The Emigre LegacyBy Rudy VanderLans
This article was first published in 2000 in
Emigre 56.
I know someone who is a real stickler for
recycling. She recycles her glass, paper, aluminum and
cardboard. She lives in a city where most of these items are
picked up by local agencies on a weekly basis. Plastic
isn't picked up, so she drives to the local recycling
center in town once every now and then to drop it off. When she
goes out to buy groceries, she brings used paper shopping bags.
She'll get 10 or 15 trips to the grocery store out of the
same double bag before it falls apart. She tries not to buy
products that are overpackaged. She does not read newspapers
because she feels they create an unmeasurable amount of waste.
Instead, she gets her news from the radio or Internet. Old
clothes or clothes that don't fit anymore she takes to
the Salvation Army. She carefully plans meals to avoid throwing
out food. She shares a medium-sized car with her husband. She
tries to walk instead of using the car, when and wherever she
can. She occasionally tries to get off mailing lists to stop
the barrage of catalogs arriving in the mail each day, but she
found out that trying to do so often increases the number of
catalogs she receives. She's working on trying to beat
that scam.
Sometimes I try to imagine what this world
would be like if everyone acted the way she does. Some people
say that recycling and reusing are a drop in the bucket, that
they don't address the real problems this world is
facing. I say that these activities probably are some of the
most important, because they are the simplest and easiest
things everybody can do to reduce waste and limit consumption.
Recycling is a great place to start caring about the
environment. Best of all, if you commit to recycling, you start
realizing how much you consume. If overconsumption is one of
the greatest threats facing planet Earth, and I believe it is,
then recycling and reusing are where you start turning the
tide.
A person who grows up believing in the
value of recycling and the need to limit consumption, and who
understands that the Earth's resources are finite, will
be a different corporate head or ad exec than the one who never
cared or thought about these issues in the first place. The
problem is that in today's marketplace the former hardly
stands a chance. The reason is obvious: because the public
by-and-large doesn't demand responsible use of resources
from industry. It's not that they don't agree with
the issues; most people actually do. They just don't
believe that their individual actions and demands can make a
real difference anymore. They are simply overwhelmed by the
onslaught of products.
And so it is in design and advertising. A
few months ago, a number of advertising and design people
signed and published the First Things
First 2000
manifesto in an effort to encourage and inspire colleagues to
put their creative talents to a more socially responsible use.
The general response to this publication was one of skepticism.
Most respondents said it is unrealistic to think that anything
can be changed about today's market-driven society. I
disagree again. Much can be done, and being a socially
responsible designer or ad person does not mean quitting your
ad agency job to work for your local ecology center. It means
working at your job with an understanding that your actions
affect others far beyond whether they will or will not buy your
gizmo. Something as simple as considering the use of real
recycled paper containing a high percentage of post-consumer
waste, or to not overpackage a product, is a great way to start
making a difference. Imagine all designers and ad people doing
this on a regular basis - it would have a tremendously
positive effect on our resources and environment.
There are examples of this being done
successfully. Take a company such as Patagonia, for instance,
which makes outdoor gear. Much of their catalogs and clothing
are produced using recycled and organic materials.
They've built a lasting and powerful image based on the
simple premise of being environmentally conscientious.
It's part of their brand identity. As such, they are
mavericks.
Advertising has become very shrewd at
coopting society's most radical ideas to hawk product.
What are at first taboos eventually become tools for targeting
specific audiences. Wouldn't it be a radical idea if
eco-friendly packaging were coopted as a marketing strategy by
large corporations? The use of recycled materials and
development of recyclable and reusable packaging would, in
turn, bring this awareness to the greater population - that
packaging containers have material value and that they should
not become trash the moment they are emptied.
Imagine when Patagonia's model is
copied and applied on a much larger scale. I predict it will
catch on like wild fire. Not just because it will make everyone
look smart like Patagonia, but because doing the right thing is
intoxicating. Once you start caring about the environment and
become aware of the positive difference that you can make as a
citizen and a professional, you'll want to do more. Like
the person in the beginning of this article; there's no
turning back for her. It becomes a way of life. I know, because
she also happens to be my wife. She inspired me to change my
ways, which brings me to the idea behind this issue.
