July 15, 2008

SustainAble


Whether graphic designers like it or not, our profession is not the most environmentally friendly. Aside from all the consumerism we may (or may not) be contributing to, our print work can eat up a shit-ton of paper. And as much as we may push for recycled papers, our clients may not go for it. The key to sustainable print design is to educate yourself and your clients, and to understand how it can be environmentally and economically beneficial.

Rockport Publishers have just come out with a great book on this subject titled SustainAble: A Handbook of Materials and Applications for Graphic Designers and Their Clients. The book covers several aspects of sustainable graphic design, but mostly focuses on print production. If you work in print design, you may already know that sustainable practices are not just a good idea, but they will be expected of us in the near future. This book can help us get there.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is a big bold move, to make a printed book about sustainable design, when we take in consideration that the biggest problem in this area is consumism

Jefferton said...

It is a bit ironic, but given the glut of green books on the market now, this one does not seem out of place. Hopefully it will do more good than harm.

btw, it is printed on 100% postconsumer paper with vegetable based inks. It also has a pretty cool cover design that reuses color test sheets that would otherwise be waste.

Anonymous said...

But wait.
Isn't this book itself can be more sustainable if it is a digital book? Free for download, and share the knowledge?

Jefferton said...

That would be great. You should write that book.