I was reading an article today about how to be greener as a designer and ended up watching this interesting video about bottled water and tap water.
The thing that strikes me most though is not the “stupidity” of people who bought or tasted the water in this case but more the cleverness and ingeniosity of the designers that manage to give this image of a better product for you. On a general, capitalist point of view we can’t deny these designers realised a seriously good job as they manage to give a better image of the products than they really are but in the end their work is all but green as they make consumers buy things they don’t need… I’m then simply wondering if designers are green at all as their aim is to promote products that are of no use in most cases… I’d really appreciate if some of you could give their opinion on this subject and let me know if they think that designers can genuinely be green (or maybe even greener)…
Hello mon grand !
La réponse est simple : un graphiste/designer ne peut pas être “green”… Il faudrait que le capitalisme soit “possibly green”.
Après des études de graphisme, puis rentré aux Bozar, passionné par la photo argentique (et numérique), je me suis vite rendu compte que tout ce que j’aime n’est absolument pas écolo.
Pourquoi ?
Certainement parce que je suis né au milieu d’un monde capitaliste, et que j’essaie de m’y intégrer (si tant est qu’il soit possible de ne pas s’y intégrer).
Une chose est quasiment sûre : nous (gens des 80’s) assisterons à un délabrement majeur de notre planète…
Ma question : doit-on en profiter tant qu’il en est encore temps, ou doit-on nous retirer au fin fond du trou du cul du monde ? (que les hommes ravageront un jour ou l’autre)
Peace !
et bisous
Loran
Yo Loran!
Trop cool…
Long time no talk! Hope everything is going ok for you!
Sorry I reply in English it’s for people that may be interested in this subject!!!
Got your point about not being able to be green because of the way capistalism makes the whole society work. We’re all part of it and there’s nothing much we can do about it. But it’s however not a reason to stop living as you said or live in a hut in a forest, it’s not going to change the world, maybe just the way you feel about yourself but in the end the rest of the world will still move on and buy…
You being a photographer, I couldn’t see how greener you could be but then I thought both our jobs, you photographer and me graphic/web designer, are basically visual communication, and communication is THE tool used to sell the bottles in this example. So maybe it’s as simple as using communication to make people react and realise what’s happening and try to change! For instance, Yann Arthus-Bertrand does a great photography job whilst opening eyes of millions people. So no, I don’t think we can be green, but I think we have a tool we can use to try to change and improve. An example again here, I was thinking about designing some T-shirts the other day and then I was like, eur, no, bad for the environment. But I thought today if I actually look for recycled materials, eco-friendly inks it wouldn’t be that bad. Ok I would still be selling “useless” stuff but if it wasn’t me, it would be some else and they might not even care about environment at all…
So maybe the conclusion I could say is that our jobs offer us the opportunity to make things change and move in the right way! Still not green but at least greener!
What do you think?
Hey, you must be right. But only if we talk about a freelance job…
Sorry for the misunderstanding, but i’m actually (unfortunately) not a photographer… At the end of my 4th year in Marseille School of Art, I was “broke”. Had to stop before the 5th year, and find a job… Luckily, i found a print designer job (“infographiste” in french) for Procopi, a major french company producing Pool and Spa equipment…
So, now if i come back to your thinking, it’s really hard for me to create a liflet for pool filter, a pump, or anything that makes a pool “work”, taking into account “green” stuffs… All what i can say is that for massive printings like the annual catalogue of 400 pages produced at 40.000 ex. we work with a “green” printer : inks and paper are supposed to be “green”…
But creating stuffs in freelance, or for yourself, there you can try things. But then, depending of what you are going to create, we could talk about “art”… and that’s an other story…
Cheers !!
Hey Loran,
Sorry to read you couldn’t do your 5th year in photography! What a shame, you work was really interesting from what I remember in the contest you entered a few years ago!!
Concerning the subject, I guess I didn’t envisage it this way. I was indeed thinking more in term of raw creativity and freelance work. Now, that’s good your company goes for greener printer, it’s definitely a step forward. Unfortunately, it won’t stop people buying pools and filters and pumps. It’s actually encouraging them but is there anything to do about it? I think it’s a tad too late to tell people they should go and swim in the sea or in the river… In which case they would have to travel and pollute anyway!
From our small conversation here, all I can say really is that we’ll never be able to be 100% green, maybe greener at a push…