Printing

As a design association, our members expect beautifully produced print materials. And many of our corporate sponsors are paper companies. The challenge for AIGA became one of how we would balance opportunities for our members and sponsors to demonstrate the quality of creativity and products that might not meet the highest expectations for environmental responsibility. Ultimately, the answer became one of becoming a force for change over time—using education to increase designers’ and clients’ understanding of the opportunities for responsible design, communication and printing.

With the help of the Institute for Sustainable Communication (ISC), AIGA recently completed a Responsible Enterprise Print evaluation (part of the AIGA Design Business and Ethics series) that aims to elucidate environmentally sound printing and paper selection practices for designers and their clients. The AIGA Center for Sustainable Design, a member-led sustainable design initiative, is currently developing a major online information resource. The site will feature a print calculator developed by ISC for designers and their clients that profiles and compares various paper types, printing techniques and inks and their related environmental impact. The site will also include case studies, suggested readings and a discussion board dedicated to sustainable design practices.

Responsible Enterprise Print Evaluation PDF

As far as our own policies, we have developed a tiered approach that will begin to introduce more responsible behavior in materials designed for our activities. The three levels are described here and for each activity we place each item we need designed in one of the categories:

Level 1
Example of work in which highest priority is placed on sustainability objectives. Piece will include a case study of how it was achieved and the trade-offs considered by the designer. Clarity, appropriateness and minimization of environmental degradation or waste will be the criteria for the success of the piece.

Level 2
Design will seek to accomplish its purpose with appropriate commitment of resources, seeking a reasonable balance of responsible use of resources and traditional impact. This level will of design and production will recognize objectives to minimize environmental degradation, yet will not be the purely sustainable or maximum sustainable solution, for instance, uncoated paper will be specified, but it may not be tree-free.

Level 3
While reasonableness and responsibility shall be a part of every brief, this level of design will continue to use materials that are convenient and effective.

AIGA will also provide a calculator on its website for designers to use to inform clients about the relative impacts of paper choices in terms of energy consumption, forest consumption and toxic or detrimental chemical byproducts.