Circular Design w praktyce - wywiad z Alister

When and how did you start incorporating sustainability into your work?

I went through 6 years of architectural training to be a certified architect. We had sustainability as quite a key aspect of what we were doing. A lot of the design process was around not necessarily incorporating the latest technology in sustainability. Rather, we would think about how to design sensibly, what the most efficient way of using the materials was, what types of materials to use and how they were sourced. When I left university, I went into graphic design, but took that thought process to everything I do. I started as a print designer and then worked my way up to branding and digital presence. I worked for an environmental consultancy and developed the collateral and illustrations, helping engineers to describe and explain their projects. Working on their marketing collateral and printed documents, I asked the following questions, ‘Why are we making this document in the first place? Is there a better way of doing it? How do we extend the longevity of it? Is it something that people are going to throw away? Do they have a reason to keep it? How do we give them the reason to keep it? That brought me to where I am today. I’m working with my own clients on objects that instead of just offering a five-minute interaction become something they keep and appreciate.

In which aspects and on which stages of your work do you see possibilities of implementation of circular design solutions?

It's really got to be at the very beginning, at the very initial brief stage. The next important stage is expanding the brief and delving into defining what's needed for the project, what kind of collateral is required for achieving their goals and why. Having these conversations about printed collateral is much easier than about digital presence. Everyone now feels like they need a presence on all social media sites as well as their own website. The assessment of the environmental impact is muddier, because you need to devise sustainable strategies for this specific aspect. You could start looking at energy consumption, website hosting impact, and how the website is used. You are limited in how much you can actually do with that, which is a shame.

Could you tell us about your projects in which you worked on printed collateral and tried to implement a circular approach?

I’ve been working with a company called Fleur de Lis and they are an eco-conscious cosmetic and fashion brand. Their whole idea was to try and create a process so that they reduced waste to every aspect. They would effectively buy large quantities of these goods and get their own packaging for the products. It is a company based in the UK, but most of the products come from India. They're having lots of thoughts about how to improve the sustainability aspect of transporting goods into the UK and then also to export it. Then we also looked at their packaging. The question was, could they send out a cosmetics product in the packaging or containers that the user can effectively send back and get it refilled, so that it doesn’t go to waste and serves you much longer. That's an aspiration for them and they are working hard on achieving it. For the time being, practicalities really hinder that aspect. In terms of the packaging itself, we were looking at different types of glassware alternatives to glass, since recycled glass is really difficult to produce and it’s actually more wasteful in terms of the process than actually making glass originally. We were looking at hundreds of different alternatives compatible with cosmetics, because, obviously, you have to find the material that doesn't damage the actual products inside the container. The packaging cannot react with the product in any way and there is only a limited number of products on the market that can guarantee that. One of the companies we found that works with alternatives was Sulapac and we were also looking at mushroom formed packaging. Those are great ideas, but cost and practicality is always a topic, when you're working for such a small company. They ended up opting for off-the-shelf pre-made packaging that they shipped over, because that was the way to reduce most of the waste, since they were not having something custom made by and for them. It made more sense to use a product which was already pre-sized and pre-made for that market because the manufacturing is already there. If you're going through these other products, you realize that a lot of material waste happens if you create the product. That aspect is not necessarily taken into consideration when the companies choose to use new sustainable technologies. They are growing and, on the way, will start looking at implementing other sustainable techniques available. Another project that I’m working on is for an architecture firm that focuses on retrofitting for the hospitality sector [Translation Architecture]. Architecture sustainability is the crux of their design. For their business cards and printed collateral we've been using sustainable printers and making sure that the printers are FSC-certified. They've got ISO 14001 and the paper itself comes from specific manufacturers. We're able to look at each and every aspect of our process. You wouldn’t have thought, but something quite as simple as a business card actually has all that to it. The cost difference between something which is produced commonly and something which is done by a sustainable printer is quite dramatic. Your client has to be willing to put a little extra into stuff like business cards and external collateral. The last project I’m going to talk about is with a resin flooring company. Their resin flooring is probably as sustainable as it can be, they can recycle stuff and the lifespan of the product is quite long. Since they care about the sustainability aspect of their initial product, all the collaterals have to be done in the same way. We're currently working on the brochure for them. The project is challenging, because they want little samples of their flooring inside the document. The question is: how do we make sure that the document can be interchangeable and flexible so that they can use it for years?

Would it be some sort of a brochure that contains samples?

