Time to Wonder: Ethical Design Crimes
Format
Senior Art and Design Exhibition
Faculty Mentor Name
Brett DeBoer
Abstract/Artist Statement
Graphic designers have, at their hands, the tools to communicate, to educate, inform and persuade large numbers of people through their manipulation of image and text. What is our social responsibility as graphic designers? Are we aware of the influence we wield as professional communicators in the new age of global messaging? And once we do, where lies our responsibility, our opportunity, our ethics, our balance? Should designers rethink their role in the world and their effect on it? My goal in this series is to create an awareness of the effect graphic advertisements have on consumers by juxtaposing illustrations, graphic marks and styles, photographs, and expressive line and shape in a collage-like fashion, as well as using dynamic typography and diagonal lines to create a sense of tension and conflict. The purpose of this series is not to tell people what to do, but to make designers aware of their influence on consumers, and for consumers to know how they are being influenced by design .to purchase products. Through this series, I hope to shed light on the balance between our powers of persuasion and ethical responsibility as designers, as well as our vulnerability as consumers to be persuaded. Why is it ok to advertise tobacco overseas even though they know the health risks? Is it ok to disguise the negative sides of a product by making them look positive; or by only showing one side of it? Is it wrong to design for a fast food restaurant that targets children considering the catastrophic consequences on both our economic and physical well being? While working on this project I learned that I do not want to be an irresponsible designer that influences things that I do not believe in, and how easy it is to side step ethics of safety, health, the environment, and politics, for a business, or to make a profit.
Location
Reynold Gallery
Start Date
3-5-2008 1:00 PM
End Date
3-5-2008 5:00 PM
Time to Wonder: Ethical Design Crimes
Reynold Gallery
Graphic designers have, at their hands, the tools to communicate, to educate, inform and persuade large numbers of people through their manipulation of image and text. What is our social responsibility as graphic designers? Are we aware of the influence we wield as professional communicators in the new age of global messaging? And once we do, where lies our responsibility, our opportunity, our ethics, our balance? Should designers rethink their role in the world and their effect on it? My goal in this series is to create an awareness of the effect graphic advertisements have on consumers by juxtaposing illustrations, graphic marks and styles, photographs, and expressive line and shape in a collage-like fashion, as well as using dynamic typography and diagonal lines to create a sense of tension and conflict. The purpose of this series is not to tell people what to do, but to make designers aware of their influence on consumers, and for consumers to know how they are being influenced by design .to purchase products. Through this series, I hope to shed light on the balance between our powers of persuasion and ethical responsibility as designers, as well as our vulnerability as consumers to be persuaded. Why is it ok to advertise tobacco overseas even though they know the health risks? Is it ok to disguise the negative sides of a product by making them look positive; or by only showing one side of it? Is it wrong to design for a fast food restaurant that targets children considering the catastrophic consequences on both our economic and physical well being? While working on this project I learned that I do not want to be an irresponsible designer that influences things that I do not believe in, and how easy it is to side step ethics of safety, health, the environment, and politics, for a business, or to make a profit.