#Designmorality Process
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Spring 2020 Capstone Process Book Jordan Preston Turner
Table of contents Research
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Ethics & Religion, Ethics & Society, Ethics & Design Culture Keywords Touchstones, Takeaways, Ways to gather/test feedback The Hippocratic Oath
Planning
Prototypes Meeting with school club Pop-up Gallery Survey Data
Design
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Logo Giveaways (Buttons, Stickers, Wristbands) #Designmorality oath & Poster Exhibition ( Post-Covid)
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Before I got to #Designmorality, I started with 100 things I was passionate about, while shortened to the idea of morality and ethics. Morality is defined as the connection between what is right or wrong and good or bad behavior while Ethics is the study of what is right or wrong. Making further connections between morality and other topics that spoke to me, My original capstone idea was to explore how one’s upbringing and environment affects their morality. Later, I decided to connect my capstone to what I wanted to do in my career; Which is how I got to the Ethics of graphic design. My new topic and goal was to explore how our ethics affect our designs, and how our designs affect society.
Why Morality?
The reason I decided to explore this topic of designing morality is because that as designers (graphic, photography, filmography, fashion, etc.) what we design, designs us and the world around us. “The world is exactly as we designed it” - Mike Monterio (Ruined By Design) Morality has always been a big part of my life, the decisions I make everyday have an effect on my morality, so I decided to explore the idea of morality within design, as designers have the amazing ability to influence others to influence the world. “Design is a craft with responsibility. The responsibility to help create a better world for all” - Mike Monterio 4
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Ethics & Religion Ethics & Society Ethics & Design Culture
Ethics & Religion
• Religion has the biggest effect on one’s moral development, being a compendium of 3,000 years of social groups to stop killings • The relationship between religion and morality is very controversial • Does religion make us more moral? • Is it necessary for morality? • Do moral inclinations emerge independently of religious intuitions? Does one require the other?
Ethics & society
• Society has affected Moral development by essentially dictating what is good and what is bad behavior/action, down to the context of the action • For example, Murder is obviously deemed bad in society, but changing the context of murder to self-defense affects its standing. It’s still murder, but society treats self-defense as a good action, in comparison to murder • One thing that is wrong in our society, could be seen as right in another • Many people act depending on the environment they were raised in and what is acceptable in their society.
Ethics & Design culture
As I continue my career in design, ethics will be a major part of my career. I will have to be faced with constant decisions, such as clients, what my brand represents, and my goals, that will force me to wonder: • Is this ethical? • Will this align me with something that I’m not okay with? In my writing, I’ve always tried to center morality as the underlying topic, I place my characters in many quick time decisions that challenge their ethics and morality based on what they believe. Being forced to wonder whether or not what they did was good or bad, not in just their perspective, but everyone else’s. 6
Keywords
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Touchstones Takeaways Ways to gather/test feedback
Touchstones • • • • • •
Interactive word association Unethical Designer Vs. Ethical Designer Stories of designer’s that experience backlash from designs World with ethics? World without ethics? Coin toss game Hippocratic Oath for designers (Students and audience can sign as they pass through)
Takeaways • • • • •
How designers affect society Awareness of unintended consequences New outlook of self Knowledge of the power we hold as designers Our perspective vs others
Ways to gather/test feedback
• Question designers, professors, people of all ages about how they feel their morality is affected by certain factors • Create a survey to question how certain factors affected one’s ethics • Give situational questions • Range questions to see the difference in other’s thinking • Measure Impact of teaching people
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The Hippocratic Oath
What is the Hippocratic Oath?
• The hippocratic oath is an oath of ethics historically taken by physicians, created between the 5th and 3rd centuries BC. • It is one of the most widely known of Greek medical texts. In its original form, it requires a new physician to swear, by a number of healing gods, to uphold specific ethical standards. • It’s the earliest expression of medical ethics in the Western world, establishing several principles of medical ethics which remain of paramount significance today. These include the principles of medical confidentiality and non-maleficence.
Why the Hippocratic Oath?
One of the main connections I made during my research was between the hippocratic oath and morality. The hippocratic oath also served as my one of my inspirations for my capstone, which gave birth to the idea of a hippocratic oath, but instead of expressing medical principles, put emphasis on moral principles when pursuing design as a career.
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During the planning phase, I had to ask myself the following questions: • How would I go about this? • If I’m going to do an oath of moral principles for those in the design career, what would it say or detail? After compiling my research into my capstone pitch, I thought of three “How Might We...” questions that would have to be answered: • HMW abstain from designs that will have a negative impact? • HMW put emphasis on the importance of ethics within design • HMW inform others of the effects of our designs on society?
