Sustainable graphic design is a method of creating designs and products that have a minimal impact on the local environment. Many graphic designers who specialize in sustainable design strategies work closely with packaging professionals to create a cohesive strategy that improves efficiency and minimizes environmental impact.
Understanding Sustainable Graphic Design
Defined as an emerging concept within the field of graphic design, sustainable graphic design is an approach to designing packaging and other branded materials in a way that reduces environmental impact. By relying on traditional graphic design strategies, emphasizing the importance of sustainable packaging design, and increasing the use of digital graphic design techniques, graphic designers and packaging professionals can begin to improve sustainability efforts across various industries.
What Is Sustainable Graphic Design?
On the surface, it may seem like sustainability and graphic design are not closely related — but sustainable graphic design initiatives can significantly impact the local environment. Sustainable graphic design is a strategic approach to graphic design in which designers work to minimize environmental impact, either by creating designs with recyclable packaging materials or by using digital tools to finalize their images and branding materials.
The Environmental Impact of Traditional Graphic Design
Graphic design is not often thought of as a field with a significant carbon footprint, but some traditional graphic design practices can have a sizable ecological footprint, due to:
- The amount of paper used to create and finalize a design.
- The inks and solvents that are used to brand materials. Many of these inks release pollutants into the air when they are created and into the ground when they are disposed of.
- The amount of printing done to create the design itself as well as brand the packaging materials that showcase the final design.
- The energy used by digital devices to create graphic design artwork and branding materials.
Eco-Friendly Packaging Solutions
Sustainable packaging solutions rest at the heart of any green graphic design initiative. Even if a graphic designer works to reduce their carbon footprint and relies on as many digital tools as possible, they still need to collaborate with packaging professionals to maximize their use of biodegradable packaging options and green packaging materials.
Sustainable Packaging Materials
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), sustainable packaging materials are defined as materials that are produced efficiently and can also be disposed of responsibly. For example, single-use plastic packaging is considered to be one of the least sustainable materials because it is created in a way that increases carbon emissions and ultimately ends up in a landfill, where it will stay for hundreds of years. On the other hand, biodegradable packaging, such as cardboard created from recycled materials, is produced in a way that reduces its carbon footprint and will decompose in a short amount of time, reducing its overall lifespan.
The leading sustainable packaging materials today include:
- Recyclable materials (such as pulp paper).
- Compostable materials (such as mushroom packaging).
- Reusable materials (such as cloth shopping bags).
Innovative Packaging Design Strategies
While some graphic designers and packaging experts have already taken time to realize the potential of sustainable graphic design, it’s quickly becoming clear that innovative packaging design strategies are required to reduce the environmental impact of the industry as a whole. According to research published in the Polymers Journal, innovative packaging design strategies have the power to protect and preserve the local environment — and even actively improve the environment. The research notes that bio-based and recyclable materials play a crucial role in successfully implementing low-impact design strategies.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in Packaging Design
Life cycle assessment, or LCA, refers to the process of determining a packaging product’s impact on the environment from the point it is created until it is disposed of. According to Packaging Digest, LCAs are becoming increasingly common in the industry, as more packaging professionals and graphic design experts work to create sustainable product packaging. The LCA approach is a scientific method that can be used to factually understand a packaging product’s impact on the local environment in a way that also avoids greenwashing (or deceptive marketing of “eco-friendly” products).
Minimizing Environmental Impact Through Design
Truly sustainable branding solutions begin with the design process. There is a variety of ways that graphic design artists and experts can minimize environmental impact through their own design techniques and strategies.
Below are several steps that can be taken to achieve sustainable product design:
Reducing Waste in the Design Process
The process of creating sustainable packaging solutions begins during the design process. Graphic artists can reduce waste during the design process by:
- Focusing on creating a logo with thin, defined lines and minimal colors, which affects the volume of carbon emissions created throughout the printing process.
- Choosing a sustainable color palette, such as one focused on neutral tones that require less ink to print.
- Rely on visual storytelling strategies that require less design effort while maximizing their impact.
- Carefully selecting fonts that rely on fewer chemicals to create and print.
