla" category.The most recent controversy has been about an app that was released in 2016 and matches selfies to works or art. Once again Google's app is having a hard time with how it interacts with images of people of color. Much of the conversation has focused on choice of museums and organizations that Google has chosen to partner with and the collections that they have, or rather what's lacking in their collection.Others, like Joy Buolamwini, a Researcher at MIT Media Lab and founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, feel that the heart of the problem lies in the teams of mostly white engineers who create facial recognition algorithms based on their own experiences.Neither of these arguments speaks to what some feel is the heart of the problem, the intertwining of human and machine relationships, and how we as humans view our roles with these machines. In an article for The Guardian, author Tom Chapman writes, "We think of ourselves as individual, rational minds, and describe our relationships with technology on this basis." But we do not have as much individual freedom and autonomy as we think we have, we are interdependent, relying on our devices much more than we would like to admit.The same logic that Google's algorithms use are at work in all aspects of our lives, cars that drive themselves—medical procedures that don't require a physician. The problem is that technology is Darwinian and data and performance drive where our culture is headed.Argodesign's Mark Rolston recently wrote an article for Co.Design that points designers to doctors for a model on adopting an ethical code. While I agree that ethics are called for, I don't know if a model has been created yet for any profession that deals with the issues ahead of us.ProPublica is one organization that is actively working to change things as Katharine Schwab reports for Co.Design. Led by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Julia Angwin. Dedicated to investigating algorithms that impact people's lives, they've ended up building their own algorithms in order to hold big tech companies accountable.Google's Art and Culture App may not seem very serious today, especially to those who don't bother with such silly things on social media sites. However, it may very well be foreshadowing a future where algorithms and data control our world more than we do.Sources:http://digg.com/2018/google-arts-culture-racist-facehttps://www.fastcodesign.com/90159804/what-designers-could-learn-from-lawyers-doctors-and-priestshttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/20/humans-machines-technology-digital-agehttp://bgr.com/2018/01/17/google-art-selfie-viral-app-privacy-racism/https://www.bustle.com/p/googles-arts-culture-app-is-being-called-racist-but-the-problem-goes-beyond-the-actual-app-7929384https://www.fastcodesign.com/90160486/how-propublica-became-big-techs-scariest-watchdog?utm_source=postup&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Co.Design%20Daily&position=1&partner=newsletter&campaign_date=02162018
Inspiring Ethical Graphic Designers Across the Globe
When RCC (Rockland Community College) student Sunday Oluwasomi met someone from his hometown during an online collaborative Graphic Design class, we were all excited. The distance between Suffern, NY and Pretoria, South Africa suddenly become infinitely smaller. It was truly a moment that shows how we are all connected.The ongoing classroom collaboration that I've had the pleasure of participating in with Herman Botes from TUT (Tshwane University of Technology) Pretoria, South Africa is focused on inspiring and teaching future designers to work ethically in our industry and primarily focuses on issues of Graphic Design Advocacy. Herman and I met in 2013 when I was invited to TUT to lecture on topics from my book, Ethics: A Graphic Designer's Field Guide. As a result of our meeting, we've been building bridges between our two cultures through student projects with the support of COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) ever since.Recent events include Liz Resnick's Graphic Design Advocacy exhibit at TUT, our COIL presentation in Chicago, and a podcast for CAA (College Art Association) about ethics in graphic design last month. Upcoming events include the release Educating Citizen Designers in South Africa, co-authored by Herman Botes.As our ongoing collaboration continues to grow, so does our belief in how important it is for both students and educators, as well as our gratitude for the opportunity.
