Green Issues In Design: Chapter I

                                                                                                          6

Chapter I.

Design Responsibilities

"By design, then, we do not mean a drawing made in his studio by the designer-a design for something-but rather the thing itself but with that drawing, the preceding idea of the thing and the succeeding process of manufacturer all implicit" Antony Bertram, Design in Everyday things: The BBC(1937). (Neil Maycroft(2018)University Lincoln handout sheet course MA Design)

While researching design responsible companies who have similar believes in eco conscious philosophy I discovered Patagonia who include Environmental issues within their design parameters. 

Patagonia insight : The outdoor clothing company and climbing gear founder Yvon Chouinard is a good example of how a business can consider an ethical business strategy. It turns over currently $230 Million and is known as one of the most environmentally responsible corporations on the Planet. 

In his own words "I realized that our crisis was a microcosm of what was going on all over the world. The world watch institute's state of the world report for that year 1991,stated "With annual output of 20 trillion, the global economy now produces in 17 days what took an entire year to generate in 1900"."Already,economic activity has breached numerous local, regional and global thresholds resulting in the spread of deserts, acidification of lakes and forests and the build up of green house gases. If growth proceeds along this line of recent decades it is only a matter of time before global systems collapse under pressure" ( Chouinard, Y(2006.)from Patogonia Inc founder and owner over  three decades ago ring true within today's climate changing world. One other interesting part of Patogonia is there investments in environmental grass roots conservationist activities(donating $22 trillion to environmental foundations since 1985).

Shopping the Eco Way. It is accurate to suggest that everything we purchase,own thats made will have an environmental impact , therefore one has to ask the question whether you are producers or consumers. Is this purchase necessary? Have I already got this? How can I impact less on the environment? If I am buying something how long will it last? How will I recycle it? when it wears  out or breaks.

Design Philosophy incorporating  ecology based issues can be used whenever a new design is being concepted, thought through and produced, they are guidelines and include updating and developing new strategies to improve eco conscious values of each product.

Including environmental ethics within a design manifesto is a useful design process to go through to encourage a symmetry of ethics which builds a design profile for each design creating a symbiosis  of choices to create cohesion for each design or range for each season.

The following design values and philosophy was developed for Patagonia inc and presented to the board by Jerry Mander (a member of the board of directors in 1991 an author and deep ecologist)

"Our Values: We begin with the premise that all life on Earth is facing a critical time, during which survivability will be the issue that increasingly dominates public concern. 

( Appendix IV.A full explanation)

Inspiration came from the mountains in Patagonia name

Early Patagonia Inc Smithy work

    

        Cultural and Social Philosophy

While researching traditional textiles and anthropology I have noticed how traditional cultures like to practice environmental sustaining practices within their environment for future seasons and for the future of their culture, i.e native American Indians, Inuit's ,Amazonian tribes and many more native cultures of the world. Unfortunately western society has not kept to these traditions and since the industrial revolution has been polluting the world. Because of this some designers and manufacturers have built in their own ethical philosophy.

The philosophy stated in appendix IV was created by Patagonia Inc to help build a brand and keep to their original outdoor ethical approach to life style choices that limits their carbon footprints as much as possible. 

The David Attenborough Effect

The new phrase which is moving through the media is "the Attenborough effect" since his most recent documentary series blue planet showing the devastation that plastic waste in our oceans is having on our wild life through societies views and reactions to his documentaries. This series has helped people to make better choices when purchasing products, re thinking their views on sustainability and environmentalism. The episodes showed a mother whale carrying her dead baby around for days(killed through plastic waste being consumed by the mother whale and it's effect on her milk production) baby birds eating plastic waste, coastlines full of pollution. Their are numerous action groups that have joining pages on the internet encouraging people to protect our oceans and prevent plastic waste.

A recent report by GlobalWebIndex shows that 53% of people surveyed in the US and UK have reduced their single use plastic over the last 12 months.

"Over the past year, the fight against plastic pollution has gained momentum around the world. More than 60 countries have taken action to restrict plastic production and consumption, major multinational companies have invested in alternatives, and ordinary people have spearheaded ocean clean-ups. And now the movement he helped to grow is driving fundamental change at legislative level. The UK government is currently consulting with plastic experts to develop polices to improve recycling rates and reduce plastic production, according to Geoff Brighty, the technical director of plastic Oceans. " It is has really crystallised in the government's mind that the public consciousness has moved to a place where we don't want it to affect our ecosystems,Brightly said"(GlobalCitizen.org by Joe McCarthy and Erica Sanchez .accessed 28/07/19). Appendix XV and Appendix XVII include market research on new emerging design innovations and predicted design future concepts.

