Design Can Change: Tiny Vancouver Studio takes on Climate Change

Lately, I've had climate change coming out the yin yang. Not just with the constant media bombardment, but for the past ten months the design studio I work at, smashLAB, has been developing an initiative called Design Can Change. Its goal is to bring together the world's graphic design community to address climate change and adopt sustainable practices. A tall order, I know, and my head still spins when considering scope of it.

So how does a tiny studio of three (not including Eric's mom who does the bookkeeping) pick a fight with global warming without getting its ass kicked? I asked myself the same question over and over after we threw down the gauntlet.

After taking baby steps to become more sustainable a few years prior, we became concerned with the amount of waste designers collectively produce. Scott Ewen from Emigre once said, "Designers make the world's most beautiful trash." Americans receive over 65 billions pieces of unsolicited mail each year. According to the AIGA, designers in the United States alone purchase or specify over $9.1 billion in printing and paper annually, and the paper industry is the third largest industrial polluter to air, land, and water in Canada and the US.

We wanted to do something about this. But what? We're tiny, we thought. Isn't stuff like this best left to politicians and environmentalists?

We realized that this is exactly the kind of thinking that gets nothing done. So instead of standing idly by, we pulled up our sleeves and started with what we COULD do. We have all the information and research on the internet at our disposal, access to a large network of designers and influencers, and expertise in crafting and distributing messages. That's a start.

And heck, we're Vancouverites, a city that spawned Greenpeace and Adbusters and is home to the David Suzuki Foundation. Can you imagine if they had said, "Aw, someone else will take care of it"?

So for the next ten months we busted our butts researching, asking for support, building infographics, and staring at code. At one point I felt I was going nuts and if you mentioned the word "sustainability" to me I might have jumped through a plate glass window.

But we kept reminding ourselves to suck it up and slug it out. If we didn't do it, who would?

Well, after gallons of blood, sweat, and tears, I'm happy to say that Design Can Change has finally launched, and the response has been tremendous. Traffic is pouring in and we've already got a substantial number of people taking our pledge. We've been mentioned on almost every major design blog and portal, including Design Observer, Airbag, Swissmiss, Coudal, and UX Magazine, and I've really enjoyed seeing the response on all the blogs. We even got labelled propagandists, which I think is pretty cool!

Now I know it sounds like I'm tooting my own horn, but really what I'm trying to say is that there's always an opportunity--even for the small guy--to make a difference if you look hard enough and get past the initial resistance. It's still early in Design Can Change's lifespan but I already consider it a huge victory for the Little Vancouver Studio That Could.

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If you want to learn more about Design Can Change, check out the site, and tell your designer friends to do the same.