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| Photo by Ernst Brooks, from National Library of Scotland |
Is good design a moral obligation? How do ethics apply to design?
I’m taking a journalism class right now, and ethics is a huge part of journalism, but ethics isn’t emphasized much in design education. In Mike Monteiro’s book, Design is a Job he makes the point that everyone is responsible for what they put into the world. If you’re a designer, and you choose to do work for an organization that does terrible things, then you’re saying that you agree, at least a little bit. Monteiro writes about a designer who he interviewed, who had work that he did for a tobacco company in his portfolio. He asked the designer why he did that work, and the designer didn’t have an answer, other than the fact that the company asked him to. This designer didn’t see any issue with doing work for the company. If a designer really needs work, then it’s understandable to take on a project that they don’t agree with, but otherwise, it doesn’t make sense. Lisa Congdon touches on the issue in this interview as well. Her philosophy is a little different, it’s more about choosing projects that you support and feel aligned with. She talks about it at 35:24, but the rest of the interview is well worth a watch. Congdon is pretty fantastic and has an admirable career.
What do you think? If a project seemed intriguing, but involved an organization that you disagree with, would you take it? What sort of responsibility do you feel like designers have to the world?