Sustainable ink and the graphic designer

“Sustainable design gives an authentic value to the consumer.”– Katarina Graffman (Ethnographer)

In the second portion of this continuing essay, I turn my focus to another integral component to the graphic designer’s daily language: ink. Ink was developed, for commercial purposes, by the Chinese thousands of years ago and was constructed of various mixtures of pine soot, lamp oil and animal gelatin. Color was added through combining berries, minerals and a variety of plants/roots. As commercial printing (as we now know it) grew in demand from economic expansion fueled by the Industrial Revolution, the work of Johannes Gutenberg (moveable type printing in 1439) was continued by Friedrich Gottlob Koenig (flatbed cylinder printing press in 1810) and by Heidelberg’s “Tiegel” press (1914) which allowed for printing on a mass production scale. Ink for printing was typically made from burned rosin (pine/plant resin) suspended in linseed and other vegetable oils. This variety of agro-based ink dominated the market until the early 1960s when cheaper and better performing petroleum-based inks were introduced to the printing arena.
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In recent years, Yves Béhar has emerged as one of the most important industrial designers on the contemporary scene. Through his San Francisco-based design and branding company fuseproject, the Swiss-born Béhar has shown that a futuristic, hi-tech approach to design can be deeply humane. The fluid forms and innovative function of his products are impressive enough, but it’s Béhar’s interest in the human experience and positive social change that give his objects real meaning. In this interview, Béhar chats with Kevin Kelly about his recent work for the safe sex campaign NYC Condom and other acclaimed projects, and shares his vision for how design can help shape our future. (more…)

Beth Dillon at our sister blog Notes on Game Dev wrote a very personal post yesterday about her frustration with the subtly chauvinist attitudes in the game industry and issued a call for other women in her business to share their experiences. Beth recounted how, again and again, she would hear the same line from by recruiters at industry events: “You should come work for us, we could really use a woman on the team”.

“They don’t care what I actually do, what my credentials are, what genres I’d like to work in or what audiences I know best.” Beth writes, “I’m a woman, therefore I know what all women want, and I can give them the secret key into awhole new market of money. Oh, that and it looks good for them to have a woman on the team if they’re going to make games for women.

If we’re so precious and have some special knowledge, why aren’t we getting paid as much as men? On average, we get about 10k less per salary, although this changes relative to the position.”

The post immediately elicited a slew of passionate and eloquent responses. Which made us think that women in the game industry are probably not the only ones that feel stereotyped by a male-dominated tech industry. So we would love to hear what women
in the web design and design business have to say. Please join the game dev women and post your comments here

Inspired by Kate Andrews’ recent related post on sustainable typography

In my typography course project at Maryland Institute College of Art, sophomore students are designing packages for eco-friendly compact fluorescent light bulbs. Not surprisingly, eco-asethetics have inspired their work and became active parts of class discussion. We debated hotly the role that design plays in creating expectations for the quality of the product.

Many “green” products are relatively under-designed with simple typography and color palettes. This tissue box for Seventh Generation downplays the use of packaging to sell the product, but rather emphasizes the integrity of the product’s manufacturing process. Other pared-down samples utilized hand generated-typography, visuals lacking uniformity, recycled paper, low-saturation colors, broken typographic rules, outdated typefaces. (more…)

Back in February, amidst the feline army, I curled up to finally finish reading Lucienne Roberts’ book GOOD: An Introduction to Ethics in Graphic Design.” This is possibly the only book I have found and read that directly discusses ethics in Contemporary Graphic Design. Gathering a selection of opinions, from the likes of Ken Garland, Thomas Matthews, Deborah Szebeko, Sheila Levrant de Bretteville and Daniel Eatock, the book starts at the beginning of ‘Early Civilisation’ (p.21), and later discusses aspects of History, Philosophy (p.34), Law (p.44) and Politics (p.58). In conclusion the book presents a series of discussions with a collection of credible designers (p.113-192) - ultimately asking what it means to be a “good” designer. (more…)

Magazine covers usually aim to please. The idea seems to be that if a cover image offends as few people as possible, as many people as possible will buy the magazine. MOMA’s current exhibition of George Lois’s legendary Esquire covers proves the opposite to be true. Between 1962 and 1972, Lois’s provocative, opinionated, funny and sometimes even angry work boosted the magazine’s sales figures to hit record highs. The small but eloquent exhibition is a celebration of his vision. As in a strong, uncompromising vision imagined and executed by one person who was left alone by marketing departments and anxious editors. The covers are clean and simple graphically, often featuring a powerful photograph or photo montage against a white background. “There is no design,” said Lois, a sharp and ebullient 77-year-old native New Yorker, at the press viewing last week, “It’s the architecture of an idea.” (more…)

The concept of “green” typography may seem ridiculous to non-type-nerds and, yes OK, perhaps typography can’t conquer climate change, but it can certainly help communicate it! With these thoughts in mind, I thought it would be interesting to share some recent examples I’ve found of contemporary typography that truly redefine those terrifying visions of green (and tree-shaped) logos! (more…)

‘Synergy’ is one of those words I hate: a business buzzword that’s so ubiquitous as to be meaningless. Trouble is, the word pretty much describes what we try to do with HOW as a brand. Speakers at the HOW Design Conference write for the magazine or are sources for articles. Feature stories become conference sessions. Conference speakers author HOW Books and vice versa. (more…)

Judith Uzcategui’s banner design for the Baltimore Urban Forest project

Surprise is the most magical element of birthdays, holidays, and vacations. When asked what gift I might like for a special occasion, I usually say “surprise me,” to maintain the amusing belief that something unusual can happen. The experience of not knowing what to expect is just as welcome a gift as an object like a book, new sweater, or fancy dinner out. Indeed, one of my best birthday parties featured all my favorite people hiding behind the couch in my living room and screaming “surprise” as I opened the door. (more…)

When I was first asked to contribute a piece on design ethics to Notes, I wondered how I could credibly comment on such a complex and highly academic topic. Whilst sitting at the early stages of my creative career, I wondered how many of us really understand what it means to be a “good” designer, and asked myself, if and how, I am a “good” (socially-responsible) designer? (more…)