The Design Activist's Handbook Quotes

“A little action often spurs a lot of momentum.”
― Noah Scalin, The Design Activist's Handbook: How to Change the World (Or at Least Your Part of It) with Socially Conscious Design

“I have zero interest whatsoever in designing a beer label to look like a fucking beer label or making a box of cookies look like it's supposed to be a box of cookies.”
― James Victore, The Design Activist's Handbook: How to Change the World (Or at Least Your Part of It) with Socially Conscious Design

“We have more success if we think of a project as a group effort, find partners and build a coalition. There is always strenght in numbers.”
― Mark Randall, The Design Activist's Handbook: How to Change the World (Or at Least Your Part of It) with Socially Conscious Design

“[...] not being afraid to make mistakes and absolutely understanding that you have to learn from them are imperative.”
― Elan Cole, The Design Activist's Handbook: How to Change the World (Or at Least Your Part of It) with Socially Conscious Design

“When I was working for a fashion company, one of my assignments was to design a shopping bag for their stores. They had been using cheap disposable plastic bags. I suggested a switch to heavy-duty paper bags with nice printing and rope handles. In other words, something people would want to actually carry around more than once. This was before the prevalence of cloth shopping bags, but the company still went for it. The stores even used less bags overall because the cashiers who filled them viewed the new bags as more precious objects.”
― Noah Scalin, The Design Activist's Handbook: How to Change the World (Or at Least Your Part of It) with Socially Conscious Design

“As a designer, I was an individual cog in a much larger machine, but I still had the opportunity to choose which direction to turn or to decide not to turn at all. Granted, I couldn’t throw a monkey wrench into the gears anytime I wanted and still keep my job. Instead, I used every decision-making opportunity to offer alternative solutions to things I thought were socially or environmentally harmful. Not all my ideas saw light, but I was always given the chance to air my concerns, because it was in an area in which I was considered the expert.”
― Noah Scalin, The Design Activist's Handbook: How to Change the World (Or at Least Your Part of It) with Socially Conscious Design

“The word ethics tends to come off as academic and authoritarian, but ultimately professional ethics are just a formalized gut check. They’re a personal statement about what you will and won’t do at your job, and a framework for seeking out clients, projects or employers that are a good match for your beliefs. We encourage every design activist to think through and write down a set of personal ethics, so something is in place to guide you when you run into a sticky situation while racing against four different deadlines.”
― Noah Scalin, The Design Activist's Handbook: How to Change the World (Or at Least Your Part of It) with Socially Conscious Design

“I have been teaching a course on socially conscious design at Virginia Commonwealth University called “Design Rebels: Socially Conscious Design in Theory & Practice” since 2003. In the class, my students are introduced to the ethical gray areas that designers have to confront when they begin to work in the “real” world. They are also introduced to the powerful tools of persuasion that are in their hands. Then my students are presented with the choice I hope you will consider as well: Will you act like an assassin? Someone highly trained to kill and willing to shoot whomever they are asked to point their gun at if the price is right. Or will you be like a megaphone? Raising the voices of those who need to be heard above the din.”
― Noah Scalin, The Design Activist's Handbook: How to Change the World (Or at Least Your Part of It) with Socially Conscious Design