Something like this. Currently we're at the concept design stage and we're not quite sure how it's going to work. We are looking at something which might be a hard package just because it’s the most recyclable and sustainable product we can do for a reasonable price. We're at the stage of figuring out how we can make sure that the basic brochure, firstly, is structurally sound and durable when you give it to a client, and secondly, can be chopped and changed depending on what client they are giving it to. We don’t necessarily want to make a separate brochure for each specific sector (e.g. healthcare or residential sector flooring options). We are thinking of a brochure that can be all those in one and customizable if necessary. But then, what happens in six months when they have a new project that they want to add into the brochure? Digitally, that's quite easy to chop and change, but with printed products it’s different. How do we change one or two pages and make sure that the binding still fits? We want to give users a reason to keep the brochure, but we also want to be able to update it over time. It certainly will be challenging, but also exciting.

Designing packaging for a cosmetics company, do you also have to consider the shelf life of the products? Lots of materials perish or degrade fast in contact with liquid and substances, right?

Exactly. We had to meet a lot of requirements and regulations applied to the cosmetics industry. We had to make sure that the packaging will last to keep the product safe for as long as needed and will not affect the product in any way. We also wanted customers to send the containers back for refill, but that system is not in place yet. All those factors made off-the-shelf glass the easiest option to use at the moment. When you try to do something new, it comes down to infrastructure. Cosmetics is a huge industry. There are tons of manufacturers which are producing the standard products, so as you've got that system already in place, it's so much easier, cost effective and, as I see, a lot less waste because all the waste and damage has already been done. Opting for that, you're using plastic products, which isn’t sustainable and you don’t want to encourage the industry to grow, but it's the most cost effective for smaller companies. Obviously, if you're a large producer, you can afford the manufacturing process to make more sustainable products, but for the rest it's really difficult.

Does it mean that you see a need for developing alternative infrastructure?

Yes, and I think it will get there. Working in the construction sector, I see how technology has grown leaps and bounds, but how slowly it gets implemented due to rules and regulations. Going back to cosmetics, the packaging is going to catch up but slowly. There might be a push from consumers. As I mentioned before, I think all designers need to set the idea of the longevity of the product at the very beginning of the process. When you set the longevity in the center of it all, you think differently about how you create and use different products. It’s their lifespan, not necessarily the looks, that should be at the root of the decision-making process. It’s a different way of thinking, but it's something we need to do to move forward.

How do you search for cradle-to-cradle-certified and sustainably produced materials?

There's a few good online resources. Personally I have my own spreadsheet of materials that I keep expanding and keep going back to. A Better Source is one of the resources that keeps popping up in the conversations among designers and creators. It is a really good directory of environmentally conscious products and materials. They are mainly an American-based company, so finding stuff in the UK and Europe is quite difficult, because then shipping becomes something that needs to be considered. You can have an amazing product, but if it's shipped over from somewhere far, is it worth the sustainable credentials of it? There's always that question and I think most of the time sourcing something locally is better. Most of the products that I know and I work with are actually paper and we've got some amazing paper manufacturers in the EU.

What do you think of these days’ marketing collateral? Have you noticed any trends? In which cases it’s a necessity and when can it be totally avoided?

I’m in love with print design. But what I’ve actually noticed, there's no demand for flyers or any kind of five-minute, one-shot, throw-away collateral. I don't know if that's because of the sectors that I work in or if I'm lucky with my clients. Since people aren't spending much money on the leave-behinds, they can spend a little bit more on their priority collateral. It often means that the materials and the type of printing is more viable and you’re producing more high-end pieces. There are different printing techniques and print specialists, which are coming out as well. Risograph is one of them (an example: https://spunpress.com/printing). That’s one of the cheapest and most sustainable printing techniques, which a lot of magazines have been using to create powerful and vibrant objects, which people want to keep. Business cards are the things which probably are the most ‘leave behind’ type of a product that we still make, but I don't think we're moving away from business cards at the moment. I think people still like them. If a business card is printed exceptionally well on really nice paper with an interesting and stylish texture, people tend to keep those longer and that benefits the company, because effectively that business card draws attention and makes the event of receiving it memorable.

Let’s talk about the price points for a final customer. Do you think that in the UK an average consumer is ready to pay extra for sustainable projects?

