IntuitiveDesigns

It seems this has been a year of change. Everywhere around, we’re hearing stories about the economy going into recession, environmental issues are finally starting to be taken more seriously, and the upcoming U.S. presidential elections almost guarantees a big shift in people’s attitudes no matter who gets elected.

Here in the studio, we’ve also applied a lot of changes this year, personally and professionally. Probably all of the changes have to do with the idea of being an active participant in the world rather than going with the flow. Just taking conscious action seems to catalyze change. This can be applied to all areas in life; from environmental and health issues, to family and other personal issues.

Just going with the flow often contributes to a problem itself. A lot of issues really are that black and white. Either you help fix the problem or you contribute to it. There is no way to stand on the sidelines and watch. We’re all players, all of us.

For this reason, we’ve decided to be more active in choosing the type of work we’ll accept. We’ve consciously decided to take on fewer projects in general reserve more of our time for projects that we feel passionate about and less for others we don’t. For us, these types of projects might be concerning environmental issues, global poverty issues, human rights issues, or on a smaller scale, projects for small businesses that we want to support. Yes, this might be less profitable for us or it might not. But, I don’t think a business should be all about maximizing profits anyway. That’s not really why we are doing this.

As designers, we are responsible for what we are putting out and we need to keep this in mind when accepting new work. We are directly affecting people’s perceptions about the subject we are working on, probably more than we even realize.

What do you think?

Illustration by Koldo Barroso