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On Ethical Design
Embedding ethics meaningfully
into moral scripts
for a socially responsible style,
which addresses sustainability
through a new visual language.
Max Bruinsma
Glossary of central terms
[ > Deutsche Version]
Embed / embedding
Everything is embedded in something else. Design is not just about finding a form, but above all about embedding the object to be designed in an environment of use and meaning.
Ethics / ethical
Design is never neutral; the function and form of an object reflect an ethic that governs both. Designers who do not take into account that products elicit certain actions, i.e., convey ethics, are acting immorally. (Peter Paul Verbeek)
Meaning
In addition to function and form, products have meaning. “Meaning,” in the context of design, is always both passive (the meaning inherent in the product) and active (the meaning that users assign to the product). The user, as a passive recipient and active ‘interpreter’ of the product, is always also a co-creator of the product, on the one hand as a performer of the moral script embedded in the product, and on the other hand as a user of the space for interpretation that the product (ideally) opens up.
Moral script
Embedded in the product, through its design, is a program that runs as soon as it is used. This program reflects the attitude of the designer and their client towards the world and conveys it to the users.
Society / social
‘Users’, like ‘consumers’, are part of society. This means that they have more in common than just their functional needs and purchasing power. A society is built on shared and internalized values—on ethics. The product, its users, and society are in a dynamic relationship of mutual influence. Designing for society therefore means designing as, for, and with fellow citizens.
Style / De Stijl
Style is much more than just surface. Fundamentally, style is worldview. This is what the artists and designers of the “Stijl” group meant: their visual language was an expression of a distinct worldview. Every designed form expresses something about how the designer sees the world. An expressionless form is a form of nihilism.
Sustainability
One of the central ideas of today's ethics is that we must actively protect the earth, its raw materials, fruits, and inhabitants. It would therefore be appropriate to develop a specific design language for this basic idea, one that not only functions decoratively as a style, but also makes an ethically clear statement about sustainable production and use in the truest sense of “form follows function”—or perhaps better: “form = function.”
Visual language
Like any language, visual language is a structured expression of the speaker's feelings. And, as with any language, visual language also functions via a system known to many “speakers” — its own grammar and syntax. Developing a design language therefore means systematically developing hierarchically ordered elements: colors, forms, materials, design principles, etc. In our case, the language has an extended goal: to form a language for a specific discourse. This makes the new design language both a “jargon” and a “style” — a specific way of expressing something, a structured way of talking about specific content.
This text was a hand-out for students during a lecture and discussion on the ethics of design, and the need for a specific visual language for 'sustainable design'
ZHdK, Fragestunde, Zurich, 5 April 2016
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