Celebrating Mother's Day
Mother’s Day is a celebration that honors our mothers and the influence of mothers in society. It's usually celebrated with flowers and gifts. The truth is the horrors and atrocities that exist in our world and flies in the face of these rituals."Women's Rights are Human Rights: International Posters on Gender-based Inequality, Violence, and Discrimination,” is an exhibit organized and curated by Elizabeth Resnick, professor of graphic design at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. The 84 posters presented challenge viewers to acknowledge the challenges women face around the world.The exhibit opened at Mass Art last Fall and is traveling internationally with events already hosted in Taipei, Seoul, Greece, and Mexico. The posters are currently installed in the B2 Gallery of the Warsaw Poster Museum.The unframed exhibition is available to travel internationally for a small rental fee. Please contact Elizabeth Resnick (Elizabeth.Resnick@massart.edu) if you are interested.This year as we celebrate Mother's Day, let's give some thought to how mothers throughout the world are treated and consider ways to help.Sources:http://posterpage.ch/exhib/ex350wom/ex350wom.htmhttps://news.northeastern.edu/2017/03/new-poster-exhibit-reinforces-that-womens-rights-are-human-rights/http://www.graphicart-news.com/womens-rights-are-human-rights/#.WRBCBFPyvBVhttp://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/womens-rights-posters/http://eyemagazine.com/blog/post/human-rights-by-any-other-name
Women in Graphic Design
There's much to celebrate for Women's History Month, and women in graphic design are definitely part of the conversation.Ethel Reed is considered the first American woman to achieve notoriety in graphic design. Self-taught, Reed received critical acclaim for her work at an early age when she was a highly prolific member of Boston's artistic community. Posters Reed created during a short, two-year window, earned her international recognition and were widely popular then, and still are now. They feature wonderful examples of Art Nouveau in the cultural context of early twentieth-century Boston. Unfortunately, Reed's commercial success was short, as she fell prey to issues of alcohol and drug abuse after her marriage crumbled and she spent her final years in poverty before her death in her mid-30sDesign Observer featured "Women in Design History" on their blog this month, celebrating women over the past century who are pioneers, having made significant contributions in the male-dominated field. Designers like Elaine Lustig Cohen, wife of the legendary Alvin Lustig, who took over his studio after his death, and Lucia Eames, the only child of Charles Eames, are featured. Lucia, an artist and designer, also became the preserver of the Eames legacy.This month's Design History Society article, "Where are the Women? Gender Disparities in Graphic Design History" discusses how understanding design history is a way to better understand wider gender disparities, including gender pay gap, small numbers of women in senior positions, and talking on stage at industry events. Author Ruth Sykes contends that graphic design history leaves the contribution of female graphic designers under-examined. She thinks that if this were revised, it would be a step in the process of achieving equal industry status for female graphic designers.The long-standing gender gap rises amid the data revealed in a publication by Lucienne Roberts and Rebecca Wright released last year, "Graphic Designers Surveyed." The authors found that while women designers are generally better educated than their male counterparts, they are still paid less.As we celebrate women in history this month, consider how you can help change the legacy of women in graphic design.Sources:http://designobserver.com/feature/women-in-design-history/39516/http://www.designhistorysociety.org/blog/view/feature-where-are-the-women-gender-disparities-in-graphic-design-historyhttp://artanddesigninspiration.com/celebration-womens-history-month-ethel-reed-art-nouveau-graphic-designer/https://www.fastcodesign.com/3057540/infographic-of-the-day/who-are-graphic-designers-anywayshttp://www.wallpaper.com/design/lucienne-roberts-and-rebecca-wright-graphic-designers-surveyed-book#146709
Citizen Designer
Throughout history graphic designers have written design manifestos and taken action to focus their energy on designing for good. Whether it’s a call to action to use our skills to create things like PSAs rather than products for planned obsolescence, to motivate designers to use environmentally friendly materials rather than toxic ones, or to create materials that support social justice efforts, there is a group of dedicated graphic designers who believe that design is meant for something bigger and better than simply contributing to the cycle of consumer consumption.In Ken Garland’s 1964 “First Things First” Manifesto, he states: “By far the greatest effort of those working in the advertising industry are wasted on these trivial purposes, which contribute little or nothing to our national prosperity.”In David Berman’s book “Do Good Design,” he asks designers to consider their core values and mission and pledge to:1. Be true to their profession2. Be true to themselves3. Use 10% of their professional time to create a better place“Citizen Designer: Perspectives on Design Responsibility,” written by Steven Heller and Veronique Vienne, includes more than 70 essays that look to answer