Idea 2: A platform to champion positive social change

As discussed within my essay doing 'good' or 'green' design is much harder than usual, as there are much more things to be considered. I feel like often this could be daunting for those who want to try and make a change through their process of designing. Another issue that occurs, as Brian Dougherty mentions in his book, 'Green Graphic Design' that the problem in today’s society is that often designers feel that they need permission from a higher authority to do the right thing when it comes to environmental and social aspects of communication. Especially when the individual may feel like a small cog in a bigger working mechanism. 

Maybe this platform helps push people to do this by seeing examples of it being done but also advice from others who have done it in the past, e.g. well established designers that follow in this line of ethos of doing good.

This platform could potentially be a brand new website as a means of being able to post mixed media blogs that contain all kinds of positive social change. Another idea was to possibly work off an already existing platform such as Instagram, this could possibly work more effectively than a website simply because of the huge amount of people already involved with the social media platform but also because reading a quick instagram post within your feed is much more easily accesible than having to search for a website and scroll through that. The issue is with instagram is that is somewhat limited as to the format you want to put your content in, but it does allow for a quick snapshot of a piece of work which is ideal for everyday use. Which leaves the possibility of utilising both platforms as an option of working along side each other.

The content of this platform would contain the likes of past/ current on going projects that in some way evoke positive change, be that social, ecological, political etc. Also live briefs that have been set by companies such as Creative Conscience, The RSA and YCN, that are there to inspire more people to try out tackling a real world issue going on today. It would also maybe have 'designer profiles', that suggest up and coming designers that are trying to create some form of positive change in the world.

As mentioned in the feedback there was a talk of a possible stamp of approval which would signify good design practice. This could be something that would eventually be universally recognised as a good thing for a designer to have on their work.