Narrowing down my question (Task)

All the questions I want to investigate…

This is a narrowed down list from the list I made a few weeks ago, combined with any more questions raised within my research since that point. 

Can an illustrator afford to stick to strict morals with their work?

Does making money or making a difference define the success of your practice?

Is it possible to have a selfless creative practice?

Can your work still be doing good for the world if you are making a profit from it?

Is the concept of social responsibility a gimmick for selling products?

Is social morality a give and take process?

Is it okay to gain from what you are contributing to society? 

Which class or section of society should be the main target for driving social change through art work?

Does a creative need a personal connection to a topic to drive social change around that subject?

Narrowed down questions…

Is the concept of social responsibility a gimmick for selling products?

To what extent is it morally acceptable to gain from what you contribute to society?

Why am I researching this? What do I want to prove/achieve?

I am researching this because I am interested in making work that can drive social change and a change in attitude on a small scale. I am not looking to change the world but a small contribution to making it a better place is an achievement by any means. I want to look at how this can be / has been exploited and whether using social responsibility as a ‘unique selling point’, so to speak, is morally right when you are making a profit from it.  

Is my question researchable?

I think this question is researchable, I can find out how this concept connects to companies from past and present. I have already read a bit about the United Colors of Benetton and I feel like this might have the potential for more in depth research. 

I think for this to stay relevant to my practice I need to look at illustrators’ practices that relate to this topic. I think this will provide me with a stronger chance of making actual contact and being able to ask them specific questions I want to find out about. 

For the practical side, I am thinking that it will be the distribution of the imagery I make that will be most closely connected to my dissertation topic. 

What could be a working title? Does it need a subtitle? Is it concise?

To what extent is the concept of social responsibility a gimmick/contrivance/device for selling products in consumer culture?

Global Contexts - Mark Wigan

I read this book cover to cover early on in the summer to try and trigger something in my mind that I might be interested in exploring. Now that I am narrowing down towards a more specific area of interest I have decided to go through this book again and pick out the relevant information that could now help me. 

'Illustration has long been used as a cultural tool of communication to inform, provoke, persuade and entertain. As such, it has made an important contribution to our interpretation and understanding of the world. Images have transmitted patterns of behaviour and advanced a range of intellectual and social processes, which in turn have led to the formation of of groups of people around the world.’ p13

’The world needs illustration now more than ever to make sense of human interactions, tell stories and to pictorially interpret our lives.' p13

‘Illustrators are visual communicators, problem-solvers, storytellers and visual journalists….’ p16

‘Throughout history, illustration has long been employed as a powerful tool with which to comment on a wide range of social issues and influence the thinking of the day.’ p35

Meaningful Illustration - ‘exemplars that captured the spirit of their time with great empathy…’ … ‘Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), …, painted the groundbreaking ‘Guernica’ in 1937 to express his revulsion at the bombings carried out during the Spanish Civil War.’ p39

'During the upheaval of the Peasants War of 1524-26 and the long religious wars that followed, illustrators commonly used the visual codes of allegory, allusive caricature and satire to question and denounce clerics and rulers. Allegorical images described narratives beyond their literal interpretations and their use of extended metaphor by illustrators could avoid censorship.’

‘The biggest challenge facing visual communicators in today’s global marketplace is creating a meaning for people in an international context. In order to produce work that crosses cultural divides, visual communicators must study the differences between cultures and populations.’ p87

‘Illustration can communicate in place of written and spoken language and can be used as a tool to promote social justice and respect for different cultures, as well as to entertain and sell products.’ p87

Chapter Five: Head, heart and hand. 116-137

‘As illustrators, everything that happens in the world is our potential subject matter and we must be open to a broad and diverse range of opinions and ideas.’ p116

‘Throughout history, illustration has pricked the conscience of society, challenging orthodoxies, raising questions and speaking truth to those in authority. The life-affirming power of the illustrator comes from having a singular vision, self-knowledge and independence of thought. ‘ p116

**Professor Richard Guyatt

‘The world is now facing numerous threats, which are making everybody aware of their global responsibilities.’ p116

