OUGD603 / Extended Practice - PART 2 Design Publication: Information sourced from my dissertation.

OUGD603.
DESIGN PUBLICATION. 
DISSERTATION RESEARCH. 



As previously mentioned for my dissertation I researched thoroughly into the attractiveness of green/ sustainable brands and packaging, focusing mainly on its aesthetics and consumer behaviour psychology towards green products and services. It is imperative as noted in my methodology that I fully understand my audience, and look at form/ aesthetic in depth, for this my dissertation will be a great source of information. 


Context: 

'development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs' (Danone, 2014). 

everyday consumption has such a critical effect on the planet.

'If they acknowledge it, recognise it, then the moral imperative, to make changes is inescapable.' (An inconvenient truth, 2006)

Some of society’s ignorance can be credited to the economic structure that society habituates notably in the western part of the world. It has occurred that the economic success has allowed western civilisation to act almost as if they live within a protective bubble. 'This was 'something new for America, but how in God's name could it happen here?' (An Inconvenient truth, 2006) 


Audience:

People are interested in sustainable products - people need green packaging to be truthful as it is complex and confusing. Sustainable packaging needs to take an aesthetic nod from non ethical products as this is what consumers are used to and like. 

'Thus, there is an increasing body of evidence to suggest that shoppers take their morals, in addition to their wallets, when they visit the high street.' (Thogersen, 1999 in Freestone and McGoldrick, 2007: 446)

'We know from asking people from China to the U.S that the vast majority of people care about sustainability, after the day to day issues. The day-to-day issues of how to I get my kids to school? Can I pay the bills at the end of the month? Then they care about the big issues like climate change.' (Howard, 2014)

People are concerned that what is stated on the packaging is not 100% true. 

'Green washing is the intersection of two firm behaviours: poor environmental performance and positive communication about environmental performance.' (Cuerel Burbano and Delmas, 2011: 4) 

'If unscrupulous marketers continue to claim to be environmentally friendly, companies true to their environmental mission lose their competitiveness. In addition, overuse and misuse of the 'green' claims can saturate the market to the point that the greenness of the product may become meaningless to the consumer.' (Zimmer et. al, 1994 in Furlow, 2014)

'To cast everyday consumption as unequivocally unethical threatens to alienate ordinary people rather than recruit them... The basis for an ethical consumption is to be found in the morality of ordinary consumption.' (Harrison, Newholm and Shaw, 2005: 21)

Tone of voice:

A positive tone of voice is needed to communicate said information - people fight or flight in response to issues. Sustainability needs to be communicated to offer self empowerment and positivity not in a negative light as it is currently. 

'Everywhere we look we are besieged by depressing facts and dire consequences. News of destructive tornadoes, hurricanes and heat waves emerges almost daily. Frightening footage of melting ice caps and drowning polar bears circulate online... Consumer behaviour is only slowly changing.' (Clendaniel, 2013)

'Humans are programmed to avoid what is uncomfortable, so why put sustainability-related messaging in the downer category?' (Clendaniel, 2013)

'Changing peoples consumption practice's is probably not best pursued by simply appealing to peoples sense of self sacrifice or altruism, or by supposing that it requires wholesale abandonment of self-interested concerns.' (Harrison, Newholm and Shaw, 2005: 15)

'You were reminded, sustainability was about compromise.' (Howard, 2014)

'Brands that have inspired the most positive behaviour change resist the urge to over-communicate. They boil complex issues down to simple platforms that people can easily relate to. For example, Nike "builds a better world."' (Clendaniel, 2013) 

'More brands should do what Obama did in 2012. He didn’t hinge his message on guilt or fear. He said: "you are the change." He made millions of frustrated people feel personally empowered, and won them over.' (Clendaniel, 2013)

Form:

Avoid typical green - grainy card and green colours, things don't have to look sustainable they just have to be sustainable. Sustainable packaging design should be in terms of aesthetics - business as usual, it should be in production where the thoughts differentiate.

'In the 21st century there is now an ability to produce sustainable products with the same charming qualities that live inside of 'unethical' commodities, such as replacing the old energy efficient light bulbs with the much more attractive LED. (Howard, 2014) It is this that should be celebrated in order to recruit consumers into the routine of green shopping.'

'Today we have choices. We can make products that are beautiful or ugly, sustainable or unsustainable, affordable or expensive, functional or useless. So lets make beautiful, functional, affordable, sustainable products.' (Howard, 2014) 

He states that sustainable design is often unattractive because by many, beauty isn't considered essential to sustainability however he details that beauty is a necessity to sustainable products and their survival. 'Virtuous products don't have to equate with indifferent design.' (Behar in Hosey, n.d: 5) 'We don't love something because it is non -toxic and biodegradable - we love it because it moves the head and the heart.' (Hosey, n.d: 7)

Great design makes the heart beat faster, solves tricky problems creatively... makes things cool, can make lives better and more businesses richer.' (Sherwin, 2012)

Sherwin affirms that the process of producing/ branding/ marketing a sustainable product should not differ in levels of positivity, fun, and attraction that exist within the representation of non-ethical products. Inviting design is the ultimate route to successful green marketing, thence 'When it comes to aesthetics, sustainable design is business as usual.' (Hosey, n.d.: 5)