In Search of Ethics in Graphic Design
by Paul Nini / August 16, 2004
I went looking for evidence of graphic design ethics and didn’t find much. Well, that’s not entirely true. When I “Googled” the subject I did find the kind of things I expected, such as graduate-level design seminar courses and undergraduate-level professional practices courses that touch on ethical issues. I also found groups of practitioners and educators creating projects where they’ve used graphic design as an instrument of social change with very positive results. All of these things are worthwhile initiatives, and, by all means, let’s keep them going.
I’m also happy to report that I found some other, very positive efforts out there. The “Design Inquiry” symposium recently hosted by the Maine College of Art gave participants a rare opportunity to dig deeply into the issues surrounding our roles as persuasive communicators in consumer culture. There are also many initiatives to educate designers to their effect on the earth’s ecosystem, including an excellent publication by the AIGA that clarifies many of the misunderstandings concerning more sustainable production practices.
I also came across the speech delivered by Milton Glaser at the AIGA 2002 Voice Conference, where he notes that, “In the new AIGA’s code of ethics there is a significant amount of useful information about appropriate behaviour towards clients and other designers, but not a word about a designer’s relationship to the public.” Likewise, in an interview conducted by Martin C. Pedersen, Glaser had this to say in response to a question about the way design is currently taught: “I would change the perception of the purpose of design that is deeply embedded in design education. Because it’s linked to art, design is often taught as a means of expressing yourself. So you see with students, particularly young people, they come out with no idea that there is an audience. The first thing I try to teach them in class is you start with the audience. If you don’t know who you’re talking to, you can’t talk to anybody.”
Somewhat tellingly, I didn’t find much else that acknowledges our profession’s responsibilities to audience members or users, specifically those who experience the work we create on a daily basis. AIGA has embraced the concept of “experience design,” which by its very nature requires the involvement of audiences and users in the design process. AIGA has also published the Design Business and Ethics series that addresses a number of topics including “Business and ethical expectations for professional designers,” which is referred to above. However, a quick look makes it clear (as Glaser asserts) that our responsibilities to audience members and users has not been substantially addressed in what is otherwise a very well-considered effort.
There is certainly nothing wrong with protecting our professional interests and the interests of our clients, and you’ll find content to that effect in most statements of ethical practices created by designer organizations around the world. However, I would argue that our single, most significant contribution to society would be to make sure that the communications we create are actually useful to those for whom they’re intended—and that this concern must be elevated to the same level of importance as those previously discussed.
Many of us are quite familiar with the concepts of “audience-centered” or “user-centered” design, but how many of us can honestly claim to routinely include users or audience members in our process of design? While there are clearly segments of our profession that do practice in a more inclusive fashion, the majority of us do not—and that is, to my mind, where our greatest ethical failure as a profession currently lies.
The client’s desire for profits, and our desire for visual sophistication (and peer recognition) should come after the needs of our audiences and users have been met. By putting our “constituents” first—and ourselves last—we might be able to create a more significant ethical model for our profession to pursue. Further efforts to promote environmental responsibility and to employ graphic design as a means of social change are certainly desirable, but so are more effective everyday messages that the majority of us create.
So, in an attempt to address the issue raised, I’ve taken the entirely presumptuous step of creating language that outlines our responsibilities to audience members and users. I envision this text as an addition to the AIGA’s existing publication on ethics, which currently includes sections concerning our responsibilities to the profession and our clients. Therefore, I ask the following questions to you, my professional colleagues: What do you think of the sentiments expressed below? Is it necessary for us to have such text included in our code of ethics? Are you willing to join the discussion and help this initiative progress from this point? In the spirit of inclusive design, I personally invite you participate and add your voice to this important topic.
Finally, please note that the fourth and fifth statements below are adapted from the existing Professional Code of Ethics authored by ICSID, the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design. As well, the sixth statement is adapted from the Code of Ethics for Professional Communicators created by IABC, the International Association of Business Communicators. Of the many professional codes of ethics referenced in the process of writing this article, these two groups were among the few to include significant statements concerning their responsibilities to the public.
The Designer’s Responsibility to Audience Members and Users
* Designers must recognize the need to include audience members and users whenever possible in the process of developing effective communications and to act as an advocate for their concerns to the client.
* The Designer’s main concern must be to create communications that are helpful to audiences and users and that meet their needs with dignity and respect. Any communication created by a designer that intentionally misleads or confuses must be viewed as a negative reflection on the profession as a whole.
* Designers must not knowingly use information obtained from audience members or users in an unethical manner so as to produce communications that are unduly manipulative or harmful in their effect.
