thecorporation.com
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- VectorMasked0
I agree but something inside of me makes me disagree. Weird eh?
If the nazi connection was the sole reason to avoid those 2 companies then it'd be a bit silly imo, but if it's the whole thing, both past and present with a not so honest future, then sure I agree with ya.
- ukit0
I dunno guys...I am as left as anyone in my politics but this idea that big companies are inherently bad I am not really buying...I mean, if there are specific policies you want them to end you should get involved in the political process and work to end them. But when it just becomes some blanket idea that corporations are evil, that seems as ignorant as thinking we don't need to regulate them at all. Any big global organization is going to end up doing bad things and stepping on toes...whether corporation or communist state.
- elektromuzak0
as much as you want to believe it, politics do not, by any means, influence corporations. It's the other way around. Not even politics influence politics. If you're a designer, you should seriously know better. If you wanna know who's really responsible... we are.
So let me reiterate, or better yet, let me lay it out in layman's.• "evil company" commissions designer to design brand identity, and package design.
• Designer designs brand identity, package design (to aid product), and corporate collateral.
• Consumer sees product that designer helped create / promote, and buys product.
• "evil company" makes money.end of scenario.
If you don't want the company to succeed, then stop designing for them. If you can 't help it, then stop buying their products.
Politics have nothing to do with the policies of companies (unless you're referring to internal politics i.e. board members, investors, etc...).- Not sure what you mean...corporations are not above the lawukit
- Passing a law to put restrictions on smoking or regulate a product is always going to be easier than convincing every last designer to not design for a company.ukit
- last designer to not design for a company.ukit
- sure it is. And how's that going so far? Why haven't regulations been passed to make trade fair? Take Starbucks for instance...elektromuzak
- instance. Starbucks bullies Ethiopia into selling their coffee beans for hella cheap, and passes off Ethiopia's trademarkelektromuzak
- as their own. Then they give a measly percentage of profits to Ethiopia. Where's the law to catch that? hmmmm....elektromuzak
- but you know what did help? Oxfam's petition against starbucks, and people stopped buying starbuck's goods, resulting in victory for Ethiopia.elektromuzak
- resulting in a lower profit margin for starbucks, thus causing starbucks to renegotiate a fair trade.elektromuzak
- and let me reiterate: read the title of this post "thecorporation.com"
That's exactly what the...elektromuzak - documentary talks about... how corporations are, in fact, above the law.elektromuzak
- slappy0
I thought the whole Fanta thing was BS? I thought they just sold Fanta in Germany becuase they couldnt get cola mix over from the US. The company wasnt giving money to the nazis or giving them free shit. They just kept on making a soft drink to keep the workers in jobs and the general population with drinks.
Correct me if I am wrong.
- fanta came later to u.s. even mexico has fanta before the u.s.akrokdesign
- I love fanta! We've had it in Mexico since always. Been drinking it since like kindergarten!VectorMasked
- Sorry, fanta wasn't bullshit. They did create fanta in germany, and they sold to fanta to germany.elektromuzak
- besides, when that was all going down, you'd think CocaCola would let their conscience be their guide...elektromuzak
- unfortunately that wasn't the case. You have to ask yourself, "if a company I like buying products from starts...elektromuzak
- supporting genocide, should I stop buying from them?" or "if I work for a company that sells its products to the ones...elektromuzak
- responsible for genocide, should I still work for them?" Just something to think about, you know?elektromuzak
- VectorMasked0
And btw, everything that has been mentioned in here has been just beautiful...like a dream or a perfect world, however, in the real world things are just different. People will always need those jobs in order to pay the bills. A fifth of the designers would die of starvation for not being able to find the right clients with the right mind with the right budget to go "green". As sad as it is, some of us need those faceless corporations.
Everytime a client sees the cost of going "green" with paper and materials overall, they say nope and change the directions due to costs. Or, We might try to make suggestions on the "right thing to do" on regards of the message, materials or anything that can have an impact on all of us as customers or people, but most clients will sadly not go with our suggestions on these regards. It's sad in a way.
I personally can't be so picky about certain things coz I buy shit from Nike, Puma, Coke, Apple, etc... That's me. As sadly as it is I am a bit materialistic. I am however 100% into the whole animal cruelty thing. I am even against eating animals as i don't think it's right for humans to eat them.
As to the cigarette companies... I could work with them. I am a smoker after all. But I'm pretty sure at some point I'd feel a bit guilty as if I were responsible for a lot of deaths.
- Spookytim0
I came to realise a long way back that if you take ethical and moral objections to their extreme, you really have to drop out of the world of commerce completely. We can all have our pet demons to add salve to our consciences, but in the end any participation in any aspect of the capitalist system is participation in the whole. Look hard enough and there isn't a single 'ethical' business on the planet imho.
I would never work for the diamond industry mainly becuase the link between diamonds and inhuman suffering is too close to ignore.