Traditional collage was adapted using photoshop negative positive effect to use within tote bag lining. The pattern represents carbon footprints and the desire to save our environment.(my daughters foot print taken when she was a baby)

Hand made collage to create pattern repeat. I have since learnt how to pattern repeat using photoshop applications, however to gain initial concepts I still use my sketch book cut and glue to gain inspiration initially.

                                      Plastic Waste

Initial hand printing using old cast iron printing alphabet pieces used in old printing presses. Developed into a screen print to use as a slogan on the back of tote bags to encourage consumers to use less single use plastics.

There are a number of key debates occurring within our government including a white paper on the fashion industry and it's key effects on wastage and recycling of which can be read in full via the link Fashion and sustainability.

(https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmenvaud/2311/231102.htm)

Fashion & sustainability

Recommendation 1

1.We want to see a thriving fashion industry in the UK that provides decent work, inspires creativity and contributes to the economic success of the UK. The fashion industry’s current business model is unsustainable, especially with growing populations and rising levels of consumption across the globe. Over-consumption and climate change are driving widespread environmental damage. The exploitative and linear business model for fashion must change. The various parts of the fashion industry must come together to set out their blueprint for a net zero emissions world. This will require reducing their carbon consumption back to 1990 levels. Given scientists’ stark warnings on climate change and biodiversity loss, we need to fix fashion. (Paragraph 22).(Appendix VI:Fashion and Sustainability white paper:Houses of parliament whitepaperUK)

One of the key pointers in todays society within global issues concerning product design is the plastic waste situation that is currently occurring at this moment and also the problem of all the plastic that has ever been produced is still on the planet, taking hundreds of years to decompose if ever!

 The pollution of our planets eco system and the fact that plastic can be found in every part of our oceans entering our food change and effecting climate change through the erosion of our natural habitat.Via the sequential removal of oxygenated plants and animals to effect draw down processes removing the reduction of carbon dioxide and other harmful gases.Appendix IX contains a scientific paper on Marine Plastic pollution and current and future trends on plastic pollution in our rivers and oceans across the globe.

One of the key factors that scientists have recognised is the ever increasing rubbish dumps within key areas of our oceans. The Great Pacific Garbage dump, it's current size as big as Alaska or France.

   Below is a short clip showing and describing the Great Pacific Garbage Dump

We are all adding to this huge garbage patch everyday when we use non biodegradable materials when we purchase or create through design processes and manufacturing.

Using compostable resources, materials within design links will reduce plastic waste which is reaching our oceans every day and destroying our wildlife and its habitats. Drawing down natural oxygen levels which in turn increases global warming instead of decreasing it.

Previous history of our human desires for fast fashion, lifestyle choices have informed us and given our understanding of how the needs of humans have directly influenced the eco system of our planet. i.e. the industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th century.

One point in question is embedded within my own birth place and that is how the river Mersey was polluted within this the beginnings of the industrial revolution up to present day. 

Recent scientific studies have named the Mersey Estuary the "most polluted" with micro plastics than any other river in the uk and has more micro plastics than the Great `pacific Garbage Patch.

While researching evidence in regard to the question climate change how do we know? I have emailed a number of environmental agencies including Greenpeace and a number of other campaign and charity based organisations(Appendix XVI).One of which was the marine conservation society. The question I asked was if they had any information on the correlation between plastic pollution and climate change. They have informed me that they have a lot of data on pollution and litter, however they didn't hold information on climate change. They did however give me a website that informs and gives evidence on a scientific level (http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/accessed 14.08.19.6.00pm) This online site has numerous amounts of information on climate change and gives evidence on humans involvement through pollutant's for why the planet is in a current climate change process. 

(HTTP://climate.nasa.gov/evidence.accessed 14.08.19.6.00pm)

This graph shows the depletion of icebergs since 1986, showing scale of ice in 2019. (https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence.accessed Aug2019)

Design Processes

" All that we do, almost all the time is design, for design is basic to all humanity. The planning of any act towards a desire, foreseeable end constitutes the design process" (Papanek.V 1972).

"Papanek was a designer and educator and advocate of social responsibility design"(definitions of design.Neil Maycroft.University Lincoln resources) Designing processes have a number of different starting points and end processes in order for design to reach its full potential.If a designer doesn't process through each task effectively it could spell the end design failing to reach it's full potential level. Missing out key points, for example not spending enough time researching can create a design that lacks depth. Researching gives a design meaning and interpretation which is key within design developments. 

Stages of thinking within design developments

Walking in the landscape taking photographs of nature is one of the first stages of my inspirational journey, hunting and gathering and looking at the textures and shapes of natural forms.

Kirklington :Countryside near my home

Hidden lake, Kirklington,Notts

Reflections within the landscape inspired me to create repeat pattern using mirroring effects.
Chestnuts collected :Hunting and gathering.

Cornfield near Kirklington Village.

Cornfields reminded me of repeat pattern effects of which I utilized the photoshop repeat pattern digital format.

