Professional Practice and Engagement - Week 7

What does sustainability mean in context of Graphic Design? 

Sustainability in Graphic Design context is to care for the earth and living thing on earth when design. Designer should try to reduce the impacts to the environment when do the design works, or create some design that could help the world to become a better place.

............................................................................................................................

What is 'cradle to cradle' design and how can you see this applied in the Graphic Design industry?

“Cradle to Cradle” thinking posits that intelligent design can eliminate the concept of waste. Cradle to Cradle design refers to a production process where products are developed for closed-loop systems in which every output ingredient is safe and beneficial. The concept was developed by William McDonough and Michael Braungart.

Reference: http://www.bcorporation.net/sites/default/files/documents/portal/BCorp_Cradle_to_Cradle_Design_and_Production.pdf

Sustainable design seeks to reduce negative impacts on the environment. Graphic designers might apply the concept in Graphic Design industry by reducing resource use through the design process. Graphic designer could use eco-friendly material such as recycling paper for our publication design or a packaging design. Also, we could create something.., for example, How2Recycle Label, a standardized on-package labeling system that clearly communicates recycling instructions to the public.

You can see more examples at http://www.greenblue.org/
(GreenBlue is a nonprofit institute that stimulates the creative redesign of industry by focusing the expertise of professional communities to create practical solutions, resources, and opportunities for implementing sustainability.)

............................................................................................................................

There are many things that a Graphic Designer can do in their practice to decrease their impact on the environment. 

For example,

- Use eco-friendly or paper and materials made with recycled, post-consumer waste for the design piece, e.g. design a publication using recycle paper.

- Use low VOC ink for printing materials

- Choose a recycle material, such as glass, for Packaging Design.

- Create a good, clear, and interesting infographics about our environment to inform people.

- Help to create an non-profit effective ads for earth.

............................................................................................................................

In the 'Creative Gallery on Sustainable Communications '- what ad has the most impact for you and why?

The most impact ads for me is "Graph" For WWF.

It impacts because it's really easy to understand. The way they use the pattern of the tiger to play with the graph is very smart. When I first see the picture, I can guess that it's something about tiger. When I look closer in the bigger image, my expression is like "Wow!". The way they put the information is very minimal, but can understand right away that in present, the number of tiger is decreasing.

See the ads at http://www.unep.fr/scp/communications/ad/list.asp?cat=all

Professional Practice and Engagement - Week 6

This week is about Design and Ethics..

Free pitching is a predatory pricing. It is the practice that every designer should take responsibilities to other designers. According to AGDA, designers must not knowingly accept a commission to work on the project which there is an existing designer without informing them. If not, it could damage the industry as a whole, no one will respect each other and the others works. The clients might push the budget down and designer's design will be stolen easily.

It is important to have a code of ethics, so it is a 'Fairplay'. Code of ethics intended to provide protection for both designers and clients from unethical business practices and the havoc that can be caused by unwitting ignorance. Most probably, everyone will have less chance to cheat and steal others' ideas.

To be a designer, it is good to know different measures to protect our creative output.

Design registration is when the visual appearance of visual appearance is protect, not the way it works.

A patent protects how an invention works or function.

A trademark identifies the particular goods or services of a trader as distinct from those of others. It protects logos, words letters, number, colors, a phrase, sound, scent, shape, picture, aspect of packaging or any combination of them.

Copyright is when the owner's original expression of ideas is protected but not the ideas themselves. It can protects drawing, art, literature, music, film, broadcast, or computer program.

Copyright protection lasts throughout the life of the creator, plus an extra 70 years from the author or creator's death. While a trademark is initially register for a period of 10 years and continues indefinitely as long as the renewal fees are paid every 10 years.

As a freelance designer, I think the measure that will be most important is a copyright. It can protects all of my idea, such as my logo, website, etc. It is also important to keep track of the process of how we're working as the evidence, in case someone is stealing our ideas, to show to court. Moreover, if I want to sell our design work or work for clients, I might need to register a trademark, a patent, or even the design registration.

Professional Practice and Engagement - Week 5

To work as a freelance designer, I have to think and calculate what clients should pay for, and how much should I get per an hour. I've try to search through http://www.seek.com.au to see how much they hire designer and junior designer per an hour. Some companies or studios propose to give very high salary but some are not. Base on my skill and experience, I am just a junior designer. Most of Junior designers get paid for around 25-45 Australian dollars per hour. As a freelance junior designer, I prefers to get 35-45 dollars per hour, the charge is depending on how much skill I needed to use, and how hard the work is.

This is self-branded Timesheet I've created.

Important Note: I choose to posted .png image instead of .jpg because when I posted .jpg white background appears weird.