You aren’t special
Never an easy thing to hear. Even harder if you are in the design business. However that’s what Mike Monteiro puts forward in his recent piece; Can Design Change the World and he absolutely nails it. He makes the observation that it isn’t some special ‘designer’ attribute or skill that will change the world, rather that it’s a power everyone has. And more importantly a responsibility we all have.
Right now there’s too much rhetoric and belief that Design can fix all the worlds ills. It can’t, but as Mike suggests, maybe we can. What we can do is be part of the process of making the world a better place. What we can do is ditch the arrogant notion that only we can magically ‘design think’ the world out of every problem. What we can do is be conscious of the decisions we make and the impact of things we create. What we can do is strive to understand people better and accept our part in a bigger process, one where we work together with others to make a meaningful difference in the world.
Designers and ethics
Designers have a long and rich history of struggling with what they are paid to do and the implications and impact that work has upon the world. A lot of this is about ethics and choosing to work on the right projects, for the right people. Taking the ‘do no harm’ approach to the world. You only have to look at Milton Glaser’s 12 Steps to Hell, which highlights both deceitful design practices and ethically unsound project choices to see this. And it doesn’t have to be working for an arms manufacturer. Deceitful design like the recent VW emissions scandal puts you well on that same path.
Ken Garland’s First Things First Manifesto also puts forward this idea of ethical choices and has inspired regular revisits over the decades. The 1964 original published in The Guardian newspaper still resonates loudly. It’s a call to arms, asking fellow creatives to put their talent to good use, rather than the “high pitched scream of consumer selling”. In doing so it illustrates the importance of taking a public stance, showing the world what you believe in. Something that’s a lot easier to do today. The latest iteration is focused far more on technology and today’s data driven economies than the graphic design and commercial art of it’s predecessors. It’s also much easier to sign up to and pledge your resistance.
But choosing the right project is just part of the problem. Sometimes we put solving the problem first and are unable to understand what the consequences of our solutions may be. Science and medicine is always in the frame for this and no one better illustrates it than Thomas Midgley Jr and his “instinct for the regrettable”. He’s the chemist/engineer that put lead in petrol and created CFC’s for use in refrigerators, thus forever known as having “had more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth’s history”. These were design solutions to explicit problems, the rattle in the engine, the non-toxic refrigerant, and they had major repercussions.
It takes a broad view of things to do good. A view that isn’t focussed on an isolated problem, but one that always attempts to frame that problem in the world in which we live and would like to live in. Victor Papanek is one design writer who saw this. In Design for the Real World he talks about actively choosing to do good and concentrating on projects that make the world a better place. Urging designers to forego the vanity projects, the big bucks, and design for everyday people’s needs. To put people first. Buckminster-Fuller also believed this. He talked often of spaceship earth and our collective responsibility to it’s inhabitants and environments. Giving away designs and inventions that he felt would help humanity, making them ‘public domain’ and free for all to use and benefit from. This isn’t simply a reflection of the age these guys were working in, it’s a deeply humanitarian view of the world and belief that we can do good. It’s something we see today in the embracing of open information and the sharing of ideas. Despite the patent trolls and the exploitative markets, there’s recently been some notable examples sharing such as that from Tesla, and the open source community continues to grow and diversify. It’s not just about code or design, but government, data, environment and doing good. These show us a path that’s not about me, but about us.
Ultimately it’s not about being a designer. It’s not about your ego, your confidence or your ability to liberally sprinkle bullshit. It’s not about generating a myth of genius or being indispensable and ‘special’. It is about the act of design and all it involves. Good design does come from talented people, but that’s the point, people. Individuals are rarely the key. For the most part it’s groups of people working together that achieve amazing things. Where each brings their skills, experience and understanding. Design is an activity that benefits from this diversity. By being empathetic, understanding our actions, embracing working with others and taking responsibility for what we create we can do great things. Things that are special, even if we aren’t.
