For mission-driven organisations working to make the world a better place, starting with your look and feel can be an instant way to project your mission to the world and stand out from the crowd.
It’s also an opportunity to reflect the change you want to see in the world, and to deploy ethical design principles.
What is ethical design?
Ethical design is a process that creates products, services and systems that promote equity, transparency and positive social change.
It balances the needs of your customers, clients and audiences with the needs of your business, and centres design choices around respecting people and planet.
For charities, B Corps and mission-driven organisations, this often means placing audiences and stakeholders at the heart of your identity, making sure people feel represented and that designs are respectful of diverse cultures and lived experiences.
Principles of ethical design for purpose-led organisations
For charities undertaking a brand refresh, B Corps reporting their impact or a mission-driven organisation updating their website, there are similar ethical design principles to consider when making design choices:
- Will this have a positive impact on our community, audiences or customers?
- Have we ensured diverse cultures have been listened to and feel represented?
- Have we made every effort to ensure this can be experienced by as wide a group of people as possible?
- Have we been honest, transparent and ethical through our messaging and visuals?
- Has every effort been made to be conscious of the resources used to design and deliver this work?
How ethical design elevates brand purpose
For brands doing good, making ethical design choices can have knock-on effects for positive business performance.
- Build Trust: Applying ethical design principles can help to build trust with communities and users, strengthening ties with your customers and building brand loyalty.
- Mitigate risk: Being open and accountable helps your organisation feel more authentic and mitigates some of the risk for negative impacts to your brand. Ensuring outputs are as accessible and inclusive as possible also helps to protect your brand from risk.
- Living and breathing values: For organisations like B Corps who are built around a positive business framework, putting ethical design at the heart of your brand helps to reflect an organisation that is deeply committed to its mission and vision, helping to drive engagement from within your team.
In summary: Design as a force for good
For charities, B Corps and mission-driven organisations, following ethical design principles can be a powerful force for good.
To see how you can elevate your brand with ethical design, book a call with our team now.
I'm a multi-disciplinary designer, with many years of experience designing graphics with impact and seamless user experiences. I started my career designing consumer products, but have since worked on a diverse range of projects from leading brand refresh projects for charities like Sculpt, Jamma and TUSP, sustainable and user-friendly website re-designs for CTRF, Climate Change Coaches and Mokoro to large internal communication projects for WWF and Oxford HR. I'm passionate about the use of design as a tool for positive social change, and with particular interest in projects tackling racial inequality and children’s social care. Recently I was appointed as a Trustee for the new charity Board Racial Diversity UK, working to improve representation within the UK charity sector.
