I had an epiphany years ago about what it means to “be productive.”
“Productivity” is defined in economic terms as the “amount of output created (in terms of goods produced or services rendered) per unit input used.” [1] Input, in the case of design, is a mixture of the physical materials involved in the creation of design artifacts, and the non tangible energy and ingenuity involved in the design process. In the case of my own design practice, I sincerely hope that the output I generate ultimately has value.
Saying that, of course, summons the incredibly complex, sprawling, and seemingly unanswerable debate about the nature of value itself. What is value? Who decides what has it and what does not? Do values evolve?
However unanswerable the debate may seem, it comforts me to know that there are a group of designers in Vancouver tackling the issue head on.
The folks over at smashLAB have launched Design Can Change:
“Design Can Change is simple. It works on the belief that our industry can make positive change by working together. Use [this website] as a starting point to help bring our community together to encourage sustainable practices.”
Using the problem of global warming as the central theme, Design Can Change attempts to rally together a group of problem-solvers who are “so close to the issue that they are uniquely positioned to make a difference.” You, reader, are that individual.
Design Can Change encourages you to learn as much about the topic of sustainability as you can, and to adopt sustainability as a core value in your own practice. Like Ken Garland who put forth the First Things First manifesto in 1964, and Adbusters magazine who renewed his sentiment 35 years later in 1999, Design Can Change invites you to commit to positive change today by taking the Design Can Change pledge.
The epiphany I mentioned having had at the beginning of this post is as follows. Values can conflict, and those conflicts are complex. The same things which are of great business value to a client (profit, growth, market share) may be of negative value to groups external to that business (environmental degradation, increased energy/resource demand, monopoly). It’s only when you start to look at the sum total, or aggregate effect of your actions that you can say with any conviction: “I create value.”
Years ago I started to take a cold hard look at my work and to ask myself: “for whom are you generating value, ultimately?”
How about you; who do you work for?
April 10th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
This is a wonderful locally generated initiative! I do hope that more and more design communities catch on and spread the value of locally grown talent and suppliers.