23 February 2010
Working Against Ethics
Recently both Jeff and I were asked to contribute to an article in this month’s How Magazine about working on projects that conflict with your personal ethics. Although I was just ever-so-slightly misunderstood by the writer who summarized that my “primary motivation is making money”, says article, I was thrilled to contribute. Now do not get me wrong, I like many other business people am excited by a healthy margin, but for crying in the night it is not my motivation, let alone my “primary” one. If that were the case wouldn’t I be dealing in hedge funds or commodities or something like that? But hell, how often do you get asked to contribute to such a great magazine, and maybe even more valuable to me, I now get to complain about being misrepresented (the italics represent a sort of douche bag tone in my voice). So that’s something too.
Thankfully for the internet I have the luxury of publishing what was sent to them as my true views on the subject, and thankfully for my not-so-very-prolific-blogging-career, I have an article “in the can”. So here goes:
Quite simply put, it is the designer’s job to visually convey the message they are hired to deliver. A lot goes into doing that well, and being diametrically opposed to a project’s purpose definitely would not help. So then even if a designer did try to set their personal beliefs aside in the spirit of “gettin’ the job done,” at what point does that become irresponsible and a disservice to the paying party? No matter how much you loath the purpose, to me that plain disservice becomes its own isolated case of ‘wrong’ as a business value.
To me I think a number of things go into considering an assignment, and certainly personal morals and values are not the least of which that would play a part of that filter. Obviously the more typical filters for me as the CEO are, will it enhance our brand, is it financially responsible, will it burn out the team, do we like the idea, etc…Normally the project’s nature is much more innocuous then offensive to any set of morals. You know, selling a backpack, an mp3 player, a piece of software, and so on.
Being of the more independent mind set, I would provoke any designer, or anyone else for that matter, to simply turn down what they want to turn down for opposing any personal moral or value. Certainly freelancers have that liberty, and as an employer I give my team that same liberty. Now sometimes we disagree on whether a project is good for the company, and we listen to those opinions as well.
Earlier on in our history we did get approached to do a couple projects that did in fact oppose my personal beliefs. I think I’d prefer to not get into the nitty gritty as to what and why, but they started somewhat harmless. We took the projects, and as they progressed through development, the projects became more and more opposing. At first I simply personally backed-off from offering my help. One of which we finished, although I would argue not our best project ever (serving my earlier point), and the other we resigned. From those experiences I know now to stay away from projects I do not believe in. But again, that encompasses much more then morals and values these days.
2009 had been a challenging year for all of us. And in a year that I would of expected to take any paying project, we have turned down more then we ever have. That does not mean every project is a party, but it does mean to choose whether or not to accept it through some sort of filter that you (either as an independent or agency) have defined so that you, your team, your portfolio, or your bottom line is served, and then in turn the client is best served.
Comments
This is an odd question, but you people seem down with odd: I only have ever met one person who used the phrase “aw for crying in the night” so I must ask if Ryan grew up near Modesto or Ceres and got the phrase from his grandfather who dropped the motor off his fishing boat in the middle of a lake…I also have employment curiousity but this issue is more pressing, let me know!
Smiles, Sandra Wheeler Abeyta
Communication Professor for Los Rios Community College District and TC for The National Writing Project
(916)799-7930
This is a very interesting article and a subject in general I’m pleased to see written about. I am a freelance graphic designer and over the last few years have become quite a hardcore environmentalist. I can personally list many, many documentaries that I’ve watched which have helped to shape my world view, with the biggest issues being global warming and sustainability. This can certainly introduce a high level of conflict when you’re seeing a designer promote their 700 gsm business cards, when I’m aware that these then required a whole heap more resources than a card a third of the thickness! Sure, it looks chunky, tactile and individual, but does it serve a greater good? If you’re ethically minded about this sort of thing, then I suppose as a designer one is in a great situation to insist on promoting recycled paper, soya / water-based inks and so on. http://www.designcanchange.org is a great site highlighting responsibilities we have within our roles. I personally do like to work for companies that seem to be responsible about how they do business, as in sustainable practice. I was approached for a website – the company imports huge amounts of seafood into the country – and grilled the potential client over the issue of corporate sustainability (our oceans are in a huge mess). We discussed these issues for over an hour and it seemed that measure we being put in place to ensure these issues were to be addressed in the short-term. I can only trust that he was honest in this regard! However, I was more than willing to pass this project on (as much as I need the money) if I felt they were (a) lying, or (b) or didn’t know what on earth I was talking about! At the end of the day, I do take a highly idealist approach to my role not just as a designer, but as an individual on planet earth, and like to ultimately work with those who are aware of issues other than pure profit. It’s ironically this approach, that of ‘profit over planet’ that has things in such as mess.
nice work by the way, you guys rock!