“Design
for Good” is igniting design-driven social change. Graphic design is creating a
beautiful, smart, creative solution to attract interest, to advertise or to
educate. Many social causes would benefit greatly from smart graphic design
solutions to raise awareness about problems our world faces. Whether it’s
dedicating your career to activism through graphic design or participating in a
one-off poster competition, there is always an opportunity to use those
creative juices towards advocating for social change.
“Design for Good” is the term AIGA
has coined for what it calls “a movement to ignite, accelerate and amplify
design-driven social change.” The AIGA website features a list of resources to
direct designers to opportunities to get involved, either through the funding
of an idea they have or by attending a workshop to learn more.
I think a common misperception about social-change
design work is that you must work for a non-profit or do a lot of pro bono work
to be involved and that there’s not a lot of financial gain. This isn’t necessarily
true; if your full-time job is for a non-profit, you will be paid and, much
like graphic design, you don’t become involved in social-change work because
you think it is going to provide significant financial gain. Graphic designers chose our profession
because we are passionate about it. The same is true for design-drive social
change; you become involved because you are passionate about helping a cause
and being involved in something bigger than yourself.
I think it’s important for designers to know
there are opportunities out there to become involved with social change and
design for good while at the same time incorporating their charitable work into
their career goals. Graphic design is making the world a more beautiful place.
By marrying design and social change, we can make the world more physically
beautiful while advocating for important social causes.
I provided a few links for more information
about specific opportunities for anyone who is interested. The Poster against
Ebola is an example of a competition raising awareness for a social issue and
features work by our very own GAID professors. The last two links are Milton
Glaser’s rebrand of global warming and posters to support the victims of the
tsunami in Japan.
http://www.aiga.org/designforgood-get-involved/
http://www.howdesign.com/design-creativity/design-change/
http://postersagainstebola.com/
http://www.dezeen.com/2014/08/04/milton-glaser-its-not-warming-its-dying-climate-change-campaign/
http://theinspirationgrid.com/design-for-good-help-japan-posters/
Susanna –
ReplyDeleteGreat job encouraging fellow young designers to get involved with design for good. It’s important for creatives to use their skills to give back to the community, and it’s important for us to recognize when pro-bono work is appropriate and fair. I’ve got a few writing suggestions for you:
- First, I would rephrase a lot of this paragraph to make it flow better and present the ideas more clearly:
“I think a common misperception about social-change design work is that you must work for a non-profit or do a lot of pro bono work to be involved. (There is also a misconception) that (there is no) financial gain. (These ideas are not) necessarily true; (you may be hired full-time and earn a salary at a non-profit). You don’t become involved in social-change work because you think it is going to provide significant financial gain. (Much like non-profit workers,) graphic designers (choose) our profession because we are passionate about it.”
- “design-drive” should be “design-driven”
Finally, thanks for the great assortment of links – but make sure they are live so your readers can access them instantly.