I wont do Nike or Reebok. Nike because I just don't like their aggression - they are akin to scientologists in their attitude and outlook. Reebok becuase, well, when they arrived on the scene we just don't need the brand. Reebok has always seemed to me to be a total waste of resources for the sake of someone's greed. It has no purpose, no core value, no usp. What the fuck is Reebok? Its a ruddy faced public shool bore with no discernable qualities trying to be a hip hop 'playa'.
Nike: Tom Cruise for your feet.
Reebok: Vanilla Ice for your feet.Its not graph-paper ethics that shape my decisions, its brand personalities.
- +1111111111111111111...ukit
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vrmbr - 111111111111111111el... 11111111111111111111... one 11111111111111111111... elventy onevrmbr
- eleventy 11111111111111111111... one 11111111111111111111...vrmbr
- hoopy0
for an amusing take:
- elektromuzak0
Spooytim, I agree that to be 100% green and 100% ethical, you'd have to be a plant-eating luddite living in a cave somewhere... being in this design industry where our tools are computers is such an example of not being able to be totally sustainable. computers (and tech hardware in general) become obsolete quickly and gets tossed in an ever-growing landfill, unfortunately ending up in third world countries (i hate that term btw). also, most LCD screens contain mercury and arsenic which is far from being green. The funny thing is, the closest thing to a green computer is the Apple Air... and just to think that a short time before that, they were one of the least sustainable computer companies.
- hey wow, don't eat the plants dude!Spookytim
- oh crap, i forgot. maybe i'll just eat rocks. :)elektromuzak
- Haha, Wow don't eat the rocks, dude!Spookytim
- damn, what the hell can i eat? hell, i'll just starve. if i can't be totally sustainable or moral, i don't wanna live! ;)elektromuzak
- elektromuzak0
nonetheless, we all need to do as much as we can to make a difference in every action. we don't need to create a support group or establish some designism site, we just need to make this a lifestyle.
- Drno0
Ethics is for wankers,
If I could design the new communist party logo or the nazi 2.0 swastica restyling,
I'll do it,
because its what I'm paid to do.
who here never actually worked for a client he hated??
we all had our share or crazy, illuminated, know-it-all, makethelogo bigger cnts,
but we did it and survived,
so our ethic has been continuously shoved inside us without vaseline, and we took it down with pride and even smiled,its true that we can pretend to have ethics, and I'm sure we all have some on our own ethic scale, but sometimes we just need to pay the bills and go on with our lives
- Mojo0
I think integrity is massively important.
I turned down a big earner for a solicitor, he wanted a huge ass poster/campaign aimed at people going through a divorces re: fighting over cash.
- ********0
I think this hole thing is a catch 22 if you ask me. And what Dmo Said.
- Jeermid0
Anyone know any good resources for contacting NGO's to help with design work? Or charity organisations looking for graphic design expertise? Ive sold my sole years ago and want it back....
- ninjasavant0
I'm part of the problem, but with good benefits.
- mtgentry0
Milton Glaser's 12 steps on the Graphic Designer's road to hell:
1. Designing a package to look bigger on the shelf.
2. Designing an ad for a slow, boring film to make it seem like a lighthearted comedy.
3. Designing a crest for a new vineyard to suggest that it has been in business for a long time.
4. Designing a jacket for a book whose sexual content you find personally repellent.
5. Designing a medal using steel from the World Trade Center to be sold as a profit-making souvenir of September 11.
6. Designing an advertising campaign for a company with a history of known discrimination in minority hiring.
7. Designing a package aimed at children for a cereal whose contents you know are low in nutritional value and high in sugar.
8. Designing a line of T-shirts for a manufacturer that employs child labor.
9. Designing a promotion for a diet product that you know doesn't work.
10. Designing an ad for a political candidate whose policies you believe would be harmful to the general public.
11. Designing a brochure for an SUV that flips over frequently in emergency conditions and is known to have killed 150 people.
12. Designing an ad for a product whose frequent use could result in the user's death.- can we honestly say that Mr Glaser never did any of the thing he says not to do?Drno
- +12akrokdesign
- never done any of those.mikotondria3
- mtgentry0
@ DMO he admits to doing some of them here http://www.metropolismag.com/htm…
- ********0
everyone has skeletons, impossible to avoid these days.
- flashbender0
So would you do work for any of the Carnegie Foundation They have given tons of money to worthy causes but also supported the Nazi Eugenics program.
Same with something like Microsoft - sure they are hell bent on creating a monopoly and crushing their competitors, but the Gates Foundation is (arguably) a force for making the world better.
The world is not so black and white my friend.
- design in gray scale. lol.akrokdesign
- +1akrokdesign
- haha!flashbender
- +1111111111111111111...ukit
- jasontroj0
I have a long list of companies and company types that I refuse to work for.
There is plenty of other business out there.
- Drno0
once you actually open your eyes and see the bullshit surrounding us, you'll see that its difficult avoiding selling your sould,
sometime it comes candy coatedlike fuckn Bono, (god only know how much I hate the man )