STEPHEN WOOWAT FROM SOMETHING MORE.
PRIMARY RESEARCH / EMAIL INTERVIEW.
1). How ethical are your design practices?
We do everything in a way which is as ethically sound as knowingly as we can make it.
2). How do ethics effect your design practices?
As a designer, it should be your job to solve problems, not to create new ones. It’s not a fairytale value to hold that everything you do should make the world better. Why shouldn't it?
Being ethical, and the values you hold, set the tone for everything you do as a design studio. Do I work for X client? How do I approach this brief? A big part of it is about making sure you constantly ask questions at every step of the way. Interrogate the brief that's before you, really think about all the nuts and bots of what it is you are being asked to do – not taking things for granted. Is the brief right on a fundamental level, is there a better way to think about it altogether?
It’s important to consider the entire life of a design you are creating too – from how it’s made, to how it’s used, and what happens after that. It’s easy to think of that model applying to product design – but it applies to all forms of design. If you are creating an identity, it’s much more than how it looks, sounds and feels. What’s the reality of interacting with it? Does it make people’s lives easier? Can you understand it? Does it make things better, not worse? Is it joyful and engaging? You need to make sure you are happy with what you are putting your name to.
Apple has a mantra which perfectly captures this duty before a designer – a question that should be asked in every design process: “Does it deserve to exist?”.
The way we speak about ourselves [as a studio] is that we believe every brand should be a wonderful experience. Its our check to make sure everything we do can make things better.
3). Is there a type of client/company that you wouldn't design for?
There are plenty of obvious ones, like tobacco – but some industries are not quite so easy to ethically define. Designers will individually draw their own boundaries of right and wrong and what they are comfortable with. I think it’s important though, to be able to recognise the opportunities when design can make things better. For example – you might not like a particular business, but what if they come to you open minded and want to change, what if you can help them change and be better? It could be your opportunity to try and do something about it. Creativity and ‘design thinking' is finding itself increasingly more at the heart of businesses – and it is giving designers an opportunity to solve problems that are much deeper within organisations – rather than just getting at the stuff around the edges. This can only be a good thing.
The challenge that lives alongside these descisions is having an ethical stance with the work you take on – alongside the need to make money and survive as a design studio. It’s important you don’t compromise your values and principles, even in hard or desperate times.
4). When working for a large design company, is there a process included that protects your own individual morals and ethical stand points in case you refuse to work for a particular client?
Every design company should value the individual ethics of the people who work there!
I like how this company was open to helping companies who may be looking to change their ways for the better. I also like the comment that stated that designers should solve problems and not to create them. I feel that it is this approach that should be followed by a lot more designers in todays industry.
No comments:
Post a Comment