On 17 April 2024, 8 students and staff from across Northumbria’s Design School took part in a sustainability reflection and printing workshop as part of Responsible Design Week. In this full-day event, titled "(S)printing towards Sustainability: Responsible Design using Reflection Cards", participants used an experimental set of the sustainability cards (version 3) to reflect on sustainability in their design practice and then created hand-made Lino prints as personal design manifestos and to go into a collective zine. The workshop was led by Sebastian Prost, Henry Collingham, and Kiersten Hay (as the zine and printing expert).
Version 3 of the cards marks a significant departure from Version 2 currently available on this website. Based on our experiences in running workshops, we made two changes: First, we completely reviewed the question set, drawing on multiple sustainability frameworks and responsible design literature. As a consequence, we replaced the technology domain with a social justice domain. Technology questions are distributed across the other domains. We also increased the number of cards per domain from 7 to 8 to accommodate the broader spectrum of sustainability aspects. Second, we designed the cards in modular way. A question is now spread across three types of cards, spanning the “who”, “how”, and “what”. The “who” could be “our team”, “our project”, or “this product”. The “how” includes different verbs, such as “contribute to”, “use”, or “impact”. Finally, the “what” includes the 5x8 sustainability aspects. Cards can be combined freely, allowing the construction of questions as appropriate. For example, three cards could ask “How well does our project” “promote” “open and commons-based design?”. Or “How does this thing” “support” “healthy waters?” Etc. The back of the “who” “how” and “what” cards correspond with the head, body, and legs of the 5 domain animals, which have also been completely redrawn. The geometric structure allows the combination of different animals to form creative combinations of heads, bodies, and legs in the style of “exquisite corpse”. We’ll publish details about Version 3 in a future blog post.
We started off with a small printing activity. Participants used letter blocks to print their own name. They then formed pairs based on mutual design practice or sustainability interests. First, they chose one of the “who” (head) cards to set a focus area. There were also empty cards for participants to set their own focus. Participants then familiarised themselves with the “what” cards. We provided them with a template to map cards on a coordinate system. The vertical axis ranged from “less important” to “more important” (for responsible design). The horizontal axis from “less interesting” to “more interesting” (for them). After half an hour, participants had to choose 5 cards from their map. They had to take two cards from the “important” and “not interesting” quadrant and had to take cards from at least 3 different animals.
We then moved on to a rapid design brainstorming activity. In relation to the 5 cards they had just chosen, participants had to come up with innovation ideas. We offered further prompts to assist ideas as broad as possible. Prompts suggested to think of “machines”, “natural structures”, “plants”, “people”, “abstract marks”, “human made structures”, “sounds”, “feelings”, “places”, “animals”, “something massive”, “something tiny”. Participants had 1 minute per prompt to sketch their innovation idea on a sticky note. We repeated the activity about 12 times, until about 100 ideas were sketched out. We then placed all sticky notes onto a whiteboard for everyone to see. Participants shared some of the ideas that they put down.
Before lunch, we introduced participants to Lino printing with a small carving activity. After lunch, each created their personal design manifesto on an A5 page, using the ideas from the sticky-note wall. We asked them to think which sustainability aspects they want represent and how they want to do this. They then transferred their sketch onto a Lino block, carved it, and printed it. This session took about 2 hours. After a tea break, we had a final show and tell. Each participant explained their design, which systemic challenges it touches on, and their reflections about the process of working with the cards, brainstorming, and print making. After they had printed, we scanned the manifestos to turn them into a zine. Each participant could take their original home.
Participants found the card mapping exercise challenging in a positive way, as it pushed them to think about sustainability in a more multifaceted way beyond just environmental concerns. It highlighted the complex, interconnected nature of sustainability. Participants observed also that the manifesto prints they produced had a hopeful tone, rather than being the usual doom and gloom about sustainability challenges. As many of the participants were design students who would soon go on to work in industry, they discussed the tension between designing responsibly and the commercial realities that designers often face when working for companies. This is an ongoing challenge that designers need to navigate. Discussion also broadened to questions of accessibility and inclusivity when it comes to sustainable products and solutions. More affordable options are essential for making sustainability accessible to a wider population, not just a middle-class luxury. Overall, the discussion highlighted the need for designers to approach sustainability with a holistic, nuanced perspective that considers political, cultural, economic, environmental, and social justice factors, while also finding ways to make sustainable choices more accessible.
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