The meaning behind #designMorality
To answer these questions, I created #Designmorality, with the tagline being “a noun and call to action”.There are two different ways that I percieve my tagline. • We, as designers, are constantly designing morality in a sense • We have designed morality and it’s a constant action that we subconsciously take. The #DesignMorality oath answers these questions by providing a way for people to navigate through morality within design by adhering to a set of guidelines that promoted and put emphasis on moral principles within design culture.
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Prototypes
Idea #1: Social Media Challenge or Campaign (#DesignMorality)
• The Challenge would be to encourage people to follow the oath’s guidlines for a month to start off; Each day would be spent exploring a aspect to explore oath. At the end of month, we would challenge people to include the oath’s guidlines, message, and their experiences in their daily lives. • During the Campaign, I would promote the challenge to the entire school, working with AIGA to have it as an event under them; The center of the campaign being the oath. • Another aspect would be to include giveaways and other momentos of the campaign, such as tokens, stickers, wristbands, etc.
Idea #2: Certification test/Audience interpretation
• After people read the oath, they could look at different exemplars and decide which exemplars (different design projects, ads, photos, etc.) meet the oath’s “approval” for good moral design based on how they interpret the oath. • This prototype would put emphasis on personal interpretation while including mostly 2D elements.
Idea #3: Use past experiences as fuel to stay moral
• This prototype includes involving a series of Stories from designers that have experienced backlash, or have advice for tackling designs from a moral standpoint. • Throughout the series, there would be different ads, photos, designs, etc. as exemplars for why we have a need for an oath, primarily focusing on exemplars with a history of backlash and negative effect on society, race, etc. • The stories would’ve included the process of questioning actual professionals on their thoughts of the oath’s meaning and message, as well as questions about their personal experiences.
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Prototypes
After gathering feedback and discussing with professors, fellow students, and other classmates about each of my prototype ideas for presenting my topic of ethics within design, I decided the best course of action would be to merge aspects of my first and second idea. Which gave birth to the name #Designmorality, which was the actual hastag that I used on social media.
#Designmorality campaign and oath
• This prototype would put emphasis on personal interpretation while including mostly 2D elements. • Throughout the process, I planned on posting weekly updates on my social media while revealing more about my inpirations and process with each post. • This exhibit would focus on the oath, then question the audience’s own interpretation of what they had just read. • The reason I put so much importance on the audience’s personal interpretation is because everyone has their own views on what is right or wrong, and what it means to make good moral decisions. Which is why the oath would be written in a grey fashion, maintaining that the oath is here to encourage good moral decisions instead of demanding people to abide by the set of guidlines. Morality within design is like a maze, which is why your own interpretation is an important factor since everyone can view or navigate through a maze differently
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Meeting with school club
What did I do during
The purpose behind setting up this meeting with AIGA Stevenson was to test my progress at the time and to gather data on audience impact. • I spoke with the student members and officers about the purpose of the oath, putting emphasis that it’s not mandatory and meant to incorporate into their daily lives/careers, and compared bad moral designs to good moral designs. • I had also prepared a small activity for the end of our discussion to see how each member would interpret different exemplars. • The activity was a collection of many photos, ads, and designs, expressing either a good or bad moral message. The members took provided stickers to indicate which designs fit the oath’s approval, based on their own interpretation.
What did I take away from the experience
The main takaway from this meeting was that so far I was on the right track with my capston progress. Many of the members responded positively to my discussion and were able to make a personal connection with my topic. It also showed me that I should branch out to other design-related majors in order to get more diverse feedback, which prompted me to create another survey. 14
Pop-up Gallery
What did I do during
The purpose behind the pop-up gallery was to take all of our progress at the time and present this as a test for the actual capstone exhibit, gathering feedback from each other and other students. • By this time I had already prepared the logo, name, tagline, and potential giveaways for my capstone. I had also prepared a draft of the oath and a potential signage for the audience to write their signature in support of the oath, if they would incorporate it into their current/future careeers. • During the pop-up gallery I was given the chance to discuss my topic and project with alumni and students of varying majors, providing me with feedback on how their percieved it and what I could do differently.
