“How does the inevitable intersection of design and politics make you feel?”
I think an important distinction to be made is the difference between politics and ethics, with the distinction being best put by a Quora answer I found while researching this topic:
“Ethics is concerned with the moral behavior of people.”
“Politics is concerned with the management of society and its compliance with the law including the legislation that has been based on ethics.”
Personally speaking, I believe that the intersection between politics, ethics, and design is not only inevitable but also important, as — logistically speaking — good design is the effective communication of ideas, and all ethics are ideas. Design being used to communicate ethics is inevitable. That said, as politics are rules-based upon these things, for politics to also be involved in design is an important part of the political process.
A political world without the involvement of design is a world created with inaccessibility in mind. The primary function of design in politics, aside from persuasion, is typically accessibility and communication, so for that to be removed would be to remove people from their own political process. I believe that designers have an ethical responsibility to remain vigilant in acknowledgment of their role and responsibility in the political climates they work in and contribute to.
The classic example, of course, is the danger of being hired as a designer for an ecologically irresponsible oil company, tasked with communicating a new eco-friendly face for the company. While this isn’t necessarily “politics”, it is ethical in nature, which — in my opinion — should be treated as one and the same by any designer.
It is important to stand up for what you believe in as a core right of being human. I, for example, have very opinionated ethical beliefs that I stand by firmly in both my speech and my design. Being a passionate debater myself, it wouldn’t be possible to remove that part of myself from my design, nor would I want to!