what it means to be a citizen designer.The recent U.S. election has created a groundswell of activism against our newly elected leader, and graphic designers are among them. Resist is a free 40-page tabloid newspaper featuring political comics and graphics that was distributed at Women’s Marches across the country on January 21. The Smudge is a new monthly newspaper created in the spirit of the underground and alternative presses of the 60's and 70's to offer a unique voice and perspective on current political issues.The Citizen Designer Pledge from AIGA NY asks individuals to vote, choose at least one cause to champion, meet with fellow citizen designers, and attend a local governance session once a quarter. The pledge goes on to outline commitments for companies as well as the newly formed organization's commitments and their dedication to solving larger problems.If you want to get involved and merge your personal values with your work, take the pledge today.Sources:http://backspace.com/notes/2009/07/design-manifestos.phphttps://medium.com/aigany/the-2017-citizen-designer-pledge-38e236e26199#.10xmnanvshttp://aigany.us5.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=e990059e83&id=b83ab08179
Design Activism
In Steven Heller's recent essay featured on Design Observer, "America's Big Design Problem," he discusses how now, more than ever, designers must be progressive thinkers and makers. While some feel design should not politicize, many feel that taking a stand for one's point of view is exactly what design is meant to do."RESIST!" is a publication on the theme of political resistance to the forces of intolerance. It will be published as a special issue of Gabe Fowler's tabloid newspaper, Smoke Signal. 30,000 copies will be distributed for free on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2017, in Washington D.C. Further distribution will occur at the Women's March on January 21st and throughout the United States. They are still accepting submissions for the newspaper on the theme of NOT OUR PRESIDENT. The deadline looms close though. You can still submit and view others' submissions online.In the video, "What is art for?" philosopher Alain de Botton gives his top five reasons why art is such a vital force for humanity—a force that stands up for the best side of human nature. The last one on his list is propaganda. Designers are born propagandists, trained in the art of persuasion. As Heller asserts, now is the time to dig even deeper—designing alternative streams for credible information—and making propaganda designed to bring out the best side of human nature.As our President-elect continues to build his new administration and choose cabinet members like Scott Pruitt—a climate change denialist for the E.P.A—it is more important now than ever to take a stand. As Heller states, before these political transformations become locked in stone.Sources:http://www.resistsubmission.com/http://designobserver.com/feature/americas-big-design-problem/39439https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/the-fix/wp/2016/12/08/scott-pruitt-trumps-pick-for-the-epa-has-been-obamas-worst-nightmare/
Graphic Designers Get Political
As Americans await the second debate this weekend with less than a month to go to election day, there are some graphic designers who are taking a stand.Iconic graphic designer Milton Glaser, known for the iconic and ubiquitous I Love NY Logo, wants to get the message out about voting. In this interview with Tina Roth Eisenberg of Swissmiss, he asserts, "not voting is selfish and stupid."Glaser has been passionate about this election. Last spring he created an election poster that is an echo of Descartes' "I think, therefore I am,"—"To vote is to exist"—challenging people to vote. Glaser makes it clear he's not trying to advocate for one side or the other, but emphasizing how critical it is for people to cast their vote for whom they believe in.Other designers, like Jessica Walsh and Stefan Saigmeister, are taking a more aggressive stand, and asking them to reject Trump and vote for Hillary with their latest project, "Pins Won't Save the World."We can only hope they do.Sources:http://www.timegoesby.net/weblog/2016/09/interesting-stuff-10-september-2016.htmlhttps://www.swiss-miss.com/2016/08/milton-glaser-wants-your-vote.htmlhttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-06/milton-glaser-wants-you-to-prove-you-existhttp://adcglobal.org/pins-wont-save-the-world-jessica-walsh/
Subverting the Narrative
It won't come as news to most of us that Photoshop and the multitude of photo apps that alter images have led to unrealistic views of ourselves. Women and men alike face body image issues in an era when taking selfies at every possible moment has become the norm. The objectification of women in advertising is a serious problem that has been hotly debated for years. Showing flawless and anatomically impossible bodies is harmful on many levels, and unfortunately it has become even more ubiquitous.Many of us consider it a welcome sight when advertisers challenge this narrative. The Dove Real Beauty campaign was among these. Their efforts to show women as they are were widely praised, though some critics felt that ad campaigns for products like Axe and Slimfast should be altered or cancelled as well if Unilever (the owner of these brands) was genuinely concerned.Justin Dingwall is a commercial photographer from South Africa who is using his skills to make work that subverts the standard narrative of