Sustainable Graphic Designers
This article hitches a ride on Steph P’s post on our class blog called Green Graffiti [read it! it's brilliant].
It seems everyone’s trying to “go green” these days.
From world renowned car companies and their electric cars to local (Toronto) niche-focused baby apparel and toy stores, it’s one of those popular feel-good trends that just makes sense.
You may wonder why everyone is so concerned with saving the planet, when the whole idea of climate change is still under high speculation? Well,… the questions we should be asking are:
Why should anyone be so destructively wasteful?
Who wants to work with greedy, thoughtless people/organizations?
Couldn’t people have been a little bit more clever and resourceful?
Haven’t we truly learned from our mistakes? (plug from Christine S’s post on our class blog called Try.Fail.Learn.Repeat)
But lastly, in terms of my fellow classmates and colleagues (and the reason for this post):
How can graphic designers really make a difference anyhow?
If one thinks about it, graphic design (largely in the print industry) tends to be quite a wasteful practice, for example:
- printing mass amounts of paper product
- excessive packaging for safe transportation of products
- volatile inks & glues
- non-biodegradable signage
Fortunately, there’s a starting list to think about when planning for your design:
1. Question the client about their need for obviously non-sustainable collateral.
There’s no reason why your client should be wasteful, it is YOUR choice to NOT do business with organizations that aren’t sustainability focused.
2. Inform the client about sustainability
Clients always want to hear how to improve their image and meanwhile save money at the same time. Offer them choices that do both – customers these days are starting to choose green businesses to shop from and deal with.
3. Research alternative green solutions that offer the same value
When it comes to paper promotions or billboard advertisements, there’s always a greener way to get the job done. Hint: you can’t avoid the internet any longer, find a way to “go viral” without the infecting the public market with physical waste.
4. Reducing the amount of materials required for production
This works for all stages of print collateral: ask printing houses if they have any die’s left over for reuse from past projects, try to pear down what elements that make up the collateral in the first place and see if you can do away with some of it altogether – you’d be surprised what we really don’t need!
5. Using paper and materials made with recycled, post-consumer waste
This stuff has just as much quality as their counterparts. You can also create a brand around an entirely eco-friendly look that is sustainable, and looks it too!
6. Printing with low-volatile organic compound inks and glues
Do you ever wonder why books and magazines smell nauseating when you open them for the first time? Well there’s a reason, and it’s due to the compounds used in the inks and glues. When contacting the printing company to print collateral for your client, make sure to ask for green inks and glues and anything that is completely biodegradable.
7. What production methods require the least amount of transportation
If you have international clients, it’s your job to build a referral network of resources around their geo-location. This is apart of your research services when producing your solutions for your client, and it also shows the client how dedicated and interested you are in their product or service.
8. Which vendors use renewable energy
If your business client has an office (which almost everyone does), try suggesting to them to save some money and sign up with an electricity program like Bullfrog Power and help offset carbon emissions. Do they travel a lot? Suggest teleconferencing.
9. If the product can fulfill more than one purpose
This one should actually say “more than three purposes”, then you’re really doing your job to make things as useful as possible. Can you find five everyday practical uses for a business card?
10. If the end-product is biodegradable or recyclable
Stay away from poly-plastics and vinyls unless they are supported by most popular recycle programs (ie. CANADA, US).
11. If the end-product can be replaced by a digital, rather than printed, format
This one’s simple: paperless is in style!
12. Just-in-time production to reduce number of units produced and warehoused
You’d be surprised at how much money it costs to keep things in storage, at the right temperature, at the right moisture level so they don’t lose their quality. “Fresh is best” never meant so much!
13. Which vendors sell products certified by third party NGOs
Let’s face it, the government is about as corrupt as any commercial organization. The only difference is that they are the largest corporation you’ll come up against – try dealing with smaller corporations, they’ll likely be more akin to being green-centric.
This is a shortlist, but please if you have more solutions or want to elaborate on the above, by all means, let’s hear it!
