Never waste a crisis
A few weeks ago I was listening to Hilary Kerr’s podcast Second Life, she was talking to Ty Haney, the founder of Outdoor Voices. Just about the end of the talk Hilary asked which was the best advice she was given, the answer: Never waste a crisis.
It just clicked, I had been thinking about climate change and design for months. I’m interested in materials, new ways of producing things, fashion and design. And how to act, I’ve always asked myself: What can I do?
What I do find weird is the reaction from the industries, specially the fashion industry, because it’s the one I’ve read more about. It just seemed weird to me. We’re all facing a huge problem but we just don’t seem to know how to address it. We’re not making the right questions, so the answers are poor.
Never waste a crisis
When I heard Never waste a crisis, I found in one sentence what I had been looking for. The way to explain how I think we should be addressing climate change: as a challenge, a huge opportunity to innovate, to create new things, to push boundaries, and to make things good for once.
We face a climate crisis, that we should not let to waste. We should stop for a moment and think: how are things made, what are they made of and how fast. What can we do to change it? We all have a special point of view, as well as abilities. As designers we have an amazing opportunity to re-think how and what we create. I believe that the faster we accept the current situation the better. We will be able to see things as they are, what they will be and how we want them to. Design is an amazing tool for life and it has a special place in the climate crisis as well as for finding answers.
I know that sometimes realizing how damaged the planet is can be totally despairing, but if we change our point of view and see the crisis as a growing opportunity we might feel motivated instead of afraid.
As creative professionals, we have the power of persuasion in our hands, and with that power comes a responsibility.
Naresh Ramchandani, founder and partner at Pentagram, talks about the importance of examining our impact as creatives, the way we can shape the present and future with our work. “As creative professionals, we have the power of persuasion in our hands, and with that power comes a responsibility. By regularly persuading people to buy into unsustainable products and ideas, we are complicit — either knowingly or unknowingly — in the climate emergency. But by persuading people to buy into sustainable products and ideas, we can become an important part of a much-needed climate response.”
The Good Example
It’s not all bad, we can either be part of the problem or the solution. But as creatives we have design as our tool, and that’s a great thing. As human beings we have our actions, and nothing speaks louder than actions. We can choose to give The Good Example, as Ingvar Kamprad calls it. “Cleaning up our acts thoroughly and imaginatively, inspiring other colleagues to do the same, giving ourselves a firm moral and behavioural basis to do more.” Sometimes it can all feel bad, and that’s not bad, as long as we remember that we do have a say in the matter, and more importantly that our actions will speak loudly for us. We can make everyday big statements with our actions as well as with our creative work. We can try to make our work more meaningful for those near us, as well as for the planet.
Here are three good ideas from Naresh Ramchandani of what we can do as creatives.
- Make great placards for climate marches. Make feisty stickers.
- Start campaigns for the brilliance of thrift-shop. The beauty of second-hand books. The wisdom of resourceful grandmothers. The cleverness of hands. The versatility of feet. The infinite storytelling potential of the great outdoors — far more interesting than screens indoors.
- Use our channels to post ideas and observations about reuse, resourcefulness, walking, cycling, meatless deliciousness.
Resources
The climate crisis is daunting, but as a creative professional, there’s much you can do, Words by Naresh Ramchandani, Wednesday 17 July 2019. (https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/response-and-responsibility-naresh-ramchandani-opinion-170719).
Ty Haney: Outdoor Voices Founder and CEO, Podcast: Second Life by Hilary Kerr, September 16, 2019. (https://rss.art19.com/second-life).