what beauty is. In his fine art series Albus, Dingwall tackles the stigma associated with albinism. Worldwide, it's estimated that 1 in 20,000 people are born with albinism; in South Africa, the estimate is 1 in 4000. Those who live with albinism in Africa are often discriminated against and subjected superstition and violence.In a series of over 40 portraits featuring Thando Hopa and Sanele Xaba, Dingwall uses lighting and styling to question traditional ideas of femininity and masculinity and accepted standards of beauty. He includes religious symbolism; butterflies to convey transformation and The Madonna to convey comfort, acceptance, provision, and compassion. His beautiful portraits set a new standard, while also challenging us to consider how we perceive beauty.What have you seen that subverts the stereotypical narrative of beauty?Sources:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/21/dove-real-beauty-campaign-turns-10_n_4575940.htmlhttp://www.designindaba.com/articles/creative-work/albus-photo-series-challenging-established-standards-beautyhttp://www.justindingwall.com/https://www.thebalance.com/advertising-women-and-objectification-38754
Trump-Pen-an-ce
I know the man's name is Pence, but I can't help seeing "Penance," and wondering what we've done wrong as a nation that was so bad to deserve this.As critics and comics alike discussed the pros and cons of the newly revealed logo before social media prompted them to revise it a day after its release and take away the charming monogram, it's wise to keep our minds on the essence of logo design—it stands for a brand. Along with the obvious sexual associations of the "T" penetrating the "P," it may also be prophetic in predicting what may be about to happen to our country.What can graphic designers do about the impending penance? Making signs and posters is one way we can use our skills as they did this past March when they protested outside of Trump Tower holding 40-inch-by-60-inch signs of bold, graphic letters that together spelled "Build Kindness Not Walls."They may also want to take some ideas from the "Black Lives Matter" movement and see how graphic designers have been helping to fight racial injustice. Using data from news reports, some are creating shareable data viz, while others are creating memes to help get the word out.As the GOP Convention launches into full swing today, it's fun to analyze branding in terms of its design qualities and symbolism—but it's even more important for us to look at our social responsibility and see where we can help to combat the impending penance looming in our nation's future.Sources:http://www.wired.com/2016/07/ins-outs-new-trump-pence-logo/http://www.fastcodesign.com/3057904/how-graphic-designers-are-protesting-trumphttp://www.fastcodesign.com/3061779/how-designers-can-help-the-black-lives-matter-movement
Celebrating African Activists
Nigerian artist Fred Martins is making a name for himself as a graphic design advocate.In this series, Martins celebrates African activists with the clever use of the afro comb to create visual metaphors for each, creating their silhouette with the help of the comb. The high contrast of elements along with the use of space enhances the powerful impact that each of his subjects have had. The afro comb emulates the black fist, symbolizing freedom and power against the bold orange background which is associated with the incarceration each of them faced during their lifetime.In past projects, Martins has used graphic design to evoke emotion and raise awareness about important issues like climate change with a goal toward creating global stewards.View the entire Afro Comb series to see how Martins portrays important activists like Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Patrice Lumumba and Fela Kuti and learn about his inspiration for the series.Sources:http://www.designindaba.com/articles/creative-work/afro-comb-used-nigerian-artist-celebrate-african-consciousness?utm_source=Design+Indaba+mailing+list&utm_campaign=503d47f716-Weekly_Newsletter_18_May_20165_18_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_eb8e2b1d91-503d47f716-429312541http://www.okayafrica.com/culture-2/nigerian-artist-using-afrocombs-revere-righteous-african-activists/
Incorporating Earth Day into our every day practice
Happy Earth Day 2016! As scientists offer dire predictions of doom due to global warming, it’s inspiring to see how some global citizens are making changes.Whether it’s incorporating projects to raise awareness and inform into the classroom or applauding companies who are adopting green practices, there are a multitude of things we can do.Ikea has been accused of planned obsolescence in creating products; they've made a step in the right direction in their plans to use packaging made from mushrooms that will decompose in weeks.Tátil Design has made strides in bringing environmentally friendly designs and designs inspired by nature to Brazil. Creative director and founder Fred Gelli brought his background in biomimicry to the firm and has established a practice focused on sustainable design.Photographer Michael Ciaglo photographed the devastating side effects of recycling e-waste and the injuries like burns, lung problems, and other debilitating physical injuries that result.Whether you photograph it, make art out of it, create projects out of it, write about it, or talk about it—take a moment and think about how you can incorporate greener practices into your life, and, please share them here!