‘By engaging head, heart and hand illustrators can contribute to positive change.’ p116

‘Critical thinking allows illustrators to place their work in a context that questions society and culture; this enables the to take responsibility for promoting change and draw attention to social and political concerns and the physical impact of the over-consumption of commodities.’ p119

‘Drawing is also a form of seeing, thinking, responding, discovering, sensing and reflecting; as such it is both a creative and cognitive activity.’ p128

‘Illustrators have a big responsibility. By engaging head, heart and hand [they] can promote tolerance, diversity, social justice, encourage dialogue, cooperation, interpret content and communicate alternative ways of dealing with these problems through their work and their interaction with others.’ p132

'As illustrators, we can affect change, even if those changes are on a relatively small scale, for example carefully choosing which products or services to work with and which products or services to endorse.’ p132

‘…many designers and illustrators are increasingly aware of their ethical responsibilities and offer their services at reduced rates or free to charities, community groups and organisations whose values they align with.’ p132

‘Collectives … aim to work in harmony and co-ordinate their efforts to realise common goals.’ p152

This book has a very matter of fact way of talking about things so it is a good one for getting basic information from. I realise that this blogpost is basically copied phrases from the book with little explanation about them, however the statements are very self explanatory. I feel like these might be useful to reference when introducing my dissertation topic as it holds the basis to what I am developing my question from. There is also a lot of relevant pieces of work in this book so it might be a good one to hold on to if I am looking for specific illustrators or artworks to study in more depth later on into my research process. 

Works of Political and Moral Motivation

Works of Political and Moral Motivation - Michael Bracewell

From the book: Richard Hamilton - Modern Moral Matters - The Serpentine Gallery

‘ 'Political or moral motivation is hard to handle for an artist'. But the profound emotion that the originating events have caused him, in terms of their injustice, cruelty or moral blindness, has provided occasions of extraordinarily heightened inspiration.’

• This quote suggests that artists struggle to deal with topics that have not affected them directly, this makes art a very personal and emotive thing. I suppose by tackling the ‘originating events’ then he may be seen as indirectly having a political or moral motivation. The most important thing I can glean from this quote is that it is hard for an artist to connect to something that they have not experienced or encountered. 

‘...we might ask how Hamilton’s art relates to the emotional volatility and keen edge of protest.’

• Again, this relates to the idea of emotional connection to a topic being the key to a piece of art serving its purpose. 

‘engagement with the moral consciousness of an era’

• This is  a good collection of words to summarise how artist connect with their audience through social responsibility. People cares and priorities change as over time so I suppose it is necessary to stay ‘on trend’ with what you care about. This might link to the idea of social responsibility being a gimmick because it suggests that you are tapping into what your audience believe to be important at the moment, but whether this matches with your own opinions is a different matter. 

‘the conversion of mass-mediated imagery into an art form that both appropriates and restates the energy, glamour and visceral immediacy of pop-cultural media.’

• It is possible to change the meaning of things. Whether this is through the physical deconstruction and reformation of imagery or purely through perception and interpretation. I like the idea of restating energy so that it fights back at its original purpose. I have not thought very much about how to visually investigate this topic but this may be a good starting point, although changing the subject matter from pop-culture to something more relevant to my topic. 

Questions and Reflection

Ive been reflecting over my research so far and thinking of questions I want to find out about. This list is very extensive and I will need to narrow this down a lot! I am going to keep researching for now and narrow this down when I have been briefed properly on this module so I can be more informed when making these decisions. 

I have also put together a few mind maps to try and make sense of where I am at the moment. I am feeling like I am being productive at the moment with my research, I am just concerned that there is no defined direction for it yet. I'm trying to remain calm about this and keep going with it because I think it will start to form something more specific soon. 

Connexity - Geoff Mulgan

Connexity: Responsibility, Freedom, Business and Power in the New Century (Revised Edition)

'Freedom allows us to realise our potential, to live life to the full, to imagine and create...' (page 1)

• When we have no restrictions we discover new things. 
• Do artists have a responsibility to use this freedom to do good? Or in a situation where freedom is not granted, should art be used as a means to battle against this?

