Do No Harm, Do More Good

The board of the largest professional organization of designers in the US, the AIGA, has quietly amended their Standards of Professional Practice to include these new additions:

“7.2 A professional designer is encouraged to contribute five percent of his or her time to projects in the public good—projects that serve society and improve the human experience.

7.3 A professional designer shall consider environmental, economic, social and cultural implications of his or her work and minimize the adverse impacts.”

While it’s not quite a Hippocratic Oath for designers it’s great to see the AIGA finally institutionalize and push an ongoing commitment to design in the public interest.