The Devil We Live (and Die) With
Cape Mongo, a film by Francois Knoetz, was featured at the 2016 Design Indaba conference last week. Portraying our detrius as monstrous creatures, Knoetz's film is about five mythical monsters that are created from our everyday waste: glass, paper, plastic, VHS, and metal. The film offers clues about the origins of each of the creatures and the temptations we face in falling prey their contents as they revisit their imaginary pasts.Knoetz created each suit and wore them throughout the streets of Cape Town. His performances took him everywhere from upscale malls to landfills to historic sites to street markets. His goal is to call attention to our ever-present relationship with waste as well as its intersection with issues around housing, food security, inequality, and racial segregation.Several other designers at the 2016 Design Indaba presented solutions aimed at dealing with these issues. Recent graduate Billie Van Nieuwenhuyzen presented Edelplast, a range of contemporary jewelry made from e-waste. Van Nieuwenhuyzen hand weaves discarded cables and then forms them into a marble-like material to create fine art pieces.The infinity burial suit by Jae Rhim Lee provides an alternative to the toxic chemicals that are currently used to preserve dead bodies. Lee contends that current practices deny death, poison the living, and harm the environment. As an alternative, she has designed a "mushroom death suit," a wearable suit filled with spores of a hybrid mushroom that aid in the decomposition of the body, delivering nutrients to the ground around a burial plot rather than delivering toxins.Kudos to the designers and artists at Design Indaba for giving us much to consider in how interact with the environment—in life—and in death.Sources:http://www.designindaba.com/videos/creative-work/francois-knoetzes-mythical-trash-creatures-reveal-our-terrible-treatment-wastehttp://www.designindaba.com/articles/creative-work/e-waste-jewellery-looks-marblehttp://www.designindaba.com/articles/creative-work/burial-suit-better-decompose-your-body
White lies—unethical, or an act of kindness?
Visual persuasion is at the heart of a graphic designer’s job. Taking information and ideas and forming them into communication that engages and invokes is what we do. Regardless of whether our client is selling a product or ideology, our quest is to help them do it. Some would argue that we are like lawyers. It is our responsibility to use our skills to get the best possible outcome for them and not let our own personal views influence us.Yet, like lawyers, we also face certain ethical and moral challenges along the way. The graphic designer’s moral dilemma becomes apparent pretty quickly—in our quest to do “good” design, how many “bad” things do we do? This debate comes up often. Milton Glaser’s essay, “Road to Hell” is one of the most famous, but it was not the first and won’t be the last.In a recent article for A List Apart, “Design, White Lies & Ethics,” Dan Turner discusses some of the choices Interaction Designers face. He also raises the question of whether or not deliberate miscommunication is sometimes actually an act of “good,” reassuring and helping users along their way.The case study that Turner uses involves a mobile timebanking app. Its goal is to help neighbors share services and build supportive relationships. During the design process the team found that transportation was high on the list of services requested. With that in mind they focused on designing a new feature, TransportShare, which would help connect users and drivers. Early prototypes focused on honesty and the team decided that showing one specific route would not be honest as drivers would likely be running other errands along the way and the route would not be direct. As a result no connecting Start and End points were shown, but initial testing did not show high marks for usability. Once a line that showed Start and End points was included, regardless of whether or not it was accurate, testing showed that users were comforted and usability marks increased. It appeared that in this case the white lie helped the user and increased adoption and satisfaction with the app, “good” design.Turner is asking for feedback and wants to open the conversation. He is asking for a framework that we can use to judge when design decisions are ethical. It’s an excellent question, and one that is at the core of our professional practice.Join the conversation and read the full article here:http://alistapart.com/article/design-white-lies-ethics
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/
Designers Voting Yes for Love
On May 22 Ireland may be the first country to vote to legalize same-sex marriage.“Yes for Love” is a campaign which asks people to help support this cause by downloading a design and using it as their social media profile.Help support this cause, get your profile pic here and encourage people to vote yes for freedom, for commitment, for justice, and for equality: http://yes-for-love.com/Sources:http://eyeondesign.aiga.org/designers-are-voting-yes-for-love-to-help-ireland-legalize-same-sex-marriage/http://yes-for-love.com/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ireland/11614313/Ireland-gay-marriage-referendum-what-you-need-to-know.html