[Speaking about nineteenth century communications systems] '... are founded around ideologies of freedom - of free expression and free speech.' (page 3)

• Modern communication methods work alongside the concept of freedom - this could be argued against in terms of privacy. 
• In general though, technological developments have aided free speech and sharing of ideas, especially the internet. 

'To be meaningful, freedom entails being able to leave the family or the community, to act against its interests." (page 4)

• This quote suggests that for something to have meaning it must oppose something and put forward an argument, therefore it must have an opinion. 

'John Stuart Mill declared that only harm to others justifies the restraint of freedom. This has never been an easy idea to turn into practice, since it begs the questions of what counts as harm.' (page 6/7)

• This is a basic system of punishment. As we question what 'harm' is, we reach topics such as discrimination and political correctness. 
• In relation to social responsibility, where is the boundary between standing up for what you believe in and not causing offence to others?

'faced with complexity it is easier to focus on a simple mission, or a few measurable outputs and to disregard everything else.' (page 10)

• Changing the world through art is unlikely although not impossible. I like the idea that smaller, simple missions can be tackled as a sort of step by step process to something bigger.
• In relation to social responsibility, this quote suggests that it is not a big feat to make a change. A Making a difference through art on any scale will in some way contribute to the bettering of society. 
• For example, working on a visual campaign to increase recycling in your local area won't change the world over night but it is a small, manageable step towards making positive changes in the environment. 

'But there is also an oral dimension, in that a more connected world brings with it a moral duty to consider the effects we have on others, and a need for moral fluency that goes beyond simply learning codes of right and wrong by rote. For moral as well as practical reasons we even have to think in a different way, understanding the world as made up of complex systems rather than linear relationships, ecologies rather than machines.' (page 11)

• I think this is about understanding that it is not a straight forward process and to make a difference in society, you have to understand its structure to some extent. This could relate back to the ideas of social status but also understanding that people have varying ideas of what would be a positive change to society. 

'Reciprocity, the idea of give and take, of the golden mean, is the most important idea for a developed democratic society, and it should underpin our social morality.' (page 14)

• I think that this quote is saying that out social morality should be a to and fro transaction between the artist and society. The concept of giving back suggests something has been given to you in the first place. 
• This links to the argument raised in the Benetton essay about social responsibility being a gimmick. It could be argued that maybe it isn't a gimmick if it is a give and take relationship meaning that it is okay to gain from what you give. 

Connexity: interdependence and interrelationship between and among individuals, machines, and the global communications network. 

Benetton's "World Without Borders" - Buying Social Change

Benetton’s “World Without Borders” - by Henry A. Giroux

From the book 'The Subversive Imagination - Artists, Society and Social Responsibility' Edited by Carol Becker

‘Benetton’s move away from an appeal to utility to one of social responsibility provides an object lesson in how promotional culture increasingly uses pedagogical practices to shift its emphasis from selling a product to selling an image of corporate responsibility. Given the increase in sales, profits, and the widespread publicity Benetton has received, the campaign appears to have worked wonders.’ (page 189/190)

• Benetton's promotional methods are selling something to stand for, not directly selling their goods. 
• Is this an appropriation of real world issues to indirectly make money from increasing their sales?
• Are they using this process to gain the trust of their customers or are they genuinely working to better the world?

‘Benetton is not about selling sweaters but social responsibility, and it is a company that represents less a product than a lifestyle and world-view.’ (page 191)

• The selling of their products comes secondary the sharing of their view of the world. 
• At a first glance this seems like a highly moral thing to do, however is it as clean cut as this? Is it still so moral when they are making a profit from it?

[Peter Fressola quote] “We’re doing corporate communication. We’re sponsoring these images in order to change people’s minds and create compassion around social issues. We think of it as art with a social message.” (page 191)

• Fressola is Benetton's director of communications. 
• It seems like their methods of communication within and beyond the business are based around sharing current world issues. 
• Does doing 'good' make people sceptical of what you are doing. Can good intentions backfire business wise?

