Chloé Jones Graphic and Media Design “Actionable ethical guidance is crucial if we are to translate our most optimistic ideals into the sort of behaviour that can satisfy our moral selves without compromising our ability to buy lunch” – Kelly Small (2020) I have always considered myself a political person who speaks up for what they believe in, acts in ways that aligns with their values, and uses morality to drive their choices. Yet when posed with the question, ‘Is your practice political?’ I couldn’t help but feel disappointed I couldn’t immediately answer yes. My goal for DPS was to gain professional experience to enhance my skills and confidence as a designer. My internship criteria was, is the position paid, do I like the work they produce, and do I feel that I could benefit from working alongside them? As an unemployed student living in London when I got offered a paid position, at a studio creating beautifully crafted work I didn’t hesitate in accepting it. Truthfully, I didn’t consider their political involvement as I wasn’t in a position to turn down employment. Luckily on this occasion my experience was invaluable, I worked alongside a group of friendly, likeminded, and empathetic people who enhanced my skills and understanding of professional design. Did the studio design politically driven work? No, it was a commercial design job, but did the job broaden my understanding of design, enhance my skills, and enable me to pay my bills? Yes. I began to question whether it is possible in an industry that centralises around capitalism and a world where the cost of living is forever rising, to make a living whilst staying 100% true to your beliefs? (Fig 1) After all I worked within a small studio full of compassionate designers, but I still couldn’t help feel a disconnect between my personal values and professional practice. This led me to read Kelly Small’s ‘The Conscious Creative: Practical Ethics for Purposeful Work’. The book was eye opening. It provided an actionable guide to implementing ethics within my practice whilst still acknowledging my need to earn money. Not only did it highlight small daily changes I could make to better align my professional and personal values, but it also made me realise that my practice was already political, in keeping with Jonathan Barnbrook’s view that ‘Design is at the heart of capitalism’ (2020) Small also acknowledges the role designers play within the system and the positive and negative side effects of that. Small releases the reader of the pressure to ‘solve everything’. They acknowledge the complexity of the systemic problems and instead encourages personal changes we can make to ‘action towards deeply collaboratively incremental change’. (Small, 2020, p.51) Small argues that to be a conscious creative one must be an active community member; they quote Lucienne Roberts’ book ‘Good: An introduction to Ethics in Graphic Design’ writing; ‘The first step towards trying to be ethical is being socially aware’. (Roberts, 2006, p65) This encouraged me to reflect upon myself and made me realise that by engaging with political and social issues within my personal life; reading up on ethical practice and not being afraid to be ‘that person’ who calls out problematic behaviours, I was subconsciously bringing my professional practice into a political space already.
Furthermore, during the ‘Economic Actions’ chapter Small encourages designers to advocate for living wage. They specifically acknowledge the outdated practice of unpaid internships; something I also feel strongly about. I believe that unpaid internships are exploitative, they diminish the value of young designers and that companies have a responsibility to compensate people fairly for their work, regardless of their seniority. This is something I have prioritised within my job search and actively pursued within my own practice. I have turned down positions at studios (particularly big studios who could and should be paying their workers) and instead worked at studios who value their employees and don’t agree with this exploitative and elitist behaviour. Small’s book enabled me to notice the small ways in which I was already aligning my work to my beliefs, but it also encouraged me to think about how I would like to further bring my ethical beliefs into my practical work. Another one of Small’s suggestions was to ‘Seek out companies with shared values’. I was keen to gain a variety of experiences during my year in industry to ensure a broad outlook on the industry, but so far had only worked at one place. I used Small’s teaching as a catalyst to identify what I wanted from my next position and researched more into companies values and beliefs. I am now about to start a new internship at a B-corp Studio, who have a strong political stance and I am excited to see how having my personal and professional values aligned impacts my practice. Overall, I believe that we must be compassionate and mindful of the role privilege plays within ethical practice. We live in a capitalistic world where people need money to survive. This means that we can’t always prioritise ethics over income, but we should be conscious of the practical, ethical steps we can take to best align to our values. Small states that ‘The ability to make socially and environmentally conscious decisions can be steeped in a privilege not universally shared’ (Small, 2020, p.36) I think this acknowledges the importance of balance and how as designers we must be aware of the impact our choices have, but also be understanding to our individual situations and our need to make a living. References: Bourton, L. 'Graphic design is political: Jonathan Barnbrook on how we can build a better industry', It's Nice That, 10/10/20 Available at: https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/jonathan-barnbrook-in-conversation-graphic-design-100920 (Accessed: 20/04/23). Small, k. (2020) The Conscious Creative: Practical Ethics for Purposeful Work. Edition. Toronto: Ambrosia.
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