No. In fact, as soon as you cut ‘sustainable’ in front of things, people think it's expensive and it's going to cost more, which is often true. I think people do actually use the terminology to put their prices up when they don't necessarily need to. If we are talking about printing, the truth is that with all the latest technology we're at a point, where sustainable products don't necessarily need to cost any more than non-sustainable products. It's rather a mental choice. Some companies use recycled paper, which is actually fairly cheap and cost effective. But then they market it as 100% recycled cotton paper and charge extra, which they shouldn’t. I remember about 15 years ago recycled paper was the bottom range of paper quality you could buy. Everybody knew it was cheap, but it was also one of the nicest available. Now though there is a different tone to it and it’s not fair, since it’s still the same product. ‘Sustainable’ is a selling point now, whether or not it needs to be. On the other hand, supporting the industry will help to reduce costs and lead to the tipping point, when both the general public and the designers’ clients engage with this aspect. This is just what design is now. I think we've been opting for the easiest and the cheapest, but not necessarily the most practical ways of designing, which is detrimental at times. As soon as you start thinking about anything that is outside of ‘the cheapest and the most cost effective’ paradigm, you instantly assume that it is going to cost much more, which is not necessarily true. Printing industry has been developing so fast. For the last several years, I can say that most printers have equal credentials with the sustainable printers I use. When I started looking for sustainable green printers, there weren’t many. Now the whole industry has a standard, most places have ISO 14001 and use fsc stock. Most consider their waste and will try and do the best they can just because the industry has pushed and excelled it, which has been great to see. What is interesting, is that for some reason this industry is not even on the radar of innovation towards sustainability.

Did you ever have to persuade a business to choose a more sustainable path? If yes, what strategies seem to work?

The way I pitch it, is I talk about longevity. I tell them that if they spend a little bit more in the beginning, they don’t spend as much down the road. I think that the idea of planning the future of the product and thinking of it’s lifespans has really helped the selling of that aspect. Especially when you talk about business cards, which can be incredibly expensive to set up as the initial offset. As soon as all the artwork is there and a client has got their stuff, the printer can just keep running for as long as they need to every now and again. It may be an expensive cost to set up, but over the next five or six years that cost per unit will rapidly decline. They can also establish a working partnership with the printer and produce other things with them, which, again, reduces the cost per unit.

Let’s talk about sources of inspiration. What resources would you recommend to designers, who are looking at implementing a circular design approach or make their practice sustainable?

It depends how deep of a dive you want to do. I think Climate Designers is a fantastic community, where people talk about this a lot. I also follow LETI, which is the London Energy Transformation Initiative. They've got London in the name, but that's just where they set up. They're discussing energy in particular and how to make the energy sector a lot greener. What they do brilliantly, is they assess and analyse technologies and sales pitches and produce unbiased reports. Their hydrogen tech report released a couple of months ago was probably the most interesting document I’ve read for a number of years, where they draw the line between what the sales pitches are saying and what the reality actually looks like. There's also Architects Declare which again is another great community of architects really pushing for sustainable building design. Architects Declare have the largest engineering, construction and architectural firms backing them, we are talking about over a thousand architects. We don’t have that movement in the branding and product design sector, which would help push the industry forward. As designers we need to think about sustainability and the longevity of what we produce. Any design process has to start from there. It can start grassroots and small, there are communities that do a brilliant job bringing a lot of interesting people together around that topic. In order to gain the momentum though, it needs to come from the larger agencies, and that is lacking now.

What advice would you offer young designers? What is important to know in order to design in the convention of sustainability?

I would say that it's a good practice to slow down on the brief stage to make sure that sustainability part is there from the very beginning, because it’s incredibly hard to push the project that direction at any other stage. If on the initial stage you think about the end life of the project, it will add an extra dimension. That way of thinking is taking off and we see more and more thoughts on how to design products with longer lifespans. I’ve been observing this change within the years of my practice. All that we have achieved with my clients only came out because we have these priorities in the brief: sustainability, the long life span, what happens towards the end of its life and how long you want this to go on for. The other important thing is that it's easy to get worried and panicked about how much sustainable design you're adding into your product line and what latest technologies you use. But I think that slow thinking at the very beginning will actually do a better job of reducing your impact than trying to keep up and add in tons of different new sustainable solutions. Talking to other designers is important as well, talking about the challenges they face in designing sustainably. A lot of people just don't know how to take the smaller steps and they get overwhelmed by all the larger conversations about energy consumption, material consumption and so on. Showing and discovering small steps might be just as impactful as talking about the bigger picture.