* Designers must advocate and thoughtfully consider the needs of all potential audiences and users, particularly those with limited abilities such as the elderly and physically challenged.
* Designers must recognize that their work contributes to the wellbeing of the general public, particularly in regard to health and safety and must not consciously act in a manner contradictory to this wellbeing.
* Designers uphold the credibility and dignity of their profession by practicing honest, candid and timely communication and by fostering the free flow of essential information in accord with the public interest.
To conclude, just having such a statement that we may agree with is not enough. We must now actually do something to improve the current situation. We must develop a sustained dialog with those who experience the fruits of our labors, and recognize that their needs are more important than our own.
About the Author: Paul Nini is an Associate Professor in the Department of Design at Ohio State University, where he also serves as Graduate Studies Chairperson and Coordinator of the undergraduate Visual Communication Design program. His writings have appeared in a variety of publications, and he has presented at numerous national and international design and education conferences.
See original post at AIGA
May 19th, 2010 at 6:37 pm
[...] In Search of Ethics in Graphic Design | Glazefolio design blog [...]
May 20th, 2010 at 2:35 am
Graphic designing requires lots of creativity, if you have that then you can do anything graphic designing.
May 28th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
This is such a great resource that you are providing and you give it away for free. I enjoy seeing websites that understand the value of providing a prime resource for free. I truly loved reading your post. Thanks!
June 1st, 2010 at 7:48 pm
Great information! I’ve been looking for something like this for a while now. Thanks!
June 3rd, 2010 at 9:57 am
Yahoo News…
This is really great news today….
June 4th, 2010 at 9:23 am
Thanks for this
information
June 5th, 2010 at 6:45 pm
Outstanding Post…
We saw this outstanding entry today and wanted to share the love so I linked to it….
June 6th, 2010 at 8:53 pm
Good luck everybody! - I will come back again. Are you on facebook or twitter? Will like to follow you.
Thanks
June 6th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
yes, Glazefolio is on both face book and twitter.
Facebook… http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/profile.php?id=100001141879176&ref=ts
and
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Glazefolio-Design-Blog/128290013863328?ref=ts
Twitter…http://www.twitter.com/GlazefolioDB
June 10th, 2010 at 11:16 pm
Good brief and this post helped me alot in my college assignement. Thanks you as your information.
June 11th, 2010 at 10:14 am
Thank you for useful info.
June 13th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
One again, your article is very nice
June 13th, 2010 at 5:47 pm
Sorry my English is not too good, but I do like this article. Thanks for taking the time to share your ideas, where I’m from people don’t share much. Anyways, I’ll share this with my friends. Thank you!
June 14th, 2010 at 6:29 pm
I’ve been checking your blog for a while now, seems like everyday I learn something new
Thanks
June 14th, 2010 at 9:27 pm
Your blog is so informative ¡ keep up the good work!!!!
June 14th, 2010 at 11:47 pm
Great read. Thanks for the info!
June 16th, 2010 at 10:19 pm
I have to state, you chose your words well. The ideas you wrote on your encounters are well placed. This is an incredible blog!
June 17th, 2010 at 1:05 am
Howdy, your site is on air in the radio! Good job mate. Your posts are truly great and bookmarked. Regards
June 17th, 2010 at 3:58 am
My cousin recommended this blog and she was totally right keep up the fantastic work!
June 17th, 2010 at 6:46 pm
As a Newbie, I am always searching online for articles that can help me. Thank you
June 21st, 2010 at 2:21 pm
Epic
I found this place on Google looking for something totally unrelated, now I’m gonna have to read through all the old material. So much for my spare time this morning, but this was a really spectacular find!!!
June 23rd, 2010 at 6:56 pm
hi,good apple in your post,I love thatelegantapple,I need to find one for me,jane
June 25th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
Good post and this fill someone in on helped me alot in my college assignement. Gratefulness you seeking your information.
July 10th, 2010 at 6:02 am
I admire ur job!
July 15th, 2010 at 8:06 am
Excellent contenu. Merci de poster.
July 15th, 2010 at 3:56 pm
Hello there, I have just looked over your website document on domainmeter.com Do you have any kind of affiliation with various other web pages?
July 16th, 2010 at 9:58 am
Vielen Dank für die interessante Inhalte!
July 17th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
This is the 2nd instance I have discovered your web sites in the last few weeks. Seems like I should bookmark it.
July 18th, 2010 at 2:09 am
Just thought i would comment and say neat theme, did you code it yourself? Looks great.
July 18th, 2010 at 7:19 am
sitio fresco!
July 19th, 2010 at 8:03 am
Cool site!!
