Megalongcat | Design in the Presence of Idiocy. -

A couple of days ago I saw someone had posted a story to: “People used to stand for something” by Jordan Allen on my tweetdeck which soon got me wondering: “What do I, as a designer, stand for?”. My natural reflex started tossing adjectives in my mind such as ethical, moral, sustainable, green, socially conscious, but they’re just pretty words and it left me wondering what I really stand for in the design world.

There are two kinds of designers. Designers who design to pay bills, and designers who design for something greater. Most, if not all, want to be the latter; yet most, if not all, fall under the former. There is nothing wrong with using your design expertise as a means to keep up with rent. It’s something we all have to face. But a mentor once posed the question to me: What’s more important: your rent or your morals?

My response at the time was my rent.  I was also only 18 and despite having worked since the age of 14 to support myself financially I was naive as to how overwhelming something as simple as rent could be.  I quickly found out that my morals fell through the floor when it came to taking any design job regardless of how morally, ethically, and irresponsible the project.  It was only in my later years at Parsons the New School for Design that I did a complete 180 back to my morals.  I started taking design research courses, sociology, anthropology, pyschology related to art, philosophy, and business classes and all of these things helped me not only redefine myself as a designer, but as a person.  

Much to my dismay I found that there were only a small number of young designers who had even bothered to change themselves in this manner.  Not only in New York City, but all over America.  Design to them was about trends, money, and fame.  While these there are important, they should no way dictate your workflow or creative process.  From my learning, I’ve reasoned that design is not a process to make -something-, it’s a philosophy and processed used to find creative, ethical, and sustainible solutions to complex problems that exist in our world.  But what I see a lot of now, especially within the online design community, is trend following trend and ass-kissing received by more ass-kissing.  

To free myself of the litany and excuses plagued by those in my own field, I’ve established a set of personal guidelines and rules that I’ve sworn to follow as a designer.

1. I will not follow trends unless they apply relevantly to the project I am working on
2. Failure is always possible, and I need to know when I’m in over my head.
3. Whatever I design: product, graphic, system, it will be ethical and beneficial to the correct group of people it targets.
4. I will not let my designs and design skillset suffer because of oppinions of others in my field.
5. Yet I will always understand the importance of constructive criticism made by my peers. 
6. I will practice my skills as a designer at any chance I get applying them to any situation I can.
7. I must remember that my designs are never for myself, but for something greater.
8. Perfection as designer means there is a limit to how good I can become, I will seek to -always- better my skills and learn new things.
9. I will consult and converse with not only those in my field, but those in fields far from my own to grasp a better understanding as people as a whole.
10. I will stand up for my design work when it is necessary and I know in my heart that it is right.
11. Finally, I will remind myself that design can’t save the world.  But it can help move things in the right direction.

Now I ask of you, designers, artists, creatives, and intellectuals…do you have guidelines and morals you follow in your own work?  

If so post them here and let’s get a discussion going about your own self reflection on yourselves as individuals.