Close up of Cornfield.

Repeat pattern corn laying in different directions making a print none one way up for fabric design.

Cracked earth in a field symbolic of climate change.

Thistles in the landscape.

Design is a process that turns a brief or requirement into a finished product or design solution. This design process can be said to comprise of seven stages define, research, ideate, prototype, select, implement and learn.

Working out the design brief is critical for each design process to have meaning, if the brief is weak and without definition and meaning or without a key end user. It can be difficult to create something with little or no attribute  or meaning. The design brief can be created by the designer for their clientele as a commission type of design brief or for the designer themselves to create with clients in mind. Researching is key to find a direction, looking within key trends and linking your ideas with current market research is also important. I use Pinterest to create different research criteria's and built up a visual library to access to help me with my design processes.Appendix XIII has some examples of Pinterest pages I created. I have also archived some sketch book mood board/storyboard concepts created by hand that serve to create a mood and direction for a new project collection or one off design concept.

The beginning's of personal ownership of objects of desire.

The significance of humans nature's desire to own objects of desire is rooted in the first stages of our need to be nurtured, the teddy bear and the comfort blanket given to a baby and young children is known in psychology as the transitional objects phase. "The phase was first coined in 1951 by D.W.Winnicott as a designation for any material to which an infant attributes a special value and by means of which the child is able to make necessary shift from the earliest oral relationship with mother to genuine objects-relationships. "Traditionalist objects are self-chosen-a child's first not-me possession"-like a blanket, teddy bear, pacifier, doll. The reliance on such objects is rooted in sensorial elements that lessen the stress of separation, while they sooth and comfort the child" (psychologytoday.com: more than just a teddy bear by Colleen Goddard.accessed July 2019) 

In later life humans continue to find comfort in belongings of various types throughout their adulthood. If you choose to be a designer areas of childhood influences can include these early objects as a source of adult inspiration. While on my MA Design journey I chose to spend time within retrospectives of my previous career. I found myself evaluating my childhood transitional objects as a key source to my early inspirations. My inspirations are represented by my grandmothers knitting for my teddy bear and also she was the person who originally taught me to knit which became my career for 20 years.

Hand me down transitional object from my brother.

image to the right:Teddy (a hand me down from my brother)early childhood transitional object, wearing knitted cardigan that my grandma made)

Early 60's Steiff Teddy Bear

Original Steiff teddy blonde version de stuffed via curiosity 1960’s. I still have an affinity to vintage teddy bears and have a collection of teddy bear vintage postcards that I still use for inspiration.

John Paul Gautier's childhood transitional object:Teddy bear

John Paul Gautier's Corset Design

John Paul Gautiers famous cone corset inspired via his transition childhood object.
As it is pointed out within the following text "Psychoanalyst Mervin Glasser(1979) proposes a concept he termed 'core complex' to describe the dynamics of the psychological relationship between self and it's object within the early years of pre-Oedipal life. Describing the psychic metabolization of aggressive instinct into mechanisms of ego defences of control, Glasser posits the primary relation as one of calibrating space, distance, proximity and control. This intrapsychic relation of early infancy is played out reactivated with external objects, such as in relations of making and other forms of creativity. For Melanie Klien (1910) the need to find a symbolic equivalence between internal object and its signifier is a need to make reparation for anxieties of destruction. The first relation to an object is so infused with violent appetites and fantasies that the self protects and defends against fear of annihilation by means of making equivalent objects. The aggression that is at the root of creativity in the making of artifacts is also noted by anthropologist Alfred Gell (1998).The violence that is the mainspring of ontology of the artefact and the praxis of making is often overlooked or neglected in favour of utilitarian, romantic or idealizing conceptualizations of the maker.
Glasser and Klein worked with different theories of mind, and especially different theories of instinct. For Glasser the ethological concept of aggressive and sadistic instinct is significant. However the two psychoanalysts have in common the understanding that all ego structure is developed through the use of its first object relationship, and that this sets a template for the qualities of the representational world, or 'internal objects', an 'inner world' that continues to activate meaning throughout later life.
Psychoanalysts and anthropologists often interpret artefacts as if they were a dream-like structure of symbolic production.The knowledge of making can, therefore, be unavailable to makers themselves, and this sense of being at the mercy of spontaneous ability or response is often projected as representing the artist at the mercy of a muse, or the shaman as conduit for deities and supernatural powers."(Wood Conroy.D, Clark, H. 2018:p82)

Keeping artefacts that we have cherished and nurtured previously links to our need for our favourite things. Whether they are worn out, weathered or torn, this ideology across personal effects is how many of us encourage and respect the need to conserve and waste less. Owning personal effects for as long as possible(if its not broke don’t change it) removes the need to be over materialistic.Without egotistic requirements for status symbol artefacts would in effect reduce climate change through less product production and consequentially less waste.