Summary of "Do Good Design"

Design is all around us, but we rarely think about how much it can influence our thoughts, actions, and desires. As designers our decisions can change the world by changing the way in which they design products. Bad design, like the ballot in Florida, can disrupt an entire country. Designers have the responsibility to manipulate the consumers in a way that will draw them away for their current destructive path. Consumers need to change their thinking that they must constantly consume to be happy. With a new, better version of a product out every couple of months, people feel like they have to catch up, throwing their old stuff away, showing that: “designers really do make the world’s most beautiful trash.”
The way in which products are advertised has drastically changed over the years. The use of the female body used to be highly overused to sell products that have nothing to do with women. Brands of products have also become an important thing in the minds of consumers: the brand you buy can in some respects tell what kind of person you are. For many products, when you buy a product, most of what you’re paying for is the brand name. This results in many brand names being widely recognized around the world. Coca-Cola is the most highly recognized logo in the world, with their seal on convenience stores, clothing and even street signs.
Ethical design should be the goal of every designer today. Both the designer and client should benefit in the long term from good design, not just one or the other. Focusing on making products that will simply meet the latest trend will only keep companies struggling to catch up; companies should focus on designing better products, not the same product with a different style. Advertisers shouldn't have to lie to their audience in order to get them to buy a product; the product should be good enough so that it sells itself.
In the end, designers should be true to their profession, true to themselves, help repair the world, and commit. If designers can’t commit to changing the world for the better, the blame for anything that happens in the future will be placed on the people of today.