Print Design And Environmental Responsibility

Print design and environmental responsibility

 

Design decisions are among the most critical issues in determining the external impacts of a product, service or communication over its entire life cycle. Designers, in pursuit of appropriate responses to client needs, have ethical responsibilities to provide work that minimizes adverse (i.e., unreasonable or inappropriate) consequences, creates value, and engenders positive results.

 

The highest and best use of a designer’s special talents is creativity and skill in addressing a client’s communication needs while balancing the economic, social and environmental consequences of his or her design recommendations. Designers, along with those in many other professions, have an obligation to “do no harm.” In pursuit of this goal designers, in serving clients, stakeholders and the public, can create special value and play a crucial role in supporting the requirements of business to be environmentally and socially responsible.

 

While there are comparatively few negative environmental effects directly and procurement of print, design decisions made in the initial stages of a product life cycle, even when the product is a communication strategy, predetermine many of the waste streams and environmental damages associated with printed matter. Whether your design decisions are governed by the inspiration of a muse, the rational arguments of business logic, or some combination of the two, this guide should help you see more clearly a path toward responsible design for print.