Good Design

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Creative Responsibility

Creating good design that is also good for the environment and good for people.

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Eco-friendly Design

Digital, Print & Paper

This is my approach to eco design:

Don't print hard copies
There are many options that don't require you to physically print your visual communications. Not only are they eco-friendly, in most cases they're more cost effective too. These include:

Email newsletters
Brochures created as downloadable pdfs
Information uploaded to your website
Social media used instead of advertising in magazines or newspapers
Digital billboards rather than printed billboards or posters

When only hold-in-your-hand, printed products will do (eg. business cards), I focus on the following:

Design considerations

Using white space to reduce ink coverage
Avoiding full-bleed designs to reduce paper wastage
Using standard paper sizes to avoid excess trimming and paper wastage

Printing methods
The reality is that production invariably has some negative environmental impact, but it is possible to minimise this. With business cards and flyers, for example, I choose digital printing using HP digital printing presses. There's less paper wastage than web offset, for one thing.
Detailed information on the specifics is available in the pdf file, Environmental FAQs.

Paper stock
The paper stock used to print on is the other important component. Not only must it look and feel good and be compatible with the method of printing, it also needs to have been sustainably produced.

An example of paper stock specifications
(click on image to download a pdf file)

Information on sustainable printing
(Click on the image to download the pdf file)

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Eco-friendly Design

Silkcreening Textiles

There are two parts to creating eco-friendly textiles: the silkscreen process and the fabrics the designs are printed on. Honestly, there's no way to be completely eco about this, but informed choices can significantly reduce the negative impact.

Silkscreening
Often designers claim to be eco because they're using water-based, environmentally friendly printing inks. Fortunately this part is true. My silkscreen supplier says you can probably eat the inks without getting sick (I don't advise that you try it though!)

What designers aren't owning up to, is the fact that photo emulsion is most likely being used to expose their designs onto the screens. This makes cleaning them highly toxic and very unfriendly from an environmental standpoint.

I create my designs by hand-cutting stencils. While the material I use is plastic-coated, there are no harsh solvents involved in the screen cleaning process, making it a much kinder alternative.

Fabrics
I print on unbleached calico (organic when I can source it). This means chemicals, as well as large amounts of water and energy, have been omitted from the manufacturing process and the end product is completely biodegradable.

Textile designs created using hand-cut stencils.

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Social Responsibility

Fairtrade, Ethics & Communication for Development (C4D)

I support Fairtrade products where I can, such as silkscreening on certified Fairtrade eco bags. As far as possible, I use suppliers that are transparent about the sustainability of their manufacturing processes. This is not a perfect world by any means, but I believe we should at least be trying to do things better.

Communication for Development is an arena I've been involved with since 2010, when I took up an assignment in Vanuatu with Volunteer Service Abroad (VSA). This has been a particularly satisfying use of my graphic design and marketing skills and it's revolutionised my approach to my work. I can advise and offer insights should you want to incorporate this kind of social responsibility into your business values.

Resource produced for Care International to inform niVanuatu on cyclone preparedness.