‘Among the various means available to achieve the brand recognition that every company must have, we at Benetton believe our strategy for communication to be more effective for the company  and more useful society than would be yet another series of ads showing pretty girls wearing pretty clothes.’ (page 192)

• This statement suggests that their advertising strategy is to make them stand out from more generic clothing brand advertising campaigns, which it does. 
• I find this quote more realistic as it makes the intentions of their advertising strategy sound like they are trying to see clothes but at the same time they want to do something good for society. I find it harder to believe that the advertising was totally selfless because at the end of the day, their business is selling clothes and ultimately, their advertising needs to help them do that. 

‘Of course, the “joke” here is that anything is for sale and social commitment is just another gimmick for selling goods.’ (page 199)

• This is the quote I have been looking for! The idea of social responsibility being a gimmick in the world of sales is what I have been getting at. I think this is a really important quote to keep hold of, I feel like I am starting to narrow down onto what I actually want to write/argue about. 

Pedagogical: the function or work of a teacher; teaching. the art or science of teaching; education; instructional methods.

Corporate communication: is a management function or department, like marketing, finance, or operations, dedicated to the dissemination of information to key constituencies, the execution of corporate strategy and the development of messages for a variety of purposes for inside and outside the organisation.

Dissed and Disconnected

Dissed and Disconnected - Notes on Present Ills and Future Dreams - by B. Ruby Rich

From the book 'The Subversive Imagination - Artists, Society and Social Responsibility' Edited by Carol Becker

'Indeed there is much more, from the record, to fear when art is locked in to courts and academies, or when, at the opposite extreme, artists are pushed by neglect into isolation and there is no flow between them and a wide diverse public.' (page 223) Raymond Williams, The Politics of Modernism

• The two extremes of art being of a really high status and a really low status mean it is not accessible to 'a wide and diverse public.' 
• This quote is saying that pretentious gallery culture and a disregard for art are both damaging as they do not allow the artwork to flow within a community. 
• The accessibility of artwork is important, especially relating to social responsibility. If you create work with a message that needs to be seen by people then how it will reach that audience has to be taken into consideration. Not only can an artist feel a sense of responsibility to create work with a message, they may also feel a responsibility to ensure it reaches its intended audience. 

'It is through the arts that influence can be exercised.' (page 225)

• This quote is pretty self explanatory, you can influence through the means of art. 
• What is it about the arts that allows it to make an impact? Is it the lack of restriction on what can be done or the enjoyment people get from it that makes them take notice of what is being said?
• Again, thinking about status. Does this sense of status link to authority. Do people see art as authority or more like a rebellion against authority?

'... the arts could offer a route out of the status quo.' (page 232)

• Similar to the quote above. Art can break the traditions of what is 'normal'. Because often in society, what is normal is not always what is right. In some parts of the world it is normal for individuals of a certain race, religion or gender to be persecuted but this does not mean it is morally the right thing to do. 
• Moving away from the 'status quo' does not necessarily mean doing the right thing instead of the wrong thing. It could be a case of opening up opportunities and allowing people to view things from another perspective. 

'Unlike other professions the arts occupy a special, anomalous position in our society. Practitioners aren't licensed. Its members are entirely self-declared and self anointed, lacking any visible signs of status' (page 235)

• The societal placing of an artist is not the same as a doctor or policeman, it is a position within society that is earned through their practice and through proving themselves to be what they say they are. 
• Anyone can be an artist - is this true? Can you be taught how to be an artist or can you just be taught how to make things? Why isn't this the same thing?

'Although the romantic legacy of the art world mitigates against any such institutionalized forms of redress, such systems of regulation are not unimaginable and could easily be as useful to artists as to the public.' (page 235)

• I am finding this quote difficult to understand. I am trying to re-word it into simpler terms. Although the romantic legacy of the art world alleviates the instututional forms of remedy/correction, these systems of regulation are feasible and could be useful to artists and the public. 
• I think the start of the quote is saying that art can do a similar job to more structured methods social remedy, and in turn will take some of the pressure off them. I'm still struggling with the end of this quote, does this mean that artists and the public can also benefit from more structured methods of reformation or does it mean the opposite?

