Utrecht Manifest - 2nd biennale for social design

WoofWoof, on December 11:

Don't like the Safe Palce pictogram. Manle figure secluded from family bond...as if expendable, irrelavent.. Bad design IMHO!

Koen, on December 23:

This is one of these challenging questions, not because of it's final goal, which we all suscribe to, but because of the chosen strategy. I do not think that there is anything wrong with reminding designers about their social responsability, but I have to question the extend to which that responsability can be exercised. Is the graphic designer that was asked to re-design the BP (British Petroleum...now Beyond Petroleum) from the Heraldic BP logo into the yellow sun that turns green on the edges, really co-responsible for the subsequent neglect of workers safety for which BP was responsible, or for supporting finacially those U.S. politicians that oppose environmental legislation, as BP does? In my field, industrial design, I believe very strongly that the designer has to have the knowledge that allows her or him to inform the client properly about the environmental impact of the design, but on the other hand I know by experience that you have to accept that products are sold at a higher price than needed if the manufacturer and even more so their marketeers believe that the product is worth the higher price. There are in our professions influences that we would like to exercise but that are beyond the scope of our authority. I for one would not want to claim that autority, not because we would abuse it, but it is not up to us, but up to democraticaly politicians to elaborate the bounderies within which the industry and thus it's designers have to work. I am not adhering completely to the theories made popular by the Chicago School of Economics, but we can not expect a profession or an human activity like business or manufacturing to be anything else than what they are. The legislator has to provide for the social guidelines that will set the limits for the activities of companies. The alternative is what we see now, vaste P.R. efforts to either give a brand either the necessary "greenwashing" or a "social" stamp of approval. The end result is an un-controlled development of rules and standards like the LEED standards that are sometimes well intentioned but most of the time self-servant and in-adequat. If we want society to evolve, to provide for a more socially balanced environment, equality of opportunity etc. we have to elect the right politicians. If on top of that individual designers, architects, entrepreneurs etc. want to do more, that's fine with me but it should not be left to these well willing souls to achieve what we can achieve democratically.