Moral Design — Journey Group

vernacular design, which I would define as functional design for ordinary people rooted in a local economy and culture.

The democratization of process and proliferation of tools enable hundreds of small, local design decisions to have an immediate and outsized impact. When something works in one place, it can be quickly copied, tailored, and applied in other contexts.

Design is much more profound. Styling is very much emotional. Good design isn’t — it’s good forever. It’s part of our environment and culture.”

A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.

— Attributed to Albert Einstein

Don’t make something unless it is both necessary and useful; but if it is both necessary and useful, don’t hesitate to make it beautiful.

only sustainable medium for morality is affection—and moreover, he introduces a language for affection that is informed, practical, and practiced.

The pursuit of moral design asks us to cultivate at least three things within ourselves and our practices:

1. true affection , rooted in respect, experience, and specific knowledge;


2. empathetic boldness to confront deep-rooted, complex failures in other designers’ work; and


3. genuine humility in an industry that seems to celebrate hubris and seeing wha

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The moral designer writes her intentions in permanent ink and returns to them often.

Similarly, we might think of design method as a process for inquiry into the purposes, plans, and intentions behind what humans make and do.

designers ought to be the loudest and most insistent proponents for discovering new and better ways to produce goods and services