Energy-Efficient Design Practices
According to research published in the Engineering Science & Technology Journal, some of the most energy-efficient design practices include:
- Relying on frequent life cycle assessments to evaluate the environmental impact of the design throughout its entire lifespan.
- Strategically selecting sustainable product design materials.
- Keeping in mind end-of-life considerations for each product throughout every stage of the design process.
Promoting Reusability and Recycling
Those who are proponents of zero-waste graphic design strategies often actively work to promote reusability and recycling, recognizing that sustainable packaging solutions play a key role in minimizing environmental impact. Some of the leading sustainable packaging examples include reusable shopping bags that have a store’s logo or brand information on them — as these products have a long lifespan, are often created from recycled materials and actively work to promote the brand in a way that is visible and recognizable.
Case Studies: Successful Sustainable Design Projects
By looking at the most successful sustainable design projects and initiatives, you can begin to understand how simple it can be to implement innovative eco-design solutions into your own graphic design career.
Analyzing Eco-Friendly Packaging Designs
- IKEA’s sustainable packaging initiative – In 2021, Swedish furniture giant IKEA launched an initiative to phase out all plastics from their consumer packaging by 2028. As the phase-out begins, the company is actively working to create sustainable packaging solutions rooted in renewable and recyclable packaging materials.
- Method’s eco-friendly cleaning product packaging – Method has recently created a packaging solution that allows them to create plastic bottles for their products using recycled plastic. Their bottles, which are created from post-consumer resin, have a 70% smaller carbon footprint when compared to traditional plastic.
- LUSH Cosmetics’ naked packaging – Working to reduce the need for packaging altogether, more than 66% of LUSH cosmetics products are not wrapped in any kind of packaging.
Interviews With Sustainable Designers
In these interviews, sustainable designers offered the following relevant insights:
Emma Fanning (co-founder of Little Fox Design, a studio dedicated to environmentally sustainable design)
- “It’s my opinion that designers hold a lot of power in the creation process when working with businesses and service providers. Clients are coming to us for expertise, and I believe it’s our responsibility to be knowledgeable about the impact of paper choices and materials. As much as choosing the right paper stock is important for brand recognition, print quality, and the professional presentation of the brand, we should understand what choices have a bigger environmental impact than others … It’s important to understand that our design work has a life beyond our Illustrator/InDesign artboards when it is printed into a physical form; it’s important we know what that lifecycle will look like.”
Jeppe Kruse (UX designer and climate change activist based in Copenhagen)
- “We, designers, should use our skill set to help companies create more awareness. We have specific skills and the ability to access things that we can use for good … I think designers can have a big influence on people when working within sustainability, especially in terms of empathy and human-centered design. There is already a conversation about ethics and social responsibility going on in the design community at the moment … I also want to stress that the climate crisis is a communication phenomenon as well. Designers need to figure out how to design things that lead to action with a constructive sense of urgency.”
The Future of Sustainable Graphic Design
Looking toward the future, sustainable graphic design may no longer be an alternative approach to traditional graphic design. Rather, it may become the standard, making it critical for current graphic design students to begin understanding the principles of eco-conscious graphic design.
Emerging Trends in Sustainable Design
Emerging trends that may shape the field of sustainable graphic design in the months and years ahead include:
- An increased emphasis on renewable and recyclable materials.
- Improved accessibility, ensuring that everyone is represented and included within sustainable design practices.
- An increased dependence on data to drive design decisions and improve product efficiency over its lifespan.
Preparing for a Career in Sustainable Graphic Design
Those preparing for a career in graphic design may want to pursue a degree program rooted in traditional design practices yet responsive to the sustainable graphic design trends emerging today. Choosing a forward-thinking, skills-based program will allow you to develop the core competencies needed to thrive in this growing sector of the design industry.
Explore Sustainable Design Principles at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design
At Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design, we offer an on-campus Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design as well as an online Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design, both of which give students an opportunity to explore green graphic design principles. Our skills-based degree programs allow students to connect with up-and-coming industry professionals to gain expert insight into the field and better understand emerging sustainable graphic design trends. Request more information about our degree programs today.
