design anarchy by kalle lasn.
lasn is one of the founders of adbusters magazine and this book is a call to arms to the designers of the world whom he accuses of having an implicit role in the mess of consumerism, low self esteem and unhealthy living to which the western world has succumbed. the issue is that too few of us designers have ever stood up to a client and said ‘no - that’s wrong’. we just take the money and draw them nice pictures and write them clever words. of course, saying ‘no’ demands that the designer in question holds the moral and political viewpoint that the practices and goods they’re being asked to promote/sell are wrong. so the question is will lasn’s message be lost on the designers who bought into consumer culture and capitalism long ago and see nothing wrong with it, or are there are lots of cynics out there who turn off their conscience while at work? the second sounds infinitely more worrying to me. you can read excerpts of the book here.

to be honest it’s slightly weird experience to read this book for two reasons. firstly it’s a rather thick, expensively produced book with extravagant use of space to say it’s by someone who is railing against consumerism and waste of resources. unless it’s deliberately ironic (but at what cost?). and secondly (if this doesn’t sound too pious) i’m not sure it’s really aimed at the likes of electric angel. maybe the glossy approach is to give it some ‘weight’ and be taken seriously/desired by the boys at the big advertising agencies.

it’s caused me to stop and think about what we do here at electric angel and realise how lucky we are to work with people who are doing some good in the world. many are charities, many in education, all are working towards helping people in their lives or environment. many are genuine heroes. i tried to think of a situation where we had been presented with a moral dilemma as to whether to do a job or not and could only recall one instance. of course we often direct potential commercial clients elsewhere because we have made a decision about the sort of work we are here to do - and to do that well we need to specialise.

so, lasn’s book has made us think and i suspect you’ll see some slightly more direct self-directed work from us before long as we process his message. but it’s also made us feel ok about what we do so at the risk of sounding a bit gushy we’d like to say thank you to everyone who engages our services and gives us the opportunity to work with them. it’s a privilege we genuinely value.