Resolved: prioritizing planet over profit
The climate crisis is a persistent and systemic problem that we all have to face (designer or not) and one of the root causes of the crisis is exactly what we will be confronting in this entry; the pursuit of profit as the dominant engine of business and design. The FGCD asked the Climate Designers community about their 2022 goals, but not for their own practices; we asked about what they wanted to see their particular specialty (graphic design, product design, etc.) accomplish and why they thought it was possible. The first goal was to pursue more sustainable practices. The second common goal was that design has to reexamine its relationship to profit or capitalism.
Profit is a metric that—at its worst—allows us to measure success apart from other, more important consequences. When we put profits above all else, we blind ourselves to our failures by looking only to our successes, and those successes are purely monetary and relegated entirely to the present moment. It is a profit-first mindset that allows us to even consider pillaging the planet and its most vulnerable people; money allows us to launder abysmal labor practices—you cannot see abused or coerced workers on an Excel spreadsheet—and leaves us with nothing but the abstracted value of what that exploitation produced. Not all profit is bad, mind you, and being profit-oriented does not an evil person make, but it is the fact that money is an abstraction of value that allows those that chase profit-at-all-costs to get away with what they do. We can know the value of a particular currency, but there could be no climate crisis if we knew what that currency cost us in devastated lands or exploited workers.
Before we dive in, let’s just establish that not being profit-first doesn’t necessarily mean being non-profit. And no one here is advocating that we abolish money or blackball wealthy or profitable designers. What we’re saying is that profits shouldn’t come at the expense of the future. Earning a comfortable living from doing good work should be a basic goal for all people, in all industries.
Re-thinking profit-first tendencies
This is obviously easier said than done, but habits of consumption and spending are directly related to both our economy and our jobs and we can take steps (big and small) to incentivize our industry to focus on more than just profits over everything else. Web designer Tim Frick says, “Organizations must prioritize ethics, responsibility, and sustainability over greed or short-term thinking. B Corps and other social enterprises have proven time and time again that purpose and profit can meaningfully coexist. This needs to be the default for everyone moving forward. No excuses.” He continues, “Similarly, organizations must commit to long-term duty-of-care for their products, services, practices, and programs. They should measure their impact to stay focused on long-term outcomes that benefit communities, workers, and other stakeholders.” Long-term support for products is more expensive, yes, but eliminating practices like planned obsolescence or fast fashion may force all of us to confront our consumption habits, and maybe even realize that the culture of buy, use, and throw away is one that has been foisted upon us to drive spending and increase our reliance on corporations to fulfill our most pressing needs.
Motion designer Margaret To told me that she would love to see “motion designers pledge to be a Clean Creative, and encourage one other motion designer friend to pledge as well. If you work full-time at an agency and feel comfortable bringing this up to your employer, even better so your agency can pledge to decline any future contracts with fossil fuel companies or trade associations. Because without a habitable planet, none of the art, money or success matters!” This is about as direct as you can get, when it comes to the subject of profit and industry; you cannot enjoy your wealth on a planet that is uninhabitable. “Solid brand foundations should enable a brand (old or new) to talk to customers at their level, be inclusive, and ultimately spark meaningful conversations about how we can all reduce our impact on the environment,” says brand designer Jonathan White. This is a fundamental shift away from profit-first. He goes on, “Successful brands are trusted (often more than our elected governments), they should use that power to educate and to help drive change. With great power comes great responsibility!”
Carly Schonberg says of her goal for UX/UI design to focus on ecosystem-centered products that “it's more of a change in societal mindset than a change in the UX/UI field alone, but if we want to continue living on earth we need to realize that humans, our convenience, and our never-ending profits cannot be the sole center of every decision made.” She is absolutely correct: just convincing our clients or employers isn’t enough—our cultural norms have to change, but that will take a collective and concerted effort, and we will get there, and right now we need to focus on how to make that societal mindset change happen in our industries and places of employment. As a graphic designer myself, I recognize that altering that profit-first mindset in my own industry is difficult. Ruben Pater, in his book, CAPS LOCK, underlines this: “The more digital the work of graphic designers is becoming, the more the privately owned infrastructure will influence the production process and the aesthetics. The tools that graphic designers use are owned by companies that answer to shareholders: Adobe, Apple, Google, Facebook, and Linotype. They create the code, standards, platforms, colours, and filters that shape a lot of graphic design.” In many cases, the fact that it isn’t always profitable to promote alternative ways of thinking to the profit-first paradigm hinders the success of the message.
Envisioning an earth-first future
So what tools do we have at our disposal to bring about that societal mindset change? Well, as designers, envisioning the future is what we do; big projects or small, we have to think through a problem and emerge at the end with something that communicates a message to an audience—be it a banner ad on a webpage, or a new style of clothing, or piece of packaging meant to reintroduce an old product to new users. Margaret says that, “more companies and startups are moving in the direction of sustainability and circular economy, and these companies need motion designers (and designers of all disciplines) to help with their brand and storytelling. There’s a lot of potential for creatives as we transition to a cleaner, circular and sustainable world.” She listed a few industries in need of our creative vision: sustainable fashion, plant-based food companies, sustainable travel companies, green tech companies, and “companies that support and include diverse, BIPOC voices.” People need to see what a future that isn’t focused on stock returns, dividends, or profits looks like.
This is a perfect place for design educators to provide an opportunity to show designers what our specialties can look like outside of a profit-based system. We should be hesitant to expect full-time, part-time, or even hobbyist designers to try to imagine or exist outside of a profit-first system—potentially doing projects or jobs for free—while also having to pay bills and save for the future. Students can use their classroom time to both hone their skills and work to establish their future by creating a culture in design that puts humanity before economy.
The cruel irony of a design culture based on profits is that it makes it difficult to make a stand for what we know to be right. Saying no to fossil fuel companies or other polluting industries is the goal, but it’s not a goal that everyone can commit to right now. We cannot let our future be traded away like shares in the stock market. We all have different roles that we can play, some bigger than others, but each is critically important. We cannot afford, and truly, cannot profit from, a profit-first design industry. Let’s build something better.
So, call-to-action time
Where can we lend our design skills in ways that aren’t exploitative of our time and energy? Are there situations in which we can design systems that don’t rely on mass consumption and competition? And are there other goals that you have for your industry that involve steering off the beaten path of profits before all else? Head over to the Climate Designers community space on Mighty Networks and let us know what you think. I’ll leave you with this quote from youth activist, Xiye Bastida on why time is of the essence:
“But here’s what I have learned: You don’t have to know the details of the science to be part of the solution. And if you wait until you know everything, it will be too late for you to do anything That’s why we, the youth who are leading on climate, are calling this an emergency.” (from her essay “Calling In”, included in All We Can Save, by Johnson & Wilkerson, pg. 3)
The next entry in this series will be about design education. But before we get there, next week we’re going to welcome a new writer’s work into the Guide, so, be sure to check out that entry, and in the meantime, head on over to our community to discuss these ideas further.
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This entry was written by
Matt McGillvray
Matt is a designer and illustrator living near Portland, Maine, and has been working for more than a decade doing branding, illustration, web design, print design, social media posts, and even a little SEO.
When not designing he’s usually reading, writing, or running. His current big writing project is a book about design and climate change. He is a chronic teller of puns and will not apologize for that.