It's Nice That: The only way is ethics: What are the moral obligations of a graphic designer?

Key notes :

- ' To a doctor , ethics are about keeping a patient alive. ... To a Lawyer , the issue of ethics also related primarily to treating clients well; .... Keeps it confidential any potentially damaging information they are told by a client.'

- ' To a designer , at least a designer today , ethical issues are viewed as coming from the client, Rather than framing ethical questions in terms of how the designers themselves might behave professionally , designers frame these questions not around their own practise but around those of the client.'

-Key Questions: ' What does the client do ? Is this ethically acceptable or not? Indeed , is this politically acceptable or not?

- Milton Glaser - designer- talk ' Ten things I have learned.' 2001.

- Glaser - began work with an interested in being professional - did this by keeping clients at arms length and doing a job for them , but then he says he made a realisation.

- 'What is required in our field , more than anything else , is continuous transgression. Professionalism dose not allow for that because transgression has to encompass the possibility of failure.'

- Designers give a brief there best shot however they can't guarantee that the ideas the produce will work. I linking with what Glaser states there is an unethical position to start off with.
But this was a significant progress the Glaser and his fellow designers of the time where able to implement , enabling our generation to make these mistakes and take a more ethical stance. Also allowing personal views and freedoms to be expressed via the work we make.

-Herb Lubalin- Worked for anti - Vietnam war democrat George McGovern. Also worked for Eros and an art director but was nearly arrested due to his contribution involving the creative layouts on ...... sexual relationships , which at the time sparked controversy.

- Paul Rand's essay The Politics of Design ( 1985.) explores why design has been corrupted by corporatise America.

- It is up to the designer who they choose to work with.

- Jonathan Barenbrook - designer - Bastard Typeface.
- Occupy times - used the type face.

-Jerry Seinfeld - ' I just ant to enjoy the commercial. I want to get the thing. We know the product is going to stink. We know that. Because we live in the world and everything stinks. '

- Social media influences :
- Neville Brody- ' entirely colonised by brands in search of false histories;'
vs
- Barnbeck- ' The rise of the meme is very interesting. Designers might not like the aesthetic but they are an instant hit; an immediate way of getting across their idea. And they stand outside the existing system.)

- Why political material is so appealing to a designer?
Brody ' conscious of issues reflecting the rest of the world , and aware of their role within that. They initiate information , inspire awareness. their aware of their role within that.'

- ' Freedom is the great virtue that graphic designers posses. In other porffestions such as architecture one can see how ineffectual and technocratic ethical decisions become when they are made by a projectional body.
 In taking responsibility for their outputs rather those of their clients, designers are then free to make good work as well as political decisions...'

Even though this article obviously applies to graphic design the same principles have the same relevance within illustrations. And I think that the end paragraph of the article when it references freedom we had as designers is real relevant to the whole argument of ethics. We can pick who we work for , hence we do have a fair amount of reposiblily when picking clients as if that company is found to be participating or connected to practise/ methods of producing products that are unethical , this sends out a negative message, hindering the aim that is argued that creative practitioners should use there platforms to promote a positive and ethics purpose.