August 1st, 2010 at 2:05 am
We simply just wished to complement you on your content rich post. It appears you truly understand precisely what you are speaking about. I personally am also operating in a comparable industry. At the moment i am operating inside the website and SEO information product market. Everybody is seeking for remedies with regard to their own difficulties, which usually unwraps up a markt for information online marketers.Presently there will be a whole lot of money to be made making information goods.
August 2nd, 2010 at 2:38 pm
I’m really proud of you
August 3rd, 2010 at 10:09 pm
Nice writing. You are on my RSS reader now so I can read more from you down the road.
August 6th, 2010 at 8:26 am
I really enjoyed your blog. Really good posts! Please keep posting such profound cotent.
August 11th, 2010 at 4:43 pm
I have been surfing online more than three hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. It’s pretty worth enough for me. In my opinion, if all webmasters and bloggers made good content as you did, the internet will be much more useful than ever before.
August 14th, 2010 at 8:46 pm
Super-Duper site! I am loving it!! Will come back again - taking you feeds also, Thanks.
August 16th, 2010 at 3:53 am
Excellent information here. This interesting post made me smile. Maybe if you throw in a couple of pics it will make the whole thing more interesting.
August 17th, 2010 at 11:28 am
What can I say other than - WOW!
August 24th, 2010 at 5:51 am
Interesting article. Thank you
August 29th, 2010 at 1:02 am
appreciated this blog!
September 2nd, 2010 at 12:16 am
Hello! I found your blog via this post and I liked it enough to subscribe to your rss feed. Thanks for the useful information!
September 6th, 2010 at 11:43 am
Cool website, thanks for sharing the info!!
September 9th, 2010 at 6:02 am
Wanted to share my opinion here, this websites delivers, never found so much information about a specific topic like what I found here, thanks.
September 9th, 2010 at 5:28 pm
Thanks for posting
September 11th, 2010 at 9:51 am
Thank you for another wonderful blog.Wherever else could I get this sort of information written in this kind of an incite complete way? I have a project that I am just now operating on, and i’m sure this will assist me a great deal..and I have been searching for such details since from couple of days….Thanks!!!!!
September 14th, 2010 at 6:09 am
That is some inspirational stuff. Never knew that opinions could be this varied. Thanks for all the enthusiasm to offer such helpful information here.
September 14th, 2010 at 8:34 am
Thank you for your help!
September 17th, 2010 at 12:58 am
Just wanted to comment and say that I really like your blog layout and the way you write too. It’s very refreshing to see a blogger like you.. keep it up
September 17th, 2010 at 6:40 am
Ciao. Good job. I did not expect this on a friday night. This is a cool story. Thanks!
September 20th, 2010 at 9:09 am
Educational assistance websites at one time was so difficult to research. I am very happy of these varied indexes which are there now for our reference.
September 20th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
What is that plugin on your navbar called?
September 22nd, 2010 at 12:26 am
thanks !! very helpful post!
September 22nd, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Thank you very much for posting a lot of this awesome information! I am looking forward to reading more.
September 22nd, 2010 at 11:58 pm
hello everyone, i’m really listless on the net so you all should contact me if ya are too, strike up a convo :). or possibly myspace, my name on there is kate magyar
September 23rd, 2010 at 12:38 am
Say thank you for give extremely great informations. Your search engines is greatI am impressed by the information that you’ve on this blog. It exhibits how effectively you comprehend this subject. Bookmarked this specific page, will arrive again for far more. You, my friend, amazing! I found just the data I previously explored everywhere and just wasn’t able to discover. What a ideal site. Similar to this web-site your internet site is 1 of my new most-liked.I like this info shown and it has given me some sort of motivation to have achievement for some reason, so keep up the fantastic function!
September 23rd, 2010 at 6:51 am
The informative article encouraged me a lot! Bookmarked your blog, very excellent topics everywhere that I read here! I appreciate the information, thanks.
September 23rd, 2010 at 7:54 am
“my God, i considered you have been going to chip in with some decisive insght in the finish there, not go away it with ‘we go away it to you to decide’”
September 26th, 2010 at 9:40 pm
you’ve got a great personality.
September 27th, 2010 at 9:23 am
Great article and very informative.
October 12th, 2010 at 3:32 am
Hey very nice blog!! Man…Beautiful.. Amazing..I will bookmark you blog and take the fedd also…
October 12th, 2010 at 4:27 am
This is such a great resource that you are providing and you give it away for free. I love seeing websites that understand the value of providing a quality resource for free. It?s the old what goes around comes around routine.
October 26th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
much appreciated a very current area with me too at the moment.