Design Ethics: Implications for Anthropology, Jen van der Meer

Designers make things. So do product developers, engineers, and supply chain managers. In terms of outcome, there is no separation between our thought process and our practice. We are evaluated by what comes off of the assembly line and what is adopted into the marketplace. We may borrow from the field of anthropology, or partner with talented anthropologists, but the big difference is that we know exactly when we stop observing, and we start making. When people in the design community started to become aware of the environmental and social impact of consumer culture, there was a debate. What should we do? Some of us felt tremendously guilty that we’d been involved in the making of fashionable televisions, disposable one-use toothbrushes, and smart phones designed to last for only two years. Changing the way we make things is not an easy task, especially since designers are not responsible for determining the business drivers, or regulatory requirements, of how things are made. The early founders of the Designers Accord acknowledged that designers do not have all of the power, but that we do have influence. The launch of the Designers Accord commitment was widely adopted as an oath, taken by over 300,000 members of the design community, a promise to learn, share, and a commitment to raise environmental and social impact questions and conversations each and every time we design. We will share the early foundations of the Designers Accord, and the mainstream media acceptance of a conscious design movement.