At Emigre, over the past 16 years, we have
saved all our obsolete computers and other hardware. It now
occupies three gigantic shelving units in our warehouse. It is
a computer mortuary of sorts, collecting dust. At first we held
on to outdated hardware simply because we thought it might come
in handy later. And to some degree we felt a certain
sentimental attachment - among the heaps is a Macintosh
128, the very first Macintosh computer. Then, as the stacks of
outdated computer equipment grew, we reached a point where we
simply couldn't get ourselves to throw it out, feeling
guilty about filling up landfills with plastic.
As we continued adding outdated equipment
at an ever-increasing pace, seeing the shelves bending under
the weight of old hardware, we began to worry. We started to
imagine that perhaps our true professional legacy, the things
that will have the most impact, the stuff we'll pass on
and that will remain for generations to come, are not the
Emigre Fonts, or the issues of Emigre magazine, but these heaps of planned
obsolescence. And that became a depressing thought.
Our situation is not unique. Most design
studios, or any office for that matter, generates the same kind
of hardware waste at a steady pace. Fortunately, there are
always people finding ways to balance out the shortsightedness
of others. While the computer industry continues to produce and
market new equipment at an ever-increasing rate without much
regard for the environment, others have invented ways to soften
the blow that "progress" inflicts upon planet
Earth. Over the past years, computer recycling centers have
sprouted all over, providing a necessary service in a
waste-based society. These organizations recycle, refurbish or
upgrade donated computer hardware and software and redistribute
these items to disadvantaged individuals, nonprofit
organizations, schools, libraries, and developing countries.
These organizations are not a license to
consume more. They provide an option to recycle, instead of
simply discard, what you already have consumed, which is only
one part of the solution to save this planet. The other part is
to consume less, and for manufacturers to become as radically
inventive in manufacturing as in marketing their products by
using eco-friendly and reusable materials, and for us consumers
to encourage and demand this.
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A Selection of Essays from Emigre Magazine
Ambition/Fear
By Zuzana Licko and Rudy VanderLans. Published in Emigre 11.
Neomania
By Anne Burdick. Published in Emigre 24.
Fallout
By Rudy VanderLans. Published in Emigre 30.
An Interview with Steven Heller
By Michael Dooley. Published in Emigre 30.
An Interview with David Shields
By Michael Dooley. Published in Emigre 30.
An Interview with Edward Fella
By Michael Dooley. Published in Emigre 30.
An Interview with Mr. Keedy
By Michael Dooley. Published in Emigre 30.
In and Around: Cultures of Design and the Design of Cultures
Part I
By Andrew Blauvelt. Published in Emigre 32.
Discovery by Design
By Zuzana Licko. Published in Emigre 32.
In and Around: Cultures of Design and the Design of Cultures
Part II
By Andrew Blauvelt. Published in Emigre 33.
An Interview with Rick Poynor
By Mr. Keedy. Published in Emigre 33.
Radical Commodities
By Rudy VanderLans. Published in Emigre 34.
Copping an Attitude
By Rudy VanderLans. Published in Emigre 38.
Graphic Design and the Next Big Thing
By Rudy VanderLans. Published in Emigre 39.
That was then, and this is now: but what is next?
By Lorraine Wild. Published in Emigre 39.
Graphic Design in the Postmodern Era
By Mr. Keedy. Published in Emigre 47.
Skilling Saws and Absorbent Catalogues
By Kenneth FitzGerald. Published in Emigre 48.
First Things First Revisited
By Rick Poynor. Published in Emigre 51.
First Things First Manifesto 2000
Various authors. Published in Emigre 51.
Saving Advertising
By Jelly Helm. Published in Emigre 53.
The Emigre Legacy
By Rudy VanderLans. Published in Emigre 56.
Sustainable Consumerism
By Chris Riley. Published in Emigre 59.
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