What did I take away from the experience
This experience showed that even though I was on the right track, I was not close to the final product. Speaking with alumni taught me that although verbally I was able to get the message across, the capstone itself couldn’t portray the message alone. This prompted me to strengthen the draft in order to include all design-related majors and to include more with my exhibit in order for the audience to understand the topic and message without my verbal explanation. 15
Survey Data
The questions
• What is your major/industry? • On a scale of 1-10, do you believe eithics/morality is important in your industry? • What are ethical/moral problems that you might face in your industry? • What are some keywords that come to mind when keeping an oath/ promise to your industry? (Ex. your work, originality, designs, etc.) • Do you ignore your personal values when it comes to your major or industry’s work? (If you answered “yes”, explain why?)
Most seen answers/keywords • • • • • • • • • •
Stealing - //// Copyrights - // Offending groups of people/Discrimination/Racism/Stereotypes - ///// /// Behavior/treatment towards others - // Dishonest - // Representation/Representing cultures - // Honesty - /// Originality - ///// ///// Integrity - //// Creative - ////
Reasons why someone might ignore personal values
• “Sometimes a story has to be told in the most raw form possible, so although the content may be against my personal values, sometimes it is necessary to ignore them” • “I try not to ignore my values but sometimes you are put in a position that either way goes against you and you have to decide which is better” • “Sometimes I am feeling inexperienced within a certain topic, and therefore I go with the flow of what the industry needs without thinking of moral or ethical standpoints”
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Survey Data
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Logo
THe logo: What does it mean? What does it convey?
Initially the logo started out as just text, transitioning to a target. The target was to represent that #Designmorality was the goal the audience were encouraged to reach. #Designmorality is the end-goal for us in order to use our careers to influence and promote good moral decisions. Over time the logo changed again, from a target to a labyrinth. The meaning behind the choice of a labyrinth is to represent a person’s complicated journey to find an answer. When you think about how people try to remain moral in their careers, you’re trying to find the path to the center, which is #Designmorality; There’s a lot of dead-ends and varying paths, which represents how people may lose their way. 18
Giveaways (Buttons, Stickers, Wristbands)
1st Button design
2nd button design
Sticker Design
Wristband Design
Why did I choose these Giveaways? What do they represent? Just seeing and interpreting the oath didn’t feel as though it would be enough to leave an impact on people, I wanted my capstone to be something that the audience could carry with them, both literally and figuratively. Each of these giveaways were chosen based off data I gathered from social media questionairres and discussions I had with students, professors, and alumni from my university. These giveaways represent ways in which people keep promises or oath, and although you can’t carry a handshake around with you, you CAN carry something that represents a handshake. Apart from the stickers, the buttons and wristbands also include a message to “Remember to stay ethical” and “Remember to stay moral” as a reminder as well. 19
#DesignMorality oath
The oath
• I will only partner with organizations/clients whose morals and values do not support that of a moral high ground. I reserve my right to deny any work that does not fit the same morals or standards as I. • The hard work of designers is to be respected. I will treat the work of others with respect and rely on my own creativity and originality, just as they have. • As a designer, no matter the title, I am constantly influencing my audience with my work. I will use this ability to influence as a way to inspire and invigorate, not as a way to harm and belittle. • I will use my best judgment and ability when deciding to take on a client, and never take on the client solely for the purpose of self benefit or greed.If I am inexperienced within a certain topic, I will not simply “go with the flow”, I will instead do the necessary research required to effectively deliver the work needed. • I will not design, film, or photograph anything that could negatively affect the society or people around me. Most especially anything discriminating against politics, race, and religion.
The Design
• Keeping up with the look and feel of the my two chosen fonts, I set out to design a poster for the #Designmorality oath that would stand out from the tradition look of an oath. • I chose to include tears at the top and bottom of the page to give the poster more of an eye-catching the design. In order for the audience to feel as if I literally tore something off prior to the exhibit. • The design of the poster/oath is meant to give the oath it’s own voice, I wanted to stray from the traditional feel of an oath and portray it as what it is, different and a new way of looking at morality within design
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Poster
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Exhibition (Post-covid)
Trasitioning from a physical to an online exhibit
Prior to COVID-19, my capston exhibition was intended to put more focus on audience interpretation. So I altered it to show my research and process. After the stay at home order, my university decided to move the capstone exbit online; This change prompted me to tackle my topic from another angle. Although my previous plan included a collection of exemplars for audience interpretation, I altered the plan to inlcude a link to a survey that would have the audience decide which exemplars portrayed a good or bad moral design. My online exhibit consisted of the research and survey data I collected, mockups of the giveaways I had originally planned to give out during the exhibition, and my #Designmorality oath. I also included an introduction video to my topic, in order to explain why I chose this topic and to make up for not being face-to-face.
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