Study Task 2: Ethical Graphic Design

In todays session the main focus was to discuss different perspectives on how Ethics impact the practice of Graphic Design. We discussed some different points in small groups and documented this through mind maps;

We were then set the homework task to write a short piece of writing (250 words) exploring articles and essays by designers - 'they read like personal opinion but you will still apply academic conventions - writing in the third person and paraphrasing'. The main article that I focused on for my 250 words was 'The Only Way is Ethics' by Tim Abrahams, the article was featured on its nice that. I chose to focus on this one as I felt I could relate to it and understand it better than the other articles that were listed.

My 250 words:

Ethics have a huge impact towards Graphic Design, the same as with any professional job. However, even though ethics do play a part in everyone’s job, it doesn’t have as much as an impact on a designers career than it would for a doctor, for example . ‘To a doctor, ethics are about keeping a patient alive.’ (Abrahams, 2016) whereas, for a Graphic designer an example of an ethic could be about being politically correct and non-offensive towards the audience.

However, catering to every single persons needs is a struggle that every Graphic designer will experience when considering ethics, as every single person has a different opinion than yourself; ‘What does the client do? Is this ethically acceptable or not? Indeed, is this politically acceptable or not?’ (Abrahams, 2016) Additionally, ethics can vary in terms of importance, according to the specific target audience for the particular brief.

For example, a brief aimed at children would be designed in a way that would be easy to understand and simple in terms of context and content. This would mean that the ethics wouldn’t play a huge part, as a brief aimed at children obviously wouldn’t mention areas such as politics or possible discrimination; the design aesthetic, concept and context would be catered to the child’s needs.

However, sometimes Graphic designers do choose to create political material purposely as it can allow the designer to be expressive, being opinionated isn’t necessarily always a bad thing. This could also help to designer to put themselves out there more, especially a young graphic designer.