Can you as a designer save the world? You may not feel like it, but you have the power to change people’s minds and perhaps the planet. Individuals in the creative industries are able to imagine something that does not yet exist and bring it to life. This ability is crucial now more than ever.
How Can Design Save The World?
Design is how we create new products and systems. Everything (man-made) that exists had to be designed by someone. Unfortunately, there are things in this world that are harming the environment in ways that no one could have predicted, such as fossil fuels, clothes, and plastic.
This is why the world around us needs to be redesigned.
It’s important that we do it correctly because design and creativity brought us to this mess in the first place. Designers need to start focusing on the big problems. We don’t need any more useless products.
01. Redesigning Society
Designers can play a role in changing the way modern society lives. It will be hard, I’m not going to lie, but everything that matters is challenging. It will be worth it in the end.
There are several things that are wrong with our current modern society. Changing people’s way of thinking is a start. Society needs to snap out of this consumerist mindset of buying and throwing away products only to replace them with a slightly better-updated version. When we stop buying so much stuff, we will start burning fewer fossil fuels, wasting fewer resources, and producing less waste and pollution.
Another way in which designers can change society is by physically redesigning cities in a way that integrates nature and all its natural processes. They could also innovate new products to phase out current unsustainable products.
There is so much scope for designers in this field.
Related: Can creativity save the world?
02. Implemeting Circular Design
Currently, most companies are focused on human-centered design, which in most cases is designed for the linear economy. This is the culprit of most of our problems.
Thankfully there is a new type of design called circular design. Circular design always carefully considers what materials are used, if they can be repurposed afterward, if it produces a lot of waste, and more. Circular design wants to avoid things ending up in landfills and make everything as energy-efficient as possible.
There are already some fashion industries that are adopting this concept. With these brands, when you don’t want a piece of clothing anymore, you can send it back and they can recycle the material to make new items.
This is the sort of thinking we need and this is what is going to make a difference. If the world switched to a circular economy, it would be a much better place.
04. By Using Our Skills And Talents
Are you good at illustration, animation, architecture, web design, or something completely different? Use what you are good at to project what you want to say. One picture says a thousand words, right? Use that to your advantage.
Designers can save or at least help the world in many ways. They can start producing sustainable designs to directly help with the world’s problems, communicate important issues through their designs, or by refusing to help large money-driven corporations for example.
Additionally, designers are required to understand what the client needs. This is a transferable skill they could use to help the environment but this time their client would be the planet. They can learn when they should use positivity and when to ‘scare’ people of the future that is coming if they don’t act.
If you want to use design to save the world, you need to learn the best way to tap into people’s emotions. Individuals do not make decisions in their life based solely on stats and figures. Their decisions are based on an emotional response to something.
05. Through Good Communication
You may think that it’s clear what we need to do to tackle the climate crisis, but you will be surprised by how many people still don’t understand completely what is happening. Designers tend to have very good communication skills and they can use these to talk to people and spread the message effectively.
Raising awareness is key. How else are we going to convince people to change, if they don’t even realize that the future is at stake?
06. Through Responsible Design
Sustainable design in the future will become a necessity, not just a bonus. We cannot keep abusing our finite resources the way we are now. We need to stop advertising constantly and urging people to buy more.
Like you see in the movies, superpowers can be used for good or for evil. It’s the same for designers. You can either promote harmful companies or you can be part of a community that is trying to make the world a better place. We need more of the latter. But it’s easy to be drawn towards the money. However, if you have the choice, always decline work that will harm the planet.
As we face more environmental challenges, it’s important that we adapt and start designing accordingly by using green design and eco-friendly materials.
Designers could also play a big part in the fashion industry. Right now, most companies in the fashion industry are characterized as fast fashion brands. But it doesn’t have to stay like this. Moving towards sustainable, slow fashion is critical for the planet, especially since fashion is the 3rd most polluting industry in the world.
Design could create our sustainable future but only if enough people commit to this goal.
The Future Of Design
Society is stuck in the ‘old way of thinking’ and this needs to end. The world is changing so we need to change too. The way we think, the way we live, and what we buy.
Clearly, we are doing something wrong, or we wouldn’t be in this mess. If everyone accepts this, then we can start redesigning the world and finally work with nature instead of against it. We don’t have to keep destroying the natural world for our benefit.
You as a designer have the power to make a change. You just need to start caring about the important stuff. It’s possible to create a sustainable future that accommodates the whole population and designers can make the possible. For once, why not design for the benefit of the planet? Nothing and no one should suffer for our greed and selfish needs.
You have so many opportunities. Don’t let them go past you. If there’s something you can do to help the planet, do it. You will regret it if you don’t.
Wouldn’t you want to design for a good cause?
Conclusion
For every problem that we face, there’s always a solution. Coming up with new innovative and creative solutions will be key in the near future as more social and environmental problems start to arise.
There are huge problems in the world including climate change, pollution, poverty, disease, and the overuse of our natural resources. The question to ‘can design save the world?’ is yes but not alone. These are not problems that a single profession can solve. We need to work together, alongside other countries to tackle these challenges as fast as we can. However, the design industry will play a big role so we can’t underestimate these creatives.
