In Balkans we fight. We have fought for centuries and even when we don’t fight, we’re still fighting about something. Why? Well, because we change the channel when there’s some kissing involved.
Let me explain:
Growing up I loved watching movies with my family - my parents + my sisters. Say we were watching some PG-13 movie and there happened to be two horny people getting ready to kiss, the channel would flip to another station as if nothing happened. I used to think “We’re fucking missing the best part!”, but at 10 I didn’t have many communication skills developed to counterattack that incredible action of indecent move by my parents and their remote. Oh, let me think, we had no remote back then! Someone had to actually get up and do the walk-of-shame of changing the channel! Oh, the awkwardness! Oh My GOD!
On the flip-side, say there was a war scene, the channel was never flipped. As if it was OK to keep watching.
I’m not a sociologist or a demographics statistician, but somehow I have a sneaky suspicion that this happens all over the place and especially in the households of people I grew up around with. Now, if we were only to change this and watch people kissing and humping each other instead of fighting, Balkans would have been a much different place, no?
* * *
I’m always the black sheep of the crowd when it comes down to the ethics of design. I strongly believe that there should be some moral issues connected with each designer that make her or him a better professional.
One of the reasons I am writing this is because day-in and day-out I am faced with projects or concepts that are critical to some bigger issues and there should be some thought involved, rather than a simple click on the mouse and a “Save for Web” choice on Photoshop.
Let me be clear and give out some clear examples of what I’m driving at. Say a designer is faced with a client who owns a tobacco company and needs to redesign it’s packaging or a billboard for that matter. The job pays well - Maybe even too well to the point where it gives the designer some profit and three months worth of rent. Should the designer take this job? Someone may give a quick “YES!” with a shit-eating grin on their face while giving you the creeps out of their quick standard(less) opinion.
Why do I feel so strong about this? Well, we all know tobacco is harmful not just for the person who smokes it, but even worse for those around who don’t. The designer’s job is to make nice things that sell something. Someone may say — “That’s your job. You’re getting paid to do something” — “Yes!”— I say — “It’s all reasonable. But, you’re not selling your soul. You’re making a conscious choice where and you’re selling your expertise.” And to be quite frank and extremely honest — The Designer is Supposed to Make things Better — which includes considering the bigger picture.
OK. You like the money. You take the job. But, maybe just to make a compromise, give out a fair percentage from the profit to a non-profit organization who’s fighting through anti-smoking campaigns.
There’s another conundrum that I was discussing with a good friend. Say an architecture firm is hired to design a factory for a tobacco company. The bright side of the story is that this new factory will hire a good amount of people who will feed their families. The dark counter-side is that these people will produce a product that causes cancer and kills members of families that are in numbers higher that those it employs.
From time to time I am guilty myself for designing things that don’t quite complement my ethical or moral beliefs. But, my reasoning has always to do with “Oh, I was pushed into it” or “I couldn’t get out of it” or millions of other reasons that I am ashamed to admit. However, I call not just on myself, but on all designers, architects, producers and everyone else in between to be more conscious of the bigger picture and what matters the most at the end of the day.
Life is beautiful and we shouldn’t do anything that compromises that fact.
* * *
Even though I have much to rant about, instead I decided to start the first post on a positive note and hope that the rest of everything else will float on the same.
There are tons of things that happen during a regular day and I always tend to have an opinion that usually has to do with contemplating the solution. That’s at least what I’ve always been told in the Design School — “You are a problem solver!” — With a big exclamation mark attached to it. So I guess I am blessed with the curse to walk around and think of the possible solutions. Now as a designer you always think beyond design and sometimes bleed into other socio-economic areas of life. I don’t want to sound as a complete walking thinker, but it’s my heart to see things in a better light.
So, without going into philosophy and putting of my work-day I will say a big Hello to all escorted with an even bigger Hug with an invitation to use this space to rant, yell, and say whatever else with the intention to make everything else better.
* * *
