Mass Consumerism with ethical design

In the design world today, with designers having more of a say on how products are not only branded but on how they are produced from the where the materials are sourced to the company that will create the final product. This has had a great impact on the ethics of the design industry today.

Designers were generally seen as tools of capitalism. Creating brands, packaging, and marketing for consumer goods, graphic designers became an integral part of the free market system by contributing to the creation of wealth in society. Free market supporters believe that this creates peaceful relations and moral behavior. Opponents feel that our unbridled spending and greedy consumerism has led society to the state of recession where we find ourselves today. The free market system is seen to be contradictory to issues of sustainability and encouraging social and community awareness. All over the world consumption rates are soaring. At the same time millions of people consume barely enough to survive. Poverty is often blamed for environmental degradation. Poverty does tend to affect local environments; however, overconsumption is threatening the entire planet. Watch the Story of Stuff for an illustrated presentation about mass consumerism. Sources: http://www.dmi.org/dmi/html/publications/news/ebulletin/ebvsepmm.htm http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/themes/greenspan.html - See more at: http://www.ethicsingraphicdesign.org/integrity/mass-consumerism/#sthash.sCruT4Qu.dpuf