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Design Sustainability:
Sounds good, but what does it mean?
In the past few years, many companies have hopped on the green train. In advertisements and promotions you see many companies refer to themselves as "green" or "sustainable". As the general public becomes more educated about sustainability, they are also becoming aware and wary of the trend towards green-washing; people saying they are "green" without any real explanation of what that means.
From it's inception, Orange Bike Design has practiced Design Sustainability. So we wanted to take a moment to explain just what we mean...our green manifesto if you will.
Our mission with each client is to create the most sustainable products they can manage. We are not just talking about the end result (i.e. soy inks, recycled papers), we are talking about thinking green from the beginning. Many times this requires an intensive study of what the product does, how it is used and what are it's future implications to the company.
At a recent talk, Kevin O'Donnell, director of WD Ecologic spoke about the importance of "heirloom design". How pieces that are designed and well thought out from the beginning provide the user with a greater return on investment. To paraphrase, Kevin said that, "My first gift to any child of mine would be a Mont Blanc pen. It lasts a lifetime and having one would erase the need for the mass of disposal pens that the average person uses in a lifetime."
This concept is the one that OBD strives to apply to all things graphic design. It is a way of rethinking the entire design process and being sustainable from the start to finish!
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