The Importance of Ethos in Design
Design as a vehicle for social justice
[A version of this article was recently published in “What’s Next: The Creative Spark”, a book of essays chronicling an event of the same name held in Mumbai in February 2019 organised by Pearl Academy. Click here for more info on Pearl’s well-received “What’s Next” series of confluences .]
The Lack of Ethos
In the 1996 Hollywood film Jerry Maguire, directed by Cameron Crowe, the titular character played by Tom Cruise infamously writes a mission statement for his sports agency firm, the result of a late-night epiphany about the direction in which he felt that his company should be heading. The statement (the full text of which was released by Crowe some two decades later) entreated the company’s workforce to take a more compassionate and less profit-oriented approach to the high-profile business of sports management. What did Jerry Maguire get for his efforts? He got sacked.
Granted, the rest of the film is a sort of redemption story for him but the fact that his company not only outright ignored his vision but they instantly fired him, and that only one colleague felt strongly enough to join him as he left, is a grim acknowledgement of how the corporate world views compassion and justice. The cynical takeaway is that a well-meaning ethos is all well and good, but it’s not welcome in larger society where we have more important things to worry about like business targets, jobs, and salaries.
Fast forward to 2020. We look at the current political and socio-economic situation around the world and we can see where giving lip service to ethos has brought us. Corporate greed during the Great Recession of 2008, massive dependence on fossil fuel economies despite dire warnings of climate change, rising xenophobia and ‘otherism’ around the world as nations tighten their borders… We’re now living in a time where social groups — nations, cities, communities, organisations — are unable to clearly agree amongst themselves on what defines them and what values should drive their actions and policies towards the uncertain future. They either lack a clearly defined ethos, or they had it and rejected it altogether.
Developing a Workable Ethos
Social justice — in any form — requires a community or organisation to define, codify, and then strictly live by an ethos that represents its inherent values clearly and unambiguously. When it began as a lowly startup, Google defined its ethos with the words “Don’t be evil” which was not only spelled out in the company’s Code of Conduct, but was emblazoned on the walls of its brand new offices. Google has since removed those words and minimised their importance in their Code of Conduct after experiencing how difficult it actually is to be one of the world’s biggest companies and still live by a vague imperative to avoid something as complicated and commonly misinterpreted as ‘evil’. Google’s problem is not the lack of vision to impact people’s lives; rather, the mistake was being too glib about it. They believed that a superficially simple motto of “Don’t be evil” is enough to guide the actions of the massive diversity of its employee base, and to consistently do so through decades of business practice. When Google itself became a quasi-political power, they realised they could no longer live by the very ethos that guided their humble beginning.
What organisations can do, however, is to be more definitive about their stated values and then take steps to ensure that all members of the organisation from top to bottom understand and adhere to those values, no matter what. This applies not just to corporates, but any organisation or group of people with shared goals. You can call it what you like — a mission statement, or vision statement, or motto, or code of conduct — but it should be clear and unambiguous, and should not conflict with the organisation’s objectives. If a company’s ethos is to be mindful of the environment, they can’t be a polluter of air and water. If a non-profit’s ethos is to provide underprivileged people with economic upliftment, then 75% of its endowments shouldn’t go to upper management salaries. If an educational institution’s ethos is to ensure a delightful and meaningful learning experience to its students, then it shouldn’t force its students to go through endless bureaucratic hurdles just to get a simple permission note for a justified late assignment.
Social justice, in these respects, is not just about activism and communal responsibility. It’s certainly not only about just saying what you believe in. It’s about putting your money where your mouth is, and adhering to the high ideals and values that make up one’s ethos. This is hard enough to do at the individual level; having to worry about one’s own integrity and the lines they will not cross is ultimately a personal decision, and a weighty one. Where an ethos is most impactful is when groups of people work concertedly towards shared goals and abide by the values they’ve chosen to inculcate in themselves. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen as often as it should, because organisations and groups are diverse in nature, and agreeing on a common ethos to define the group’s behaviour isn’t as easy as it sounds. But this doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t try.
Ethos in Design
The importance of ethos should figure prominently in the design community. The outcome of designers’ work is very often subjective in quality, intent, and functionality. There is a lot of ambiguity in design, and practicing design with a clear ethos is often a matter of interpretation. In addition, maintaining a strong ethos while producing design is an added layer of complexity, particularly because the nature of the design industry is mostly the small scale of personal entrepreneurial ventures. Being a ‘struggling young designer’ is almost as much a cliché as ‘struggling young artist’, and rightfully so. Design is rarely appreciated at face value, and getting the public to understand the value of a designer’s ability takes a great deal of time and effort, where jobs are won or lost almost entirely on the basis of reputation and word of mouth. For a designer to stick to an ethos and live by it often requires giving up paid work that the designer sorely needs.
In addition, for a young designer to get into socially responsible work is extremely difficult. First of all, it doesn’t pay. Second, because the work is often voluntary, it requires more time than a young designer has. So there are few incentives for a young designer to spend the time working on projects that have a strong social benefit. Therefore, it becomes even more important for an ethos to be embedded in ALL of a designer’s work, where it is infused with social sensitivity and ethical responsibility.
For example, there is currently a strong emphasis on Sustainable Design, which is a term that I have some problems with. It implies that sustainability is something that is added to design, like an overlay; it’s not necessary but it makes design better. In my opinion all design must be sustainable. If it’s not sustainable then it’s not design. The term sustainability should be part of the definition of design, in the same way as the terms usability, process, empathy. Is there a separate discipline of architecture called Comfortable Architecture? Of course not, because all architecture is assumed to provide comfort by definition. So why Sustainable Architecture?
This is because the design community has yet to embed social justice and social responsibility as an ethos in the definition of what design is all about. The medical field has “First, do no harm” in its Hippocratic Oath. Can design have a similar ethical manifesto? Can designers be made to swear by a Designer’s Oath to be socially responsible towards all populations, to do no harm to the planetary ecosystem? To use design as a vehicle to aid and assist humanity, decrease oppression, and promote good will? Perhaps these are as vague and difficult to follow as Google’s “Don’t be evil” but it can be a start. Designers can certainly band together and make it a priority to have an ethos for all design work. Traditionally, professional guilds would ensure this would happen; if a practitioner was a member of a guild, it was a way to ensure that certain ethical standards would be practiced. Indeed, this is still the case with many professions; in particular, architecture guilds around the world have a code of conduct or ethics that is required for all members. But too often, only the most egregious or criminal acts are the ones that make a case for debarment. Professional associations for design can go farther, and be more persistent about establishing opportunities and requirements for social justice for all designers.
Whatever the nature of the ethos, it is important to have one. Whether it’s an oath taken by all designers, or a code of conduct for each design practitioner, it is high time for designers to reflect on their respective practices and work towards building an ethos for practicing design. And more importantly, staying true to it.