'An ombudsman structure could be established to handle situations of conflict or distress.' (page 235)

• An ombudsman structure would be where someone's job is finding out the issues people have with a govenrning body. Is this what an artist's job is within society, find out about problems and making them known, making people aware and working to ensure something is done about it?
• If this is not your intention as an artist/creative, are you neglecting your social responsibility to do so?

'It is precisely at such a painful, troubled, yet potentially inspiring and empowering time that the arts have much to offer, if only artists are up to the challenge.' (page 236)

• Art often stems from bad events and injustice. This supports the idea that artists feel a responsibility to do something about the bad things that are happening in our society. If things were perfect all the time, would there be a need for art? 
• The 'arts have so much to offer' suggests they have power and a voice that people will listen to in these times. However, the final part of this quote is questioning whether the artists, as people, are strong enough or whether they actually want to do what they have the power to do. 

'Artists can produce work, not solely in the splendid isolation of the individual ego' ... 'but in the call-and-response connection that links each one to some sort of community' (page 238)

• This quote almost splits the art discipline into two categories. Work for yourself as an individual and work to be shared with the outside world. This connects to the image by David Shrigley which I analysed stating that the artist has no social responsibility when working for himself but this changes when the work is shared with others. 

'Why not broaden the notion of arts spaces beyond the old apartheid system of art world galleries versus community arts centres?' (page 244)

• Again, a point relating to making art more accessible. Do artists have a responsibility to make their work accessible to a wider range of people. Is it necessary to break down social status barriers of art for it to truly make an impact. 

'Imagine a world, then, in which it would do as much for an artist's career to show in a fast food restaurant as in a bank.' (page 244)

• Relating to the point above, this could develop into an argument about money vs social responsibility. I suppose it is down to an individual whether they would take more money to display their work in a prestigious location full well knowing that its message wouldn't reach the people it matters to most.

Ombudsman: an official appointed to investigate individuals' complaints against a company or organization, especially a public authority.

Redress: remedy or set right (an undesirable or unfair situation).

Podcast - Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Lisa Congdon

http://designobserver.com/feature/lisa-congdon/39265

Notes from podcast - BLACK
My annotation - BLUE

Lisa Congdon wanted to go into politics, that was the career path she was pursuing after leaving school. Studied history. 
She questioned herself when she found herself miserable working in a law firm, she wanted to do something meaningful with her life. Gained a teaching certificate. 
I think this is where Lisa Congdon's approach to her practice differs from Shrigley's. Congdon knows she wants to do something meaningful and to make positive changes but it takes her a while to find what that is. However Shrigley knows what he does, he puts his thoughts onto paper, and the effect this has on society is comes secondary. 

Social change was something she was really interested in - education felt important to this. 
Lisa Congdon went into teaching for a while, nurturing young minds. I do agree that education is important to making social change but maybe not in such a direct way as this. People are still being educated at all ages by what they see in public, what they read, what they watch on television so there are other means of educating people in the media. I feel like this form of education is more relevant to my topic at the moment. 

She could give something back to the world - this is what made her feel good about herself. She is a sensitive person. Making an impact on other people is important to her. 
This links to the argument of selfish and selfless work. By giving something back to the world you are being selfless in a way, however the selfish aspect is that this makes you feel good about yourself. It would be interesting to hear Congdon's opinions of money in relation to this. Would the situation become more selfish/selfless with payment. 

When she became an artist she felt guilty because it felt like a selfish act and she wasn't giving back to the world. 
This makes it sound like she saw art as something only for herself, a very introverted process. 
Can social responsibility play a part in the way you conduct yourself as a business person as well as as a creative?

