Last night, James was one of three guest speakers at the D&AD talk ‘Design with a conscience‘ at Urbis, Manchester along with Jai Redman from UHC and Michelle Brand.

Unfortunately, the speakers weren’t given microphones, so we couldn’t record the talk for you. There were some interesting points of view though, and what was notable, was that the speakers didn’t always agree with each other’s opinions. You’d think that a subject such as designing ethically would almost unite everyone who practiced or was interested in it.

Jai, who is a self proclaimed ‘artist first, activist second, and designer third' started by showing us a video of himself and a group of activists stopping work on a new motorway. It was clear Jai’s method of tackling issues was through a hard, direct action approach, and this was the way more companies should operate who label themselves as ‘green’. So, next to our claim that we use energy saving lightbulbs, and use recycled paper, we looked a bit wet behind the ears at first!

But James did a great job in explaining that in Thoughtful, the lightbulbs, recycled paper and similar actions are done as standard, and really, should be by everyone. Thoughtful’s ethical approach to the work we produce, from start to finish is what we really like to highlight. We always aim to steer the clients requests in a 'Thoughtful’ direction. For instance, if a client wants 100,000 leaflets designed and printed, that’s fine, we’ll source recycled paper and an eco-friendly printer. But first we’ll see if there’s a better way of communicating the message. The client wants 100,000 leaflets, but what if their message on a balloon above the city gets seen by 300,000 people? How much paper and ink would that save? It’s this way of thinking that gets us excited as a company.

Jai explained that UHC only works with clients such as campaigning organisations, not-for-profit companies, volunteers and communities. Thoughtful love to work with these sectors too, as more often than not, they’re on our wavelength. But what about the other organisations out there who aren’t doing things as ethically as they could be? Well, our third commandment states that we won’t work with companies who operate solely through unethical practices. But we will work for companies who have the potential to make changes that will help them become more environmentally friendly. Why? Because if we can convince, guide or educate these bigger companies into making better choices in their communications, that would have a massive impact. And it only takes one brave client. That’s another reason why we don’t just work with the ethical sector, because they already believe in working in a better way. We’d be preaching to the converted.

I think last night brought the realisation that everyone will have a different method of designing with a conscience. But as long as everyone IS designing with a conscience, then that can only be a positive thing.

James with Jai, Michelle and David.

Thoughtful would like to thank Sarah Austin from Urbis, Tamsin Valentino from D&AD and Prof. David Crow from Manchester Metropolitan University for putting together the event, and Jai and Michelle for giving us an insight into their companies.

And if there was anyone at the talk who didn’t ask a question but would have liked to, feel free to get in touch and we’ll do our best to help.