Finding what you want to do is about finding what makes you want to get out of bed in the morning. 
"This is the dirty part of the business that no one ever talks about. All of the other stuff, making art, working with clients, promoting the business, etc, felt easy and fun. But I was in debt after years of careless spending while I had a decent paying full time job. I knew that if I was going to be self employed I needed to pay off my debt and become as adept as possible at managing my money."
Co-owned a shop/gallery - learned a lot of valuable business skills though this process. 
Connecting with people all over the world at this point in time was easier than ten years previous but not as simple as it is today. 
Tipping point - its not one single thing that propels you to success, people start to show and interest and it just grows from there. 
'A collection a day' - Book ( a year long challenge )

Making a living out of being an artist becomes "a source of great controversy".
"People who have nothing to do with the exchange between you and those who would enjoy your work start to pass judgement. Money, they proclaim, bastardises both the process and the output."
If you're making money from your work then it is seen as far less pure and maybe you are driven by different motivations if you're doing commercial work. 
This implies that making art for money makes the artwork itself corrupt. In relation to the 'Design for Social Change' essay, would producing artwork for no money also corrupt the work as a creative would may use this to promote themselves rather than the actual cause. 

Lisa Congdon takes an 'I don't care' attitude to this and says she will still be true to her core values. 
This is a similarity between Congdon and Shrigley. It is probably relevant to most practitioners with morals. It would be interesting to find examples of people who keep their personal morals separate from their creative practice, if there are any.

You need a strong sense of how much you deserve to be paid - you learn this as you go but having an agent to begin with is helpful money-wise. 

"At some point somebody is going to realise that I don't really know what I'm doing or I sort of like taught myself how to do this. Like I'm not really a real artist, I'm sort of faking it."
What makes you 'a real artist'? Do you need structured training to be creative?

Own it as something worthwhile and as something we should be paid to do. 
There is an element of 'shame' that you can't proclaim to be an artist until you have become successful, this is especially bad in women.  

On reflection, there are some differences between Congdon and Shrigley's practices. Lisa Congdon talks a lot more about her desire to do something meaningful and make a difference which strongly relates to the concept of social responsibility in creatives. She also speaks about feelings of shame and guilt which I think connects to what Milton Glaser said about the status that comes with being an artist. I am starting to realise that maybe this 'status' comes with a certain pressure. I think it is interesting that people like Lisa Congdon can feel this pressure and are wanting to do the right thing. I can see that she still retains her core values however when you look at the work of David Shrigley and the attitude that comes across in the essay I analysed, I feel that he is less affected by this pressure of status and is going to remain true to what he believes and get across his own opinions.

There are elements of these notes which I feel would be more relevant to talk about on my PPP blog. 

The Evil Genius of David Shrigley

http://design observer.com/feature/the-evil-genius-of-david-shrigley
Essay by Rick Poyner

This essay isn't strongly related to my topic but I thought that reading about Shrigley's practice might mean I could analyse it in relation to social responsibility. 

'Until Shrigley was 15 or so, he dutifully attended Bible study classes and Sunday school in Leicester, England, where he grew up, but then decided enough was enough and stopped going. He isn't complaining, though, since those years left him with a peculiar way of thinking and enough material to last a lifetime. "I find the language of religion, particularly the language of Christianity, something amusing to subvert, I suppose. But then I think I'm a moral creature," he says. "I believe in right and wrong." 

• This tells us that Shrigley has made strong decisions about what he believes and what he doesn't. 
• Having the experience of being a part of something that he doesn't believe him has provided him with 'a peculiar way of thinking' which suggests that maybe going against your own beliefs for a brief or project might actually help you grow and evolve as a practitioner and person. It doesn't have to water down your own opinions. 
• The concept of what is right an wrong will differ between people. There is the obvious but there is also a big grey area.

His books 'connect with a broad, non-art audience.'

• Is connecting with a non-art audience the key to making social change? Making work only relevant to people with an art background does not allow a concept to grow and spread.
• Does the broad audience that his work reaches entail a stronger sense of social responsibility?

'He presents his intuitive scrawls unrevised, exactly as they come to him.' 

• This suggests he is true to himself and shares exactly what he thinks. 
• Does he have a responsibility to censor his own material? 
• In relation to an image of Shrigley's that I analysed this summer, he states that the artist only has a social responsibility once the work is displayed for people to see. 

'Shrigley is an affable, easy-going person to spend time with, and this gives added force to the emotion in his reply when asked a direct question about his view of humanity. "We exist in times when wars are fought for financial reasons rather than to protect human life," he says. "Human beings, it seems, are just horrible, greedy, terrible creatures. All they're interested in is the accumulation of wealth, and they have an obsession with tittle-tattle and the most tedious, tawdry aspects of each other's lives." '

'... these are the terms in which we should understand his endlessly repeated scenes of violence, anomie, social breakdown, and unthinking callousness towards others.'

• Again, he has formed strong opinions about society. 
• These are reflected in his drawings. 
• He seems unafraid to share his own opinions. Does he feel like this is what he should be doing as an artist?

Reading through and analysing this essay in relation to my starting point has made me think about the topic a little differently and start to ask more questions. I think Shrigley is a very open artist, unafraid to share his views and opinions of the world, however I don't think I have reached the root of whether he feels a sense of responsibility to do this or whether this is just what he wants to do. 

I think I need to do this same process on and essay about or interview with another practitioner to see whether there are similarities and differences between their approaches. 

Designing for Social Change

Essay by William Drenttel
http://designobserver.com/feature/designing-for-social-change/33188

Drenttel begins his essay speaking about a workshop he attended called "Design for Social Impact" and a topic they discussed at this workshop was 'whether design could be an avenue for poverty alleviation.' I feel this could be relevant to my dissertation topic as I am looking at the morals and social responsibility of creatives.

'We might make our living producing branding for large companies, but we carved out a portion of our design practices to do "good work".' 

• This quote makes me think that the writer only considers his work to be 'good' if he is not getting a wage from it. I think this is an interesting point because I feel it should be possible to do work for a good cause but to also get paid for it, however this makes it sound like it should be totally selfless for it to be considered 'good'. 
• Maybe this is something I need to investigate further to understand whether it is possible to do good with your work but still make a living from it. 

The essay goes on to talk about 'non-profit' work which is done for no money, but it says this is the type of work where you have your most creative opportunities and it formed 'the basis for many a creative reputation.'

• This implies that the work done for no monetary profit was still profiting the designer in terms of publicity and building a name for themselves. Is this enough? Is it too much?

'It was often about the work we could showcase, not the people we were helping.' 

• This is an interesting point because it contradicts the previous idea that 'good' work should be selfless. 
• Focussing more on the work and how you will be perceived as a designer rather than the intended purpose of the work makes the production of it a selfish act. 

'It was too often design about design, design for the sake of design, designers preaching to one another about design's capability to create impact.' 

• Too much focus is on arguing the point that design is able to make an impact but not enough time is spent actually doing it. 

'Social design cannot be a subspecialty of the design profession' ... 'but is a larger activity that depends on design in all its forms.' 

• This makes me think that social design is not a discipline in itself but a way of thinking and how you go about making work within your chosen discipline. It is a broad thing, linking to the morals and intentions of your work rather than the process of making.

Social innovation: is a novel solution to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than current solutions. The value created accrues primarily to society rather than to private individuals.

Social justice: justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society.

Systemic change: Perhaps the most broadly valid definition is “change that pervades all parts of a system, taking into account the interrelationships and interdependencies among those parts.” We find it useful to distinguish systemic change from piecemeal change. Piecemeal change entails changing one or several parts of a system.

Nascent: (especially of a process or organization) just coming into existence and beginning to display signs of future potential.

This article does have significant relevance to the areas I am researching at the moment. I may be able to use links stemming from this essay to find potential case studies of where design, or more specifically illustration, has been used for social change. It links strongly to the concept of social responsibility but almost rejects the idea that creatives producing work for non profit are doing this as a selfless act. 

Questions

• Is it possible to produce a piece of design or art that is entirely selfless?
• Would creatives be more inclined to work for the intentions of the project rather than for self benefit if they were actually getting paid for it?
• Can 'good' work be produced as a self directed project or does it need to be justified by